This past week has been filled with new experiences like dissecting an urchin, my samples for my project getting incinerated, and cooking fresh crab. The day after collecting urchins from the North Jetty, I asked Reyn if they would dissect an urchin for me, Maite, and Rhoda to watch and learn about their anatomy. We were able to look closely at Aristotle's lantern (urchin mouth), the digestive system with the stomach contents (lots of algae!), and the gonads (you could eat them as uni). That same day Reyn and I took my samples from my pilot experiment to the drying oven to remove the seawater and leave the important samples. When Reyn checked the oven a few hours later, everything had turned into dust and only the glass vials remained standing. During Aaron and Maite's diving adventures this week, Aaron was so kind to grab two large Dungeness crabs (M. magister) for me from OIMB Beach. I took the crabs back to the lab and asked my fellow intern, Jordan, if I could cook the crabs at his house. We ended up making a delicious crab dinner with pasta and roasted asparagus along with some of the other REU's. During the weekend, I had some time to explore Downtown Coos Bay after our REU camping trip at Sunset Bay. While camping, the tides were low enough to allow us to hike through the overgrown foresty trails and scale down the cliffs to get to Qochyax Island. Here we explored caves and massive tide pools. Dr. Emlet found a 60 year old red urchin, how amazing! After returning from camping, two of my friends from Santa Barbara came to visit me on their way back from their road trip to Portland. We met up with Jordan and got Thai food for dinner (it was Jordans first time having Thai food!) and it was delicious. I really enjoyed seeing some familiar faces in this new place. I have made some progress regarding my project, my pilot experiment urchins have begun produced visible pieces of microplastics. The larger jars that Reyn and I ordered for the real deal came in this week and I was able to wash, label, and mark some measurements on them. Reyn is so crafty! They spent a few days bending and cutting glass to provide plastic-less airflow to each jar. Very soon I will have this up and running with a lot of urchin friends to look after.
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Annika SullivanHello blog visitors! My name is Annika Sullivan. I am from Agoura Hills, CA and have been studying at Santa Barbara City College for the last 3 years. This fall I will be attending UC Santa Barbara as an Aquatic Biology major. I have always dreamed of living in Oregon, and now I get to do so while conducting marine research at OIMB under Dr. Aaron Galloway and Dr. Reyn Yoshioka in the CTELab! Archives
August 2021
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