July 2019 – Page 11 – NOAA Teacher at Sea Blog

July 3, 2019July 7, 2019

Karah Nazor: Cool Catch Highlights, June 2-7, 2019

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Karah Nazor

Aboard NOAA Ship Reuben Lasker

May 29 – June 7, 2019

Mission: Rockfish Recruitment & Ecosystem Assessment

Geographic Area: Central California Coast

Date: June 2-7, 2019

June 2, 2019 Game Plan and Trawling Line: 5 hauls in the Piedras Blancas Line near San Simeon, CA. Piedras Blancas is known for its Northern elephant seal colony, M. angustirostris. Hauls were conducted outside of the marine reserve and we did not encounter seals.

Catch Highlights: The night started off with excitement when Keith Sakuma brought in an Pacific electric ray, Torpedo californica, and we all got to see it up close before releasing.

Keith S and electric ray — Chief Scientist Keith Sakuma holding a Pacific electric ray, *Torpedo californica*

In Haul 3 we collected a pelagic octopus, Ocythoe tuberculata, shown below. Chromatophores in cephalapods, including squid, cuttlefish and octopus, are complex organs made up of both muscle and nerve and provide the ability for the animal to rapidly change its skin color in order to blend into the surrounding environment to avoid predation, communicate, or send a warning signal. It was impressive to watch the chromatophores at work as the pelagic octopus attempted to blend into the white background of his tank by turning white (see photos below) We released it back to the sea.

Pelagic octopus chromatophores — Pelagic octopus (*Ocythoe tuberculata*) with chromatophores expressing orange, purples and pinks. The beak is exposed here.

The differences in skin coloration of the five primary squid species we are catching including Boreal Squid, Blacktip Squid, Unknown Squid, Gonadus Squid, and Market Squid (see image below) are noteworthy. While living market squid exhibit brown, pink and purple skin color (see image below) the Chiroteuthis squid tentacle displays orange and red chromatophores (see image below).

Common squids in our catches. From top to bottom, Boreal Squid, Blacktip Squid, unknown species, Gonadus Squid, and Market Squid.

Living market squid exhibiting brown, pink and purple chromatophores.

Pink and purple chromatophores on the mantle of a market squid.

In Haul 4 we collected a Cranchia scabra, which Chief Scientist Keith Sakuma calls the “baseball squid” or glass squid whose body is covered with tubercles (brown spots on mantle in photo below). This animal attempted to hide from us by turning white, retracting its tentacles and inflating himself into a ball, somewhat resembling a baseball. After a few pictures, we released it back to the sea.

Cranchia scabra or "baseball squid" — *Cranchia scabra* or “baseball squid”

Another exciting deep-sea creature, the Pacific hatchet fish, Argyropelecus affinis, was collected in a bongo net deployed prior to CTD, for Dr. Kelly Goodwin’s eDNA research. The fish we collected below still has intact blue scales due to being well preserved in the bongo. The hatchet fish lives in mesopelagic zone down to 2000 m depths where the CTD sensors recorded a temperature of four degrees Celsius! Hatchet fish have upward facing eyes and mouths and swim up to the the epi-pelagic zone at night to feed on salps and krill.

Kelly conducted a quick surface bucket dip prior to CTD deployment in which we found a small (~2 inch) siphonophore, which I was very excited about since this was my first one to ever see in person! Siphonophores are colonial Cnidarians composed of individual animals called zooids. Moss Landing Graduate Student Kristin Saksa and I were able to confirm the identification of this beautiful creature as a siphonophore using an invertebrate field guide that Keith Sakuma brought on board. Perhaps due to the temperature change from being in the sea to being observed in a cell culture dish under the microscope, the siphonophore broke apart into its individual zooids right in front of my eyes. See before and after photos below.

Intact Siphonophore colony from bucket dip, note tip or “hat” at the bottom on the animal.

individual siphonophore zooids — Siphonophore individual zooids appear as semi circles consisting of small brown semi-circles.

Tonight I was also able to observe living salps that were pulled up in the bongo net and take a video. It was neat to see the salps pulsing.

Haul 5 was a massive haul full of pyrosomes, Pyrosoma atlanticum. Kristin Saksa volunteered to stir the bucket of pyrosomes (using her arms) so that we could obtain an accurate distribution of organisms for the initial volume count and analysis. As I video of this event (see stills from the video below), we were all laughing and realized that Kristin may be the only human on Earth who has ever stirred pyrosomes.

Kristin stirring pyrosomes — Kristin Saksa stirring a bucket full of *Pyrosoma atlanticum*

In haul 5 we were surprised to find a Giant 7-armed Atlantic octopus, or blob octopus. Keith Sakuma explained that the males have 7 arms as the fifth is a sex appendage whereas the female has 8 arms. After photographing this beautiful deep-sea octopus, we released him back to the sea.

blobtopus — Giant Seven-Armed Atlantic Octopus or “blob octopus”

June 3, 2019 Game Plan and Trawling Line: 5 hauls Outside Monterey Bay

Catch Highlights: Two of the hauls produced a lot of krill. The hauls had a high species density with a lot of myctophids, salps and blue lanternfish. Such hauls are time consuming to sort so as not to overlook something new and small. In one of the hauls we found a new-to-me myctophid called Nanobrachium. I dissected some of the fish and found that CA lanternfish and Northern anchovies were full of eggs, and their age/reproductive status was previously unknown.

We caught 2 young ocean sunfish, Mola mola. Both were immediately returned to the sea.

Kaila with young Mola mola — Scripps Graduate Student Kaila Pearson with a young ocean sunfish, *Mola mola*.

Keith and mola mola — LTJG Keith Hanson with a young ocean sunfish, *Mola mola*.

We found several species of deep sea dragonfish which we arrayed below on a ruler. Most of these fish are less than 6 inches long, no bigger than a pencil, but they are equipped with sharp fangs and are apex predators in their realm! Dragonfish have large bioluminescent photophore organs underneath their eyes (and sometimes lining their bodies) which produce light and are used to attract or deter prey and attract mates.

more dragonfishes — Longfin dragonfish, Tactostoma macropus, on left and a Pacific black dragon, Idiacanthus antrostomus, on right. Also in the photo are a krill (on the left of the dragonfish) and a Gonatus Squid (top left corner of photo).

Longfin dragonfish, *Tactostoma macropu*s, with large photo organ underneath the eye

We collected a stoplight loosejaw, Malacosteus niger, which can unhinge its jaw in order to consume large prey.

Face of stoplight loosejaw, *Malacosteus niger*.

June 4th: Davenport Line

The highlight of today was at 5:45 P.M. when team red hats went to the flying bridge for our workout and to hang out with Ornithologist Brian Hoover. There was a lot of Humpback whale activity. I counted around 20 spouts. We observed one whale that flapped its tail against the sea surface around 45 times in a row, perhaps communicating to nearby whales by generating pulses in the water or creating a visual cue. We saw several full breaches. We finished up the Davenport Line at 6:00 AM as the sea became rough. Thanks goodness for handrails in the shower.

The sorting team, aka Team Red Hats. From left: Kristin Saksa, Flora Cordoleani, Karah Nazor, Ily Iglesias, and Kaila Pearson.

June 5th: Outside of Tomales Bay

I woke up at 4PM and headed to the galley for dinner at 5PM. The boat was rocking so much that I became dizzy and knew that I would become sick if I tried to eat dinner, so I headed straight back to bed. Around 9PM the sea seemed to have calmed a bit, but I soon learned that it only felt calmer because the ship was traveling in the same direction as the swell at the moment but that we were about to turn around. Due to the rough conditions, the first haul inshore at Tomales Bay was delayed until midnight so the fish sorting team decided to watch “Mary Poppins Returns” in the galley. The talented chefs of the Reuben Lasker made the most amazing almond cookies today and, thankfully, temped me to eat again.

Catch Highlights: Haul 1 at station 165 was one of the easiest and most exciting catches of the survey so far because we collected a lot of jellyfish – my favorite! We counted 66 West Coast sea nettles, Chrysora fuscescens, seven Northern anchovies (7) and 24 market squid. I actually have a tattoo of West Coast sea nettle on my ankle. We placed the jellyfish flat on the lab bench and quickly measured their bell diameter before returning them to the sea. They did not sting us as most of the nematocysts were likely triggered during haul in. I removed a rhopalia, a sensory structure that lines the margin of the bell of Syphozoans (the “true” jellyfish). West Coast sea nettles have eight rhopalium which house the the ocelli (light sensing organ) and statolith (gravity sensing organ). A photomicrograph I took of the rhopalia under the dissecting microscope is below.

Karah measures sea nettle — Teacher at Sea Karah Nazor measuring a West Coast sea nettle *Chrysora fuscescens*.

Karah examines sea nettle — Karah Nazor examining a West Coast sea nettle, *Chrysora fuscescens*.

Kaila holds up sea nettle — Scripps graduate student Kaila Pearson examining a West Coast sea nettle, *Chrysora fuscescens*.

Kristin holds up a sea nettle — Moss Landing graduate student Kristin Saksa examining a West Coast sea nettle, *Chrysora fuscescens*.

Photomicrograph of the ocelli or light sensing organ in the rhopalia of a West Coast sea nettle, *Chrysora fuscescens*.

Haul 2 mostly consisted of Northern anchovies, 1 krill, a few moon jellyfish, Aurelia aurita, a few squid, which made for another very short and easy sort (see photo below). I study moon jellyfish in my lab back at McCallie High School, so I was curious to look inside of the stomach and reproductive organs of these wild jellyfish. Under the dissecting microscope, eggs were present and were purple in color (see photomicrograph below).

jellyfish eggs — Photomicrograph of purple eggs and clear gastric filaments of the moon jellyfish, *Aurelia aurita*

Kaila Pearson (left) and Karah Nazor and Keith Hanson sorting Haul 2.

Haul 3 had a lot of krill, young of year (YOY) Pacific hake, Merluccius productus, one large hake, and a few market squid. This sort was also super easy except for separating the small YOY Pacific hake from the krill.

Sorting of haul 3 which had a lot of krill and young of year (YOY) Pacific hake, Merluccius productus.

June 6th: Outside Farallones. On our final night, we conducted three hauls with very small harvests consisting of few organisms and low species density. One new to me fish in the final catch was a top smelt fish (see image below). These were the three easiest sorts of the survey. It was suggested by Keith Sakuma that the catches were small due to the stormy conditions.

A small catch from the last night June 6, 2019, with one West Coast Sea Nettle, a Gonatus squid, and two topsmelt silversides, *Atherinops affinis*.

Kristin with a topsmelt — Moss Landing graduate student Kristin Saksa with a topsmelt silverside, *Atherinops affinis*, from the final haul of the survey.

June 7, 2019: Return to San Francisco

Group photo at Golden Gate Bridge — In front of the Golden Gate Bridge at the conclusion of the cruise. From left: Brian Hoover, Kelly Goodwin, Ily Iglesias, Karah Nazor, Flora Cordoleani, Kristin Saksa, Lauren Valentino, and Jarrod Santora.

group photo at Marin Headlands — In front of the Marin Headlands at the conclusion of the cruise. From left: Ily Iglesias, Kristin Saksa, Flora Cordoleani, Kaila Pearson, Lauren Valentino, and Karah Nazor.

July 3, 2019July 25, 2019

Catherine Fuller: Maintaining Balance, July 1, 2019

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Catherine Fuller

Aboard R/V Sikuliaq

June 28 – July 18, 2019

Mission: Northern Gulf of Alaska (NGA) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER)

Geographic Area of Cruise: Northern Gulf of Alaska

Date: 1 July 2019

Weather Data from the Bridge

Latitude: 60’ 15” N
Longitude: 145’ 30” N
Wave Height:
Wind Speed: 7 knots
Wind Direction: 101 degrees
Barometric Pressure: 1020 mb
Air Temperature: 13.2° C
Relative Humidity: 94%
Sky: Overcast

Science and Technology Log

When I read some the material online about the NGA LTER, what struck me was a graphic that represented variability and resiliency as parts of a dynamic system. The two must coexist within an ecosystem to keep it healthy and sustainable; they must be in balance. On board, there is also balance in the studies that are being done. The Main Lab houses researchers who are looking at the physical aspects of the water column, such as sediment and plankton. The Wet Lab researchers are looking at the chemical aspects and are testing properties such as fluorescence, DIC (dissolved inorganic carbon), and DOC (dissolved organic carbon).

Working deck — This is the working deck of the ship, where the majority of equipment is deployed

Today we deployed Steffi’s sediment traps, a process during which balance was key. First of all, each trap was composed of four collection tubes arranged rather like a chandelier.

These were hooked into her primary line. Her traps were also attached to two sets of floaters: one at the surface and one as an intermediary feature on her line. These allowed her traps to sit at the proper depths to collect the samples she needed. The topmost trap sat 80m below the surface, while the next three were at subsequent 25m intervals.

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Bern’s time lapse of the sediment trap deployment

hazy sound — Steffi’s traps were released against the background of the smoky sound.

We also collected more samples from another run of the CTD today. Again, the Niskin bottles (collection tubes) were “fired” or opened at various depths, allowing sampling through a cross section of the water at this particular data point PWS2. Unlike our previous collection, these samples were filtered with .45 micron mesh to eliminate extraneous particles. This is a very careful process, we needed to be very careful to eliminate air bubbles and replace the filters regularly as the clogged quickly. For one depth, we did collect unfiltered samples as a comparison to the filtered ones. Many groups use the CTD to collect samples, so there must also be careful planning of usage so that there is enough water for each team. Collection is a complicated dance of tubes, syringes, bottles, labels and filters all circling around the CTD.

Steffi and buoys — Steffi looks over the sound as the buoys marking her traps recede into the distance.

Later this evening, we’ll have the chance to pull up Steffi’s sediment traps and begin to prepare her samples for analysis.

Personal Log

Balance is key in more ways than one when you’re living aboard a research ship. Although it’s been very calm, we experience some rolling motion when we are transiting from one site to the next. The stairways in the ship are narrow, as are the steps themselves, and it’s a good thing there are sturdy handrails! Other than physical balance, it’s important to find personal balance. During the day, the science work can be very intense and demanding. Time schedules shift constantly, and it is important to be aware of when your experiments or data collection opportunities are taking place. Down time is precious, and people will find a quiet space to read, go to the gym (a small one), catch up on sleep or even watch a movie in the lounge.

A couple of weeks before I left, the Polynesian Voyaging Society hosted a cultural group from Yakutat, who had shipped in one of their canoes down for a conference. We were able to take them out sailing, and the subject of balance came up in terms of the worldview that the Tlingit have. People are divided between being Eagles and Ravens, and creatures are also divided along the lines of being herbivorous and carnivorous. Rather than this being divisive within culture, it reflects the principle of balance. Both types are needed to make an ecosystem whole and functional. And so, as we progress, we are continually working on maintaining our balance in the R/V Sikuliaq ecosystem.

Animals seen today:

A few dolphins were spotted off the bow this evening, but other than that, Prince William Sound has been relatively quiet. Dan, our U.S. Fish and Wildlife person, remarked that there are more boats than birds today, which isn’t saying much as I’ve only seen three other boats.

July 3, 2019July 7, 2019

Karah Nazor: Interview with NOAA Scientist Flora Cordoleani, Ph.D., June 2, 2019

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Karah Nazor

Aboard NOAA Ship Reuben Lasker

May 29 – June 7, 2019

Mission: Rockfish Recruitment & Ecosystem Assessment

Geographic Area: Central California Coast

Date: June 2, 2019

Scientist Spotlight: Flora Cordoleani, Ph.D., NOAA NMFS, SWFSC, Fisheries Ecology Division (FED). Dr. Cordoleani is a member of the fish sorting team on this survey.

Interests: Rock climbing, surfing, reading, studying Japanese

Education: Dr. Cordoleani’s doctoral degree is in Marine Biology and Ecology from Aix-Marseille University in France. There she researched interactions between phytoplankton and zooplankton. During her postdoc at the University of California, Davis, in the lab of Louis Botsford, she studied the impact of marine protected areas on rockfish along the CA coast.

Flora measuring anchovies — Flora Cordoleani, Ph.D., measuring Northern Anchovies after a sort on the *Reuben Lasker*.

Flora and Karah — Dr. Flora Cordoleani and Dr. Karah Nazor, Teacher at Sea.

Current Research: Dr. Cordoleani leads a research program at UC Davis on preservation of Chinook Salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, of the Central California Valley Spring Run, which is a threatened species. She explains that these Chinook Salmon are genetically different from salmon of other runs such as the Late Fall, Fall, and Winter runs that take place in the Sacramento River, San Joaquin River, the Delta, the San Francisco Bay, and all of its tributaries.

The primary objective of Dr. Cordoleani’s research is to develop a life cycle model of the entire Spring Run from the spot where the young salmon are reared in the river to their journey through the Golden Gate to the sea where they spend a couple of years before returning back to their home river to spawn, thus completing the life cycle. She aims to uncover environmental factors that are impacting the survival at each stage of the life cycle.

Project 1: Dr. Cordoleani’s team placed acoustic tags in the stomachs of young fish to trace their journey from the river to the ocean. She has found that water temperature, water velocity, and flow are the major factors impacting whether or not juvenile fish are able to make it from their place of birth to the Golden Gate. She has observed that drought negatively impacts survival and that the fish fare better in wetter years. Her data helps federal agencies, such as NOAA, with fish stock assessments and informs them for making science policy decisions on fishing and setting fishing quotas.

Project 2: Since water flow and velocity affect the survival of young salmon called fry, Dr. Cordoleani is very interested in water usage in the Central California Valley and gaining a better understanding how freshwater habitats are managed and how this affects wild salmon. A major obstacle these fish encounter are dams, which blocks the natural flow of rivers. Spring run salmon have an additional challenge of low water levels and low stream flow in the Spring. During the Spring months, there is less water available in floodplain habitats due to the heavy consumption of water by the agriculture industry during this time.

To study the effects of water flow and velocity on salmon fry, Dr. Cordoleani made mesh fish cages and placed the cages in either shallow floodplain habitats or the main river. She placed ten fry (measuring 40 mm in length) in each cage and allowed them to grow for 6 weeks. At the end of the 6 weeks, she again measured the fish and found that the floodplain shallow water habitat promoted fish growth.

Rice farmers use floodplain habitats for their crop and Dr. Cordoleani is working on partnering with this industry to explore how they can work together to manage land to benefit native salmon runs. She is excited that the rice farmers, as well as duck clubs, are interested to learn how their land can be used to help wild salmon populations thrive and how they can be a part of the solution to some of the obstacles wild salmon face.

Project 3: Fish otoliths provide a treasure trove of information to reconstruct the life history of fish. The CA Department of Fish and Game has for many years been collecting otoliths from salmon carcasses after spawning events throughout various locations in the Central CA Valley. They gave Dr. Cordoleani access to their 450 stored otoliths for her research on the salmon life cycle. She will analyze the otoliths using laser ablation mass spectrometry and stable isotope analysis (using the Strontium 64 or 65 ratio) to determine in which river the adult fish were reared, where they were present at each stage of their life cycle, and how long they spent there. She will also be able to determine if the fish were wild or farmed-raised because hatchery feeding produces a different strontium signal, she explains.

With data from the otolith project, Dr. Cordoleani will compare different cohorts of fish and assess how fast the fish grew in each type of habitat in order to understand which habitats are most ideal for salmon survival. Importantly, she will be able to determine whether and how their growth was affected by different environmental factors and seasons over the years. Dr. Cordoleani uses USGS databases and other agency websites to obtain water data records for her research.

July 2, 2019July 2, 2019

Hayden Roberts: Santiago’s Dream (My Introduction), July 2, 2019

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Hayden Roberts

(In advance) Aboard NOAA Ship Oregon II

July 8-19, 2019

Mission: Leg III of SEAMAP Summer Groundfish Survey

Geographic Area of Cruise: Gulf of Mexico

Date: July 2, 2019

Introduction

“There are many good fishermen and some great ones. But there is only one you.”

–Ernest Hemingway (Old Man and the Sea)

As I sit at my home computer, my mind is racing with thoughts of what I need to do before leaving for Mississippi. My family doesn’t quite know what I am doing aboard NOAA Ship Oregon II, not that I am sure either! They vacillate between images of cramped, hot quarters portrayed in old World War II movies like Das Boot (1981), which is about a German submarine crew. In contrast to the sailors traversing icy, choppy waters as in the reality TV show Deadliest Catch, which is about King Crab fishermen in Alaska’s Bering Sea. I am not sure my time aboard Oregon II will be either, but perhaps they will think me braver if I leave that picture in their minds ahead of my trip [wink, wink].

Roberts Family. From left to right: Owen, Hayden, Jackson, and Sarah.

However, before I talk about my trip, I should take a step back and talk about where I came. I am from Oklahoma, one of the most landlocked areas of North America. I grew up in Oklahoma (both Tulsa and Oklahoma City), but have had many other experiences since then. I have been teaching at the collegiate level for 15 years. I mostly instruct high school students taking concurrent enrollment classes and community college students working on undergraduate general education requirements. I teach regional geography, folklife and traditional culture, and introduction to the humanities at Oklahoma State University—Oklahoma City (OSU-OKC) and Oklahoma City Community College. I am lead faculty in geography at OSU-OKC.

Sarah and Hayden — My wife Sarah and I at one of our favorite date night adventures, Thunder basketball games.

I earned my BA from Sarah Lawrence College in New York (1994). I studied visual arts, primarily painting and filmmaking, and cultural studies. I earned my MA in Folk Studies from Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green (1998), and I earned my PhD in Geography from the University of Oklahoma, Norman (2015). Through my education and early adult life, I lived coast to coast in seven different states. This education prepared me to work in the field of public history, historic interpretation, community development, and arts administration in addition to teaching at the collegiate level. Before teaching, I worked in Washington, DC for Ralph Nader (yes, the clean water, clean air, clean everything guy…oh, and he ran for president). I worked for several historic sites and cultural agencies, including Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky Museum, Historic Carnton, and the Tennessee Arts Commission. I have also worked in education administration. I served as the director the Oklahoma Center for Arts Education for the University of Central Oklahoma, as executive director of the Oklahoma Folklife Council for the Oklahoma Historical Society, and recently, as Director of Community Resources for Western Heights Public Schools. At Western Heights, I have been fortunate to work close to a younger group of students. I have been a part of the expanding arts and science curriculum at the high school. The school district is in the process of renovating the high school science wing and building a new arts and science high school building for an emerging STEAM program. STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, arts, and math instruction. Working with community partners, I am also involved in promoting college and career readiness at the secondary level.

Students gardening — Gardening with 5th and 6th grade students during their after school STEAM program in Western Heights’ outdoor classroom.

My research interests include the cultural geography of Oklahoma, family stories and cultural expressions, and community building. However, through my research in folk studies (similar to anthropology) and cultural geography, I have studied human interconnectivity associated with occupations, which is what initially drew my interest to the NOAA Teacher at Sea (TAS) program. In the past, I have studied occupations associated with rural culture and how environment and increased urbanization have effected work settings and their relationship to identity. My research interest aside, I am excited to learn more about the science of fishery surveys. I think learning about the maritime career opportunities associated with NOAA programs will be important to convey to the students I teach. Especially because so many of my students come from economically challenged, urban settings, and the thought of pursuing a career based on scientific research is foreign. As a geographer, I am also excited to share with students ways they can connect to geography as an influence on their career plans.

Mayes County Fair in Pryor, Oklahoma. Shot as part of my fieldwork on rural culture and place identity.

Mission Information

I will be part of the third leg of the Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (SEAMAP) sailing out of the NOAA Pascagoula, MS facility. SEAMAP is a State/Federal/university program for collecting, managing, and disseminating fishery-independent data in the southeastern US. The Gulf of Mexico survey work began in 1981. I have read blogs and videos from NOAA TAS alum that have been part of the similar research cruises, and I have reviewed the NOAA website under the SEAMAP pages and NOAA Oregon II pages. TAS alumni Angela Hung from the 2018 SEAMAP survey crew posted a great blog on roughly what Oregon II crew will be doing while I am sailing (see https://noaateacheratsea.blog/2018/07/03/angela-hung-dont-give-it-a-knife-june-30-2018/). However, I am still working to understand exactly what I will be doing. Coastal culture and scientific research of this nature is new to me. The closest experience I have goes back to my childhood when in the 1980s my mom built a catfish hatchery and commercial pond operation on 10 acres of farmland in southeastern Oklahoma. The “catfish farm” as we called was only in our family for a few years. The next closest experience I have to coastal fisheries is chartering boats for near shore and deep sea fishing adventures on vacation. Clearly, I am in for a lesson on the broader science of understanding and maintaining the ecology of our domestic waterways in the US. This will be an interesting trip, for sure!

July 2, 2019July 5, 2019

Erica Marlaine: One Fish, Two Fish, June 26, 2019

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Erica Marlaine

Aboard NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson

June 22 – July 15, 2019

Mission: Pollock Acoustic-Trawl Survey

Geographic Area of Cruise: Kodiak Island, Alaska

Date: June 26, 2019

Weather Data from the Bridge:

Latitude: 58º 33.15 N
Longitude: 152º 58.87 W
Wind Speed: 17.5 knots
Wind Direction: 229º
Air Temperature: 13º Celsius
Barometric Pressure: 1020.2 mb

Science Log

Today we did our first two trawls of the trip. According to Webster’s dictionary, trawl is defined as the act of fishing with a trawl net, which is a large conical net dragged along the sea bottom in order to gather fish or other marine life. It can also mean the act of sifting through something as part of a search. Both definitions are accurate for what is done on the NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson.

The Oscar Dyson uses a variety of nets to catch the fish being studied. One net that has been used for many years is called an Aleutian Wing Trawl (or an AWT). The mesh size of the AWT is ½ inch. Attached to the AWT net are smaller nets (called pocket nets) which also have a ½ inch mesh size. The new net being used this year is an LFS 1421, which has a 1/8 inch mesh size. It has 9 pocket nets, also with 1/8 inch mesh size. It is thought that fewer fish will escape the LFS net because the mesh size is smaller, in turn allowing the scientists to get a more accurate picture of the fish and other creatures living in the areas they are trawling. Trawls are being conducted using both nets (back-to-back) to determine the extent to which the new net is more efficient and provides a more accurate measure.

AWT and LFS nets — The older AWT net is on the left. The newer LFS 1421 net is on the right.

Once the nets are pulled in, the processing begins. The main net (i.e., codend) is emptied onto the large processing table in the fish lab.

Each pocket net is emptied into a separate plastic bin. The fish are then identified, weighed, measured, and sometimes dissected in order for us to accurately determine the age and sex of each fish.

Evan with plastic bin — Volunteer Biologist Evan Reeve with a pocket net bin.

Otoliths (ear bones) and ovaries are collected from a sample of the walleye pollock caught in the codend of the net. Otoliths allow scientists to determine the age of the fish. Over time, ridges form on the otoliths, and are indicative of age in much the same way a tree’s age can be determined by counting the rings of its trunk.

Ovaries are collected to be sent back to the lab as part of a long-term histology study which hopes to determine whether walleye pollock experience multi-batch spawning events (i.e., do pollock spawn more than one time) within or between seasons. Histology, also known as microscopic anatomy or microanatomy, uses a microscope to study the anatomy of biological tissues. In contrast, gross anatomy looks at structures without a microscope.

After a trawl, scientists onboard the NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson examine the ovaries with the naked eye to determine the reproductive stage of the walleye pollock that has been caught. There are 5 stages: Immature (not yet capable of spawning, typically age 0-2); Developing (beginning to develop the ability to spawn) Pre-spawning, Spawning, and Spent (completed spawning). Once a pollock spawns, it begins the cycle again beginning at step 3 (pre-spawning). Additionally, the histology study also hopes to determine whether the spawning stages being designated by scientists during the cruise are in fact accurate.

Elementary Math Fun

Let’s say 200 total fish were caught in the new LFS 1421 net, including the nine pocket nets attached.

Pocket nets 1, 2 and 3 each had 20 age-0 pollock in them.

Pocket nets 4, 5 and 6 each had 13 lantern fish in them.

Pocket net 7 had 3 small herrings in it.

Pocket nets 8 and 9 each had 2 age-1 pollock in them.

How many fish were in the codend or main part of the net?

Personal Log

As a Southern Californian, I imagined Alaska to be cold even in the summer, and packed sweaters and a big puffy winter coat. Apparently shorts and t-shirts would have been more appropriate! The weather in Kodiak has been warm and beautiful, with the sun shining until midnight.

My first day in Kodiak was a free day, so I joined the science team on a hike up Barometer Mountain, which many say is the most difficult hike in Kodiak. It is 2100 feet straight up a very steep, rocky, brush-filled path, and then 2100 feet down that same, steep path. It was quite the challenge, but the view from the top was magnificent.

At present, there are 31 people onboard the NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson, including NOAA corps officers, engineers, deck personnel, cooks, scientists, interns, and me, the NOAA Teacher at Sea. The ship, which was originally launched in 2003, and commissioned into service as a NOAA ship in 2005, is named for Alaskan fisherman and fishing industry leader Oscar E. Dyson. It is one of the most advanced fisheries research vessels in the world, due in part to its acoustic quieting technology. This allows scientists to monitor fish populations without concern that the ship’s noise will affect the behavior of the fish.