We did it folks, we are halfway to the finish line, crazy right? This week had lots of things going on, starting off with last weekend. We woke up bright and early for an REU boat trip on the Megalopa. It was so pretty out on the water, and we got to do some dredging and pulled up some crazy specimens. Digging through the gravel on the table looking for cool things was such a highlight. I was lucky enough to not get seasick, but some of the others weren't so lucky. Later we had a movie night in the dining hall and watched the Royal Tannenbaum’s (which was so good.) On Sunday we took a trip to Bandon and visited all the cute shops. We also went out into Coos Bay for dinner at EZ Thai and the food was great. Monday and Tuesday were mostly spent in the office working on my project presentation and planning out my tank testing. Nights were spent in the library working on presentations and asking other REUs for opinions and advice. On Wednesday morning I set up my two sea water tanks and started my first couple of preliminary crab experiments. They were mostly to see the amount of time it would take for crabs to go into the trap to set a limit for the actual experiments. Devin and I also spent a couple hours on Tuesday inputting our data from last week into the Excel sheet. This was basically just me reading the information aloud and Devin typing them in, a tedious but necessary process that was probably so annoying to everyone else in the lab. We gave our presentations after lunch and everyone did so good, I think we were all anxious about it. To destress we drove down to South Slough to show everyone the hiking trails and pick some berries. The blackberry bushes were full, and we swarmed them, and then hiked down to the Big Cedar lookout which was one of the most magical places I've ever seen. I liked it so much that Chloe and I found a path down to the water and I ended up getting the bottom of my pants all wet, but it was worth it for sure. On Thursday I continued working out my tank testing methods and figured out the time for my trials. I walked back and forth between my office and the tanks MANY times; I'm thinking about just bringing my laptop to the tank area. For dinner me, Shreyaan, and Devin went to Sunset Bay for a South Slough potluck. It was so much fun, and the food was great (salad that isn't just lettuce and tomato) and we got to spend time with everyone outside of the office. On Friday I started my official tank experiments. I am releasing a single female crab into the tank with a set/baited trap in it. I'm trying to see how often he crabs will go into the trap when there's no other crabs inside. Everything is picking up pace which is kinda scary, but I'm excited for what the next few weeks hold! This is my child, cranberry. -Devin
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Did you know that crabs have evolved 5 separate times? When Darwin said, "endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful", I guess he was talking about crabs. So, if you want to better yourself, be like crab. But not green crabs (Carcinus maenas), they are not good! Which is why Devin and I joined Shon in setting traps every day this week to catch (and kill) as many green crabs as we could! On Saturday we REUs had a shopping spree, (despite not having been paid yet) because we anticipated stipend checks last Friday. We checked out Time Bomb and some of the antique shops in downtown Coos Bay. Most of us copped some cool finds and we hope to go back again. We also headed down to 7 Devils Brewing Co. to check out another band, by Svetlana and Georges recommendation. On Sunday we gave a tour to the OSU interns (there were like 40 of them!) and we got to talk about our research and show them through our labs. With Monday came our week of field days, starting at 8 am each morning by prepping the traps, filling the canisters with bait, and getting suited up in waders and boots. The weather was nice, and the drives weren't too far. There were some beautiful sites like Big Cedar, Hinch Bridge, and Valine Island. There were also some not so pretty sites that I probably would never eat crabs from. I tried some raw crab meat on Thursday in hopes of making some green crab poke while I'm here, and it wasn't bad. Some of the sites had all green crabs, some had lots of sculpins, some had lots of red rock and Dungeness crabs, and some had almost nothing. I will say I feared the red rock crabs since Shon mentioned the strength of their claws, so naturally our last site had overwhelming numbers of them. We had two full buckets of green crabs from our collections on Thursday which took about 4 hours to count and process. We also got sidetracked to help Sabra with picking up a roadkill porcupine, dissecting it, and removing quills and the skull. It was not for the faint of heart, but luckily Devin and I gladly accompanied them. Friday was our last day of standard sampling with Shon for the month of July and my feet are sore from being shoved into those boots, but it was so much fun. Getting out into the field and being able to put places to the names I've been reading about in reports and Excel sheets has been great, and being out there is always better than sitting in an office. I now have some crabs in the crab hotel and various containers in the seawater table ready for tank experiments. We also have several buckets full of crabs in the freezer. And I will say, after having gone through MANY crabs, they are rather beautiful, but also jerks. We ended the week with Barbie, and it was SO GOOD, 10/10, must watch! Only thing that would've made it better is if they were crabs. Anyways, till next week friends;) A lil video of some of our crabs in buckets. The sound we're so lucky to listen to for hours each day of sampling. Inverts don't have feelings. Feelings come from the spine. 3 down!👌🏽👇🏽 We had our weekend camping trip last week and it was sooo much fun, but pictures speak louder than words here. On Monday I met with Shon again and I feel like I have much more focus on the direction for my project. I will be attempting to make a covering for the Fukui traps using landscape fabric and then employing those traps as several different sites, at different points along the salinity gradient (with the help of Devin). My questions right now are focused on whether a covered trap will increase the percentage of females caught as well as if there is a difference in the percentage of females caught along the salinity gradient. I hypothesize that the covered traps will increase female percentage and there will also be higher female percentages at higher salinity sites. I spent most of Tuesday morning testing out different ways to cover the Fukui and crayfish traps using landscape fabric and zip ties. I worked through a few different ways, and it is a lot of trial and a LOT of error. Someone play Trap Queen by Fetty Wap though, cause I'm out here making moves. I still have to test it out in the seawater tank, so hopefully it works! Tuesday was also 7/11 so we REUs found the closest 7-11 to get free Slurpees(I got piña colada and it slapped:). I got to volunteer for the South Slough table at the Coos Bay Farmers Market on Wednesday and it was so much fun. Taylor and I ran an activity about different bivalves in the area and I got to talk a little bit about green crabs and the different research and management efforts. There were so many cool tables and I ended up getting some things because I couldn't help it. Thursday and Friday were mostly spent working on my project proposal and trying to figure out my methods for tank testing as well as field testing. On Thursday Devin, Shreyaan and I headed down to the visitor’s center for a Career Canteen presentation by Shon and then went hiking behind the South Slough Visitors Center. The blackberry bushes all around the center were ready and we were going crazy. Next week will be lots of field work and I can't wait to get my project going! Mentally frolicking. The time flies, but it also feels like we’ve been here forever, in the best way. On Saturday we went to Hall Lake for kayaking, and we dressed for “Arctic weather”. It ended up being super warm so we ended up jumping in. We also got to check out the sand dunes and they were super cool, it felt like we were trekking through a desert. We hiked on Sunday and dug a trench on the beach, so felt very accomplished. On Monday I was able to make some more progress with my project which was relieving. I feel like I have an idea of what I want to do for my research, but making it work and within the limited time here is an obstacle. I was able to meet with Shon and I’m currently trying to design/modify a trap with a covering so that female crabs won’t be able to see other crabs inside. If the presence of other larger crabs may be deterring crabs, hopefully this kind of trap would eliminate that factor and catch more ovigerous female crabs. For the fourth a few of us went tidepooling out at Sunset Bay and it was so cool, and very cold. Randi and Riley showed us around and we saw tons of purple urchins, anemones, and lots and lots of seaweeds. Randi also found some adorable pink & peach nudibranchs that absolutely stole our hearts. By the end of the morning my hands were numb, and I was all scraped up, but it was 100 percent worth it. We got back and hung around at the picnic lunch. At night we met up with Taylor from South Slough to watch the fireworks in downtown Coos Bay. We watched them from inside a McDonalds cause nothing else was open, so very patriotic. Wednesday was busy, so I did a little more research on possible materials to use for my traps. We had a leadership workshop for professional development and then a seminar about research cruises. We also got to hold the cutest little jellies afterwards. On Thursday night we went to the 7 Devils Brewery Co. to listen to the band Hot Damn Scandal and we had so much fun. Thursday and Friday were our first days out in the field! Shon took us out to three different sites where we set up the traps on Thursday and then went back to count the crabs on Friday. Two of our traps from then first site miraculously disappeared which sucked, but there were tons of Dungeness crabs. We only caught fish at the second site, but the third site had so much diversity. The third site is also where I got stuck in the mud on Thursday, which was not the best. Afterwards we measured all of our crabs, weighed them, and recorded the data we needed. Now that the trapping process have been learnt we can get started on our individual projects, which I am very excited for. WE OUT HEREEE!! in Oregon. My name is Naia Pulotu, as I'm sure you've seen. I am from Hau'ula, Hawai'i and studying at Brigham Young University-Hawai'i which is just a few minutes away. I am a Marine Biology major and would like to work with marine ecology and conservation, more specifically coral reef ecosystems in the Pacific islands. This first week has been wild and there's so much to talk about, but I'll make it quick. All of us REU interns hit it off from the jump (the van at the airport) so I'm looking forward to working with everyone and just hanging out. Everyone on campus is super cool too and we feed into each other's unhinged environmental scientist/marine biologist energies. We spent the first two days exploring the campus, nearby beaches, the hiking trails, and shops within walking distance. We visited the Pottery by the Bay shop and talked to the owner Pat who is the sweetest. She said they're closing in July, so we'll probably go back sometime soon, but I was able to get a cute mug. The trails are so pretty, and all the plants and animals are so cool to see. I'm happy to be surrounded by people who are willing to linger on the paths to check out some fungi or a slug or hunch over looking at some jellies or crabs. It is still chilly, and I have not adjusted, but the cold air is nice when the dorm heater is cranked all the way up. I definitely haven't packed enough warm clothes, but I am surviving! Despite the jet lag and time zone difference, I feel like I've adjusted quickly. The set meal times, and structure of the days have helped a lot and going into the South Slough office has allowed for some productivity. So far, I've had some discussions with Devin, the other REU researching crabs, as well as our mentor, Shon. He's given us some reports and papers about crabs, and we've done some preliminary research on the green crabs, their history on the West coast and in Coos Bay. There's a database with all the green crab data from the past 20 something years so I've been going through a lot of it to see the sex ratios for each site. I'm still in the research and brainstorming phase but I'm hoping to do a project focused on analyzing sex ratios at different sites and possible reasons the ratio may be unequal and ways to make collections more accurately portray the true ratio. P.S. SO MANY CUTE CAMPUS PUPS!!! |
AuthorWhat's up! My name is Naia Pulotu, but you can call me Naia. I am from Hau'ula, Hawai'i and am currently studying at BYU- Hawai'i. I am majoring in Biology with a Marine Biology emphasis. This summer I am excited to be studying the invasive green crabs with Dr. Shon Schooler at South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve. ArchivesCategories |
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