Hello! We are now halfway through the REU program and it is flying by! This week I’ve been working on my research proposal, data entry, and dissection. Last weekend was the 4th of July and we watched fireworks and had a bonfire. On Wednesday I dissected my first urchin. It was a test run for when I dissected my collected urchins. To start I had to sedate the urchin, and we try to be as humane as possible. When the urchin was sedated, I had to weigh it, find its volume, and measure its height and diameter. To measure the height and diameter I had to cut the spines of the urchin off. It looked very strange without its spines, like a hairless urchin. Once the physical measurements were done, I had to begin the process of opening the urchin. To do this I had to cut its mouth and Aristotle lantern out. The Aristotle lamp is its teeth and jaw apparatus (I saved it for keeping). I then had to cut the urchin open, to do this I used scissors and cut along the equatorial line in order to not mess up the gonads. Once opened, I had to remove the digestive system. Afterwards, I scooped the gonads out and weighed them. This is the process I will do with all the urchins that I collect from dives. It was a fun learning experience that I’m excited to do more of! This Thursday Annika, Rhoda, Jordan, Nick, and I went to the boat marina docks to test out the CTEL lab’s ROV (Remotely operated vehicle). It comes with a controller similar to an Xbox controller but with a screen in the middle to see what the ROV is displaying. It was really cool but hard to control for footage. Next week I will hopefully be doing some more diving, urchin dissection, and video analysis. Stay tuned!
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AuthorMy name is Maite Gato-Fuentes. I am a senior marine science major at California State University, Monterey Bay from Seattle Washington. I'm working in Dr. Aaron Galloway's Coastal Trophic Ecology Lab. Archives
August 2021
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