This weekend was very eventful because it was the last one for the internship. On Friday, we were able to attend the wine walk again. Most of the interns went and we got dinner once we finished the walk. We went to Hall Lake on Saturday and the day was perfect for swimming. There was a nice color gradient with the sand running into the lake. Towards the end of the day, we had a bonfire at my place. We sat around the fire pit and made smores. We started our last crab trapping week of the internship on Monday. The population of green crabs around each site was around the same from previous months; however, Coos History had a big increase. I also took down my final set of trials this week. There was only one occurrence of intraspecific predation within the last 10. While taking down one of the trials, there was a crab that molted. I kept the carapace to remind me of the research I did on green crabs this summer. The poster symposium went amazingly well. It felt great being able to explain what we spent our summer doing to other mentors and community scientists. They also asked really good questions that I was able to answer confidently. After the potluck, we decided to hang out for a little longer since it was our last night together. We spent our time at Nick’s house with the horses. When I first arrived here, I didn’t know what to expect. After these nine weeks, I have learned so much in so little time. The people I was surrounded by for this internship were all great. We all went on many adventures and tried to enjoy Oregon as much as we could. Definitely wouldn’t mind visiting Oregon again sometime in the future.
0 Comments
This weekend wasn’t very eventful because all of the interns have been working hard on their projects. We celebrated Nick’s birthday at 7 Devil’s with most of the interns. A toothpick was used for the candle on Nick’s birthday cake. It was a good Friday and we shared laughs all night long. On Saturday, we went to the invertebrate ball. There were a lot of amazing costumes that walked the runway. The invertebrate ball was a good way to finally meet some of the students that attend OIMB. I’ve been running plenty of trials to get as much data for the graphs that will be in my poster. A lot of trials that I started this week ended within 24 hours. It was convenient because I could just start up another set of trials the next day. On Monday, Shon and I had to do additional crabbing because I was running low on YOTY. It was a little different this time because it was a low-high tide and we had to walk through the water in waders. We took fishing nets to try and catch small crabs in the channels at metcalf marsh. Most of the green crabs I caught were walking through the middle of the channel while the shore crabs would hide in holes at the edge of the channels. We also had to set extra traps at the Joe Ney site because I was low on bigger crabs. Most of the adults I had were around 60mm carapace width when I needed 70-80mm for the big size difference. I’ve had a few escapees getting out of the bins but they usually just end up in the sea table. If you actually see how intelligent crabs are, it's bizarre. They’ll stack on top of each other just for one of the crabs to escape the bin. During our professional development, we looked at almost everyone’s poster and they’re all looking really nice. The poster symposium is next week and I’m excited to see everyone’s final product. This week has been pretty slow with activities outside of work. We’re getting closer and closer to the end of the internship. So everybody has been busy with their experiments. There’s only two weeks left and hopefully everyone finishes strong. On Wednesday, Taylor invited us for another kayak trip so she can get water samples around the estuary. These trips are always great because it’s relaxing and kind of stress relieving. We got lucky again because it was a perfect day for kayaking. There was one rough area where we had to paddle against the wind and currents but it was manageable. After the kayak trip, we had an intern celebration potluck which was very fun. The food was great and everyone was having a good time on the beach. The mentors decided to give all the interns a special certificate that had to do something with their research project. They called me the European Green Crab Ace and after that, some of the REUs decided that Ace is my name for now on. |
A couple things about myself before I start ranting about this wonderful place. I’m a first generation student that grew up in Oxnard, California. I am currently at Ventura College trying to finish my last two terms to transfer. I plan on transferring to the University of California Santa Barbara to further my education in Marine Biology. My goal is to graduate with a masters and hopefully get a job in research. This is the first time I’ve been around a real forest and not surrounded by a bunch of buildings and traffic in the city. Oregon has really grown on me and maybe somewhere in the future I could land a job out here. After waiting a year because of COVID, I’m glad to finally be here at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology. I was given a great opportunity to work in Shon Schooler’s lab and with the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve to do research on Green Crabs (Carcinus maenas). They’ve done a great job making it feel like a friendly environment knowing I was nervous. It’s also great to have other interns that aren’t in the REU program because they have interesting projects as well. The first week was a great introduction on what it’s like to do field work in a research job. Shon was nice enough to set up traps the day before we actually started work. Every day during field week we take six Fukui traps and set them at specific sites. These Fukui traps are like rectangular cages, wrapped in net-like material, and have one entrance on each side. We place these traps around 10 paces from each other with a stake and containers filled with bait. Depending on the site, the amount of green crabs can vary from about 10-120+. There are other crabs that sometimes get caught in these traps like the Dungeness crab (Metacarcinus magister), Red Rock crab (Cancer productus), and the Oregon shore crab (Hemigrapsus oregonensis). The Green crabs are collected for research back at the lab while the other species of crabs are released back into the water. Once in the lab, we measure the width of the carapace (shell) and weigh them for data. They are then organized in containers on a seawater table. At the start of the 2nd week, Shon and Taylor kindly offered Reagan and I to join them for some field work. The field work we were taken on was such a great experience. We kayaked up the estuary and stopped at multiple sites for about 5 hours. While kayaking I was able to observe some of the sea life that lives in the estuary. I saw a couple jellyfish and seals that would poke their head above the water. We are coming close to completing our 2nd week and the experience has just been wonderful. The people, environment, and wildlife are all so great. | One of our many adventures with the other interns. Setting up the six traps |
The start of the kayak trip which led to a beautiful view at the last stop
Reagan and I measuring and recording data on Green crabs/An odd blue shelled Dungeness crab
Hello everyone, my name is Jordan Pantoja. I’m from southern California, grew up in a small city called Oxnard. I attend Ventura college and plan on transferring to UC Santa Barbara.
Proudly powered by Weebly