PNW Marine Biology

21|Undergrad|Oregon

[scienceofthesea-blog]

You know what sucks? Bycatch. There are so many amazing animals caught in dumb nets by commercial fishing operations. A GREAT EXAMPLE: this chimaera! They are actually the most beautiful fish to ever grace this planet and one was pulled up yesterday in some fishing plant’s nets. NOT TO MENTION, two spiny dogfish, and a big skate came up with it. Ways that we can help this ongoing issue is to shop local! Promote local fisherman versus big industries who don’t give a heck what comes up in their nets!

[scienceofthesea-blog]

We LOVE a good PCR

The past two weeks, my marine molecular class picked out our own plankton samples and then completed PCR leading up to sequencing their DNA. In the end we are (hopefully) going to identify which species they belong to! My two samples are a Medusa (pic 1) and some sort of trochophore (pic 2). And AMAZINGLY, my PCR worked out perfectly to replicate their DNA! This whole process is slightly above my head and I hope to understand it enough to explain it soon but dang. The world is amazing. Science is freaking cool.

[biscuitsarenice]

“Here in the Pacific, 200 metres down, we enter an alien world… This is barreleye a fish with a transparent head filled with jelly so that it can look up through its skull.” - Sir David Attenborough

Blue Planet II

[beyondtheseablog]

We could all use a little more cuttling right? 

[2251bluewhales]

yes

[scienceofthesea-blog]

It’s been a HOT minute since I’ve posted, so here’s the update:

I’ve spent the past month researching in preparation for beginning my honors thesis. I’m hoping to explore wound healing in echinoderm larvae but if that doesn’t work out I may move to cortical excitability in echinoderm oocytes/embryos. Don’t ask me what that means because I barely have my own grasp of the concept. Everything about this honors thesis terrifies me. I figured that’s why I should do it, I gotta push myself out of my comfort zone! I will definitely provide updates on this process because I know I wish I would have valued watching someone else go through this horror. On another exciting note I start back at school in two weeks!! I’m taking biological oceanography, marine molecular biology, and marine cell biology. I’m HYPED.

[scienceofthesea-blog]

Summer Term Outtie

I finished up my summer term today and although I didn’t quite get the resulting grades I wanted, here’s what I did get:

Amazing friends

Experience of a lifetime conducting deep sea and subtidal ecology experiments

Published work with my name on it

A marine cell biology lab to work in this Fall

A mentor who encouraged me to conduct an honors thesis

Professor relationships that you can’t get on a university campus

SO MUCH EXPERIENCE

field work. Field work everywhere.

Honestly I had a blast and I love this place and I’m so happy I decided to end my undergraduate degree by spending the whole year studying on the coast. Only two more terms until I have a piece of paper that allows me to call myself a marine biologist!

[scienceofthesea-blog]

Pentamera lissoplaca: a small & sassy sea cucumber who I found at 134 m depth off the coast of Oregon. They are shaped like a “U” so they can bury themselves in the sediment with their mouth exposed at one end and their anus at the other. Pic 1 is a cute group photo. Pic 2 is an up-close view of the two rows of tube feet that run in 5 segments along the body. Pic 3 is an up-close of the feeding tentacles that are usually retracted into the body unless the animal is feeding.

[scienceofthesea-blog]

It’s the middle of week 7 of the 8 week term and I am so sad that I have to leave here soon. Although I’m buried underneath two scientific papers, a cruise report, and a kelp project, I’m really gonna miss submersing myself in the scientific world. GOOD THING IM BACK IN SEPTEMBER. On a really freaking cool note, my deep sea and subtidal ecology class is publishing an Oregon Shelf Invertebrates book so catch me as a PUBLISHED author near you someday!!!!!!

[scienceofthesea-blog]

PS this fish is called a Warty Poacher, it’s freaking beautiful. It took me looking for 30 minutes through sculpin dichotomous keys to realize it was in fact, not a sculpin.

[scienceofthesea-blog]

It’s the middle of week 7 of the 8 week term and I am so sad that I have to leave here soon. Although I’m buried underneath two scientific papers, a cruise report, and a kelp project, I’m really gonna miss submersing myself in the scientific world. GOOD THING IM BACK IN SEPTEMBER. On a really freaking cool note, my deep sea and subtidal ecology class is publishing an Oregon Shelf Invertebrates book so catch me as a PUBLISHED author near you someday!!!!!!

[scienceofthesea-blog]

A classic low quality pic of that one time I held a freaking octopus?? Actually I held TWO. My subtidal ecology class performed a box dredge and brought up a massive rock where one octo was hiding in a den and the other was squeezing through at the top of the net! See the glove because octopus like to bite HARD. Never underestimate this squishy baby!

[catadromously]

things that happen in a marine biology lab

- scientists gushing over each other’s study animal collections

- scientists cosplaying as marine invertebrates

- a message written on a chalkboard asking other research divers to bring back a stubby squid if they come across one

- “at this point, the slug’s position becomes critical”

- smelling one’s study species

- arguing about what they smell like

- five people fanning out to find a temperature logger by feeling around with their feet

- grad students staying up to all hours listening to fish honk at each other

- “we don’t know why the octopus does that, but it’s sure entertaining”

- developing a lifelong grudge against a particular type of algae

- a student walking cheerfully by, carrying a container with a sea slug the size of a basketball

- eternal cheesy 90s music

- measuring eelgrass and reporting a blade that’s 420 mm long and everyone chortles

[scienceofthesea-blog]

Working hard is cool

In my 6 weeks of summer term I have pulled myself into a maximum gear. I have been trying so hard and putting so much work into everything and for a while it was reallly frustrating. It was frustrating because I was working on assignmemnts while everyone else went drinking, I still wasn’t doing great on exams, and I had no feelings of accomplishments. Even though I was continuously working on projects, I wasn’t finishing any of them and having that feeling of safisfaction. Well today that all changed!!! I’m finishing projects now, professors are noticing my work, and everyone else is beginning to worry while I’m becoming more relaxed. Moral of the story: work hard and you’ll be happy!!

[anudibranchaday]

The Phyllodesmium tuberculatum is a bumpy aeolid nudibranch native to the Philippines. Many species of the Phyllodesmium genus feed on octocorals, and as a result look very similar. The nudibranchs rely on this camouflage to stay safe from predators, as unlike many other nudibranchs they are not toxic.

[scienceofthesea-blog]

LOOK AT THESE STUBBY BABIES

[scienceofthesea-blog]

Today I got to spend three hours learning how to crack open fish skulls in order to retrieve their otoliths. Honestly I had a great day!

[scienceofthesea-blog]

Today I flooded my boots for the sake of kelp. I have three weeks left in this summer term and about a million reports to write and still one snorkel survey to conduct. I’ve never been applied than where I am in life right now and I’m hoping that I can pave a smooth path to the adventure of grad school.

[amnhnyc]

This week, the Museum is teaming with sciencefriday for cephalopodweek to celebrate a few fascinating animals, including one highlighted in the new Life at the Limits exhibition: the mimic octopus.

Discovered in 1998, the mimic octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus) is a 2-foot long species that can parrot not just one but several toxic sea creatures. It’s the first animal of any kind known to shift between multiple imitations, a talent called dynamic mimicry.

Depending on which predator is around, this cephalopod adjusts its posture by folding, splaying, or hiding its arms to copy the shape, texture, and motions of the banded sole, lionfish, or banded sea snake—three toxic animals that all share its light and dark coloring and striped patterns.

Folding its arms behind its head, the mimic octopus moves its body in the manner of a swimming banded sole, a poisonous flatfish. To impersonate a venomous marine sea snake, the octopus pulls six of its arms out of sight, then stretches the remaining two in opposite directions.Scientists have also observed behaviors suggesting these cephalopods have an even bigger repertoire, and may be able to mimic anemones and jellyfish as well. 

Learn more about the mimic octopus on the Museum blog. 

[scienceofthesea-blog]

RIP

Today I got sea sick and vomited off the side of the boat only to turn right around and collect sample data. Marine biology at its finest.