Tag: interview

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Kiersten Newtoff: So Long, and Thanks for All the (Whales). February 3, 2025

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Kiersten Newtoff
Aboard NOAA Ship Pisces
January 6 – January 27, 2025

Mission: Atlantic Marine Assessment Program for Protected Species (AMAPPS)
Geographic Area of Cruise: North Atlantic Coast
Date: February 3, 2025

Nearly every blog post was an interview with a group of folks working towards a common goal. Well, for this final post, I’ll interview myself (I’m sure there’s a literary term for this, but alas, English was never my best subject) about how it all went! Also, I hate actually talking about myself, so when someone in real life asks me about the trip, I can just tell them to come here. Plus they get pretty pictures. We all win.

What was your favorite interview? (asked by Rob!)

Honestly, I can’t even remember my answer when Rob asked, but it probably wasn’t that insightful. But now that I am home and reflecting, I think all my interviews with the quietest people on the ship were the best. Once we started talking one on one, so many people opened up about their journey and had great advice for people interested in the field. One memorable moment was with Tom, one of the engineers, who I literally had not even heard him say a word to anyone (partly because he wasn’t around at dinner due to his shift, partly because I don’t pay attention). I just went up to him during lunch and asked “Hi, I’m interviewing everyone on the ship and was wondering if we could chat later” to which he just started talking to me about his time in maritime school and how his class would go tutor at the local high school and tell them about the maritime trade! Like bro, I am not prepared for this yet. We did catch up later and I learned even more cool stuff about him. A lot of the crew kind of just minded to themselves or with their smaller crew, but I am glad I kind of forced myself into each ‘group’ and learned from everyone. It definitely strengthened our relationships throughout the trip. Many people had sailed together for years and learned about each other from my blog! It was cool to hear that I got to share their stories.

How big was the boat?

I’m getting this question a lot, but this was my first legit boat ride, so I have very little frame of reference. Smaller than a Carnival cruise ship. Bigger than a yacht on Below Deck. From the engine area, it takes 7 flights of stairs to get to the flying bridge. Here, take a look at the picture, me for scale.

Kiersten standing in front of the NOAA Ship Pisces, which is docked.
Kiersten standing in front of the NOAA Ship Pisces. Boat is big, Kiersten is small.

Did you know anyone?

Nope! I had lots of mutual connections with folks though! Yin and I shared a connection with someone I went to graduate school with, I had a student in 2013 who ended up working with Rob in California, and someone I met recently who works 5 minutes from my house was a close colleague and (current! friend!) of Allison’s. The ecology world is small!

What was the coolest thing you saw?

I’m not a very decisive person and am really bad at superlatives. So here’s the top 4:

  • Seeing North Atlantic Right Whales, some of the rarest and most endangered whale species in the world, off the coast of Virginia Beach
  • It snowing, and sticking, on the deck
  • Tons of water spouts forming and breaking up
  • Being outside in a T-shirt while in the Gulf Stream
A tail fin of a North Atlantic Right Whale dips into the water, with a wind turbine in the background.
North Atlantic Right Whale. NEFSC permit #27066.
A water spout forms in the distance on a dark gray, cloudy day.
Water Spout
A small snowman on deck covered in a light dusting of snow.
Sea Snowman (Cred Annamaria)

How was the motion sickness?

If you haven’t read the Ode to Scopolamine, you’re missing out on my finest work. But after three weeks, it was mostly “fine.” I only puked once, but had a few instances where I decided being horizontal was in my best interest. At night though, rocking softly in bed – I understand why waterbeds were a thing. The nights where things are crashing around and you are getting airborne while sleeping, not as pleasant. But the meds really helped, thank you modern medicine.

What was living on the boat like?

I was in a bunk room, with the best roommate Tasha. She was mama bear and was always looking out for me when I needed to be horizontal. She was also so fun to work with on deck and she is just a cool person. (But also a literally cool person, we had low key thermostat wars fueled by love). We had three cooked meals a day and limitless snacks (when all the chips weren’t being stolen!) and dessert. I learned you are not allowed to work out in the galley, but that it is also the roomiest place on the ship, so I exercised only 1.5 times. I’d rank boat living 5/7.

What did you learn?

Literally everything. Everything about this experience was brand new to me, except that I knew maybe 20% of the seabirds. Although my master’s was in marine biology, my research was on ecotoxicology of Brown Pelicans, which aren’t around this area this time of year. They have the right idea and hang out in the Caribbean. All the science was new, the boat living was new, the struggling to stand was new. Every day I learned new science or new boat things.

Kiersten looks through Big Eye binoculars. The picture was used as a background photo for a desktop, duplicated across two screens.
One of the ways I really felt like part of the team was going into the acoustics lab and seeing this new snazzy screensaver. I pointed it out to everyone that day. (original pic taken by Kelsey).

What do you do now?

My commitment to NOAA Teacher at Sea isn’t over! While the blog portion is done, the main goal of the program is to disseminate to students the important research by NOAA. I am working on a lesson plan for students that I will be test running in Fall 2025 when I return from sabbatical. I used to do a population sampling lab on grid paper and students learned about and tested the accuracy of different population estimation techniques: point, transect, quadrat, and mark and recapture sampling. I am adapting this activity a bit to actually apply the AMAPPS protocol where students will have to consider a sampling technique, and then how to actually implement it given X amount of time at sea, the need for Y conditions, and following an observational protocol Z. The chief scientist Debi developed a map for me to use with students that shows the North Atlantic with contour lines that students can use to develop their sampling regions based on 6 species of concern I provide them. I’m excited to test this out with students! I’ll also be presenting at the Maryland Collegiate STEM Conference to community college faculty about the NOAA Teacher at Sea experience and with students about all of the careers they can pursue with NOAA. And the program also has an alumni organization to keep previous teachers connected with each other and with the organization!

A meme titled "What gives people feelings of power" with a horizontal bar graph underneath. The smallest bar says 'money'. The second largest bar says 'status'. And the largest, by far, bar says 'being in Kiersten's blog'.
The other thing that really made me feel like part of the team was making it into Ian’s meme of the day. Peak.

Who do you want to thank?

Well of course, my mom, who has always believed in me for all the random things I pursue! Of course, the NOAA Teacher at Sea program for hosting this incredible experience for 35 years! And thank you to everyone who had to approve me to join this cruise – which I’m sure Commander Kliewer and Debi had a bit of say in that! Everyone on the ship who let me bother them with my questions and to everyone who made me feel like one of the team, even when I was clearly an outsider. The people made this trip. The experience was fun, but the people were it. (But I swear, I’m not an extrovert).

So long, and thanks for all the (whales).

PS. Do you feel like you missed a blog post or 10? Here’s a quick index to all of them.

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Kiersten Newtoff: Bird is the Word. January 27, 2025

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Kiersten Newtoff
NOAA Ship Pisces
January 6 – January 27, 2025

Mission: Atlantic Marine Assessment Program for Protected Species (AMAPPS)
Geographic Area of Cruise: North Atlantic Coast
Date: January 27, 2025. Due to weather, we had to dock a couple days early, but I already had some posts planned out!

The last science crew spotlight is of the best1 crew: team birds! And to wrap it up, a spotlight on the Chief Scientist that put the science crew together: Debi.

Bird is the Word (Have You Heard?)

A photograph of the horizon with 50+ Northern Gannets diving into the water.
A huge flock of Northern Gannets dive bomb into the water for a snickety-snack. Credit: Allison

Okay, so why birds? I think this class of organisms is one of the best for future wildlife biologists to get started in because they are everywhere, both visually and auditorily findable, and their biodiversity is well documented. Birds also serve as an excellent bioindicator of ecosystem health because of their ubiquitous distribution. Many species are at the top of the food chain, so we can see how pollutants biomagnify to the highest trophic levels. Some species are habitat specialists, and their relative numbers can provide insight into our changing world. In the ocean, seabirds and whales share a common meal – so where there are birds, there’s a chance for marine mammals. Likewise, smaller breeding colonies can provide insight to fisheries health that affects both marine life and human sustenance. If there’s a consistent decline, redistribution, or mass mortality in birds, then scientists will investigate the environment to find clues for these changes. It’s likely affecting other organisms too, but we just don’t notice them as quickly. Another reason to study seabirds is:

Because they’re cool.
                          Nick

Meet the Bird Nerds

Allison and Nick pose for the camera and are wearing heavy duty cold weather gear on the flying bridge.
Allison and Nick bundled up on the flying bridge. Credit: Ryan

One of the seabird observers on this cruise is Allison. In undergrad she majored in Zoo and Wildlife Biology and worked as a zookeeper after graduation. A shoulder injury and subsequent surgery took her out of the field for a few months and it was during this time she decided to pursue birds as a full time career, as she had really enjoyed an ornithology course in college. After her recovery, Allison worked as a Coastal Steward for Tuckernuck Island, MA for a few years, working with gulls and shorebirds. She teamed up with a local professor and also did MAPS banding of songbirds on the island. She presented some of their gull research at the Waterbird Society meeting in New Bern, NC in 2016 and participated in a pelagic cruise field trip. That’s when she got hooked onto seabirds. Allison has been a contractor for NOAA since 2019 and usually spends over 120 days a year at sea doing seabird surveys out of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center with EcoMon and AMAPPS. Outside of these tours, she does lots of guest speaking for universities, libraries, birding clubs, and other conservation organizations about birding life on the high seas. Allison maintains many Excel sheets with all sorts of fun data, but the most impressive is her list of the 162 bird species seen on/from the ship!

Birds of the Sea, a haiku
Choppy seas today,
But the birds still fly and zoom.
Was that a puffin?

Indeed, it was a puffin.
Credit: Nick

The other seabird observer onboard is Nick whose journey to birds started after his freshman year in college; he spent the summer in the Bering Sea collecting phytoplankton. There just happened to be a seabird observer on board who taught him a lot between his phytoplankton duties. After graduating, he found a researcher who was working with Adelie penguins near Palmer Station, Antarctica (there’s a live webcam of the penguins!). He “cold-emailed” (comes from the idea of ‘cold calling’ where you reach out to someone who you don’t know) this researcher soon after graduating asking about opportunities to work with him. It took 2 years of Nick getting more experience and sending a few more emails to finally convince the researcher to let him join a research trip in 2008. Nick spends 6-8 months a year doing various field work: marine mammal aerial surveys, studying puffins in Maine, turtle work in North Padre Island, field projects for National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service, and many more. In 2013, he was hired by a contracting agency to work on NOAA cruises which he has been doing since. He likes the seasonal work because he gets a lot of time to spend with family, traveling, and just doing what he wants to do.

Meet the Chief Scientist

Debi poses for the camera on the fly bridge.
Debi is bundled up on the fly bridge, likely fixing the tech!

The big science boss lady is Debi, a research fisheries biology at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, MA. She is the branch chief of the newly minted Conservation Ecology Branch within the Protected Species Division. Specifically, she focuses on the spatial and temporal abundance of marine mammals, sea turtles, and seabirds. These data are critical in understanding how many of these organisms there are and how many are accidentally taken by humans. She’s also involved with the International Whaling Commission and the head of the US delegation to the Scientific Committee. As branch chief, her duties are split between science and admin tasks. She may start her day working on a publication about harbor porpoise bycatch, and in the afternoon she’s organizing group travel to meet with International Whaling Commission scientists to discuss the status of whales and other related science. Debi started with NOAA as a Ph.D. student out of the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in 1987 and began her professional role in 1991. She’s been working with protected species the entire time, but the species and goals change over the years as we learn more. On this cruise, she leads the teams with scheduling, monitoring weather conditions, double-checking and processing the data, and liaising with the ship. She also designed the tracklines we collect data on; then after the cruise she will analyze the data and hopefully publish the results.

How to Join the Flock

  • Be open to all sorts of jobs. There are so many jobs out there that you don’t even know are jobs.
  • Every job, internship, volunteer opportunity you can learn something. You’ll get as much out of it as you put into it.
  • Be flexible – this field is dependent on grant funding. One year a position may exist, but maybe not next year.
  • Check out the job boards for ornithology opportunities and wildlife biology opportunities
  • Work on building quantitative skills such as statistics, coding, and GIS. Those skills are more likely to get you hired than just having a biological background.
  • Speaking of skills, don’t pigeonhole (heh) yourself to just birds, the more you can do, the more likely you will land a position. Being able to ID mammals or turtles, maneuvering/repairing small boats, manning drones, collecting biopsies, and vessel and aerial surveys are all helpful.
  • Network, network, network. Any internship, job, seminar, or experience you do, get to know the people. They will be critical in finding positions.
  • Reflect on your career and life goals. This kind of work is almost exclusively short-term temporary positions without benefits. Consider how long you want to work in the field before moving to something else, such as graduate school (which having the field experience is really beneficial!).

1There is absolutely no bias in this statement.

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Nick Lee: The Night Shift, July 19, 2024

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Nick Lee
Aboard NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson
June 29 – July 20, 2024

Mission: Pollock Acoustic-Trawl Survey

Geographic Area of Cruise: Eastern Bering Sea

Date: July 19, 2024

Weather Data from the Bridge:

Latitude: 53° 44.5 N

Longitude: 166° 54.0 W

Wind Speed: 15 knots

Air Temperature: 10.9° Celsius (51.62° Fahrenheit)

Science and Technology Log:

As my cruise begins to wrap up, I wanted to highlight some of the people I’ve been working closest with – the scientists on the night shift. Work on the ship continues 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the night shift works from 4 pm – 4 am. The night shift has the same responsibilities as the day shift of monitoring acoustic data and processing trawls, tasks completed by scientists Sarah Stienessen, Matthew Phillips, and Robert Levine. To learn more about the scientists and their careers, I interviewed each of them:

Why did you decide to become a marine scientist?

Sarah: The short answer is in kindergarten, I checked out a book on dolphins and fell in love with the ocean!

Matthew: I grew up near the ocean, and as a kid, I always loved exploring and finding new fish. I knew I didn’t want to spend every day in an office, and so marine science seemed like a great way to pursue my passion and explore new places.

Robert: I actually wasn’t planning to. I was majoring in geology and environmental science, and I did a field semester in Hawaii. We did a three week class in conservation ecology using passive acoustics, and I thought it was the coolest thing. I did a marine mammal internship with acoustics, and after college, I worked in a zooplankton lab – the rest is history.

Scientist Sarah Stienessen on marine mammal watch. Sarah rests her elbows on a windowsill and looks through binoculars out a large window. Through the windows, we see the sky is gray, and the sea is gray.
Sarah Stienessen on marine mammal watch.

What are your responsibilities during the cruise?

Sarah: My responsibilities are to monitor and analyze the acoustic data and decide when and where to collect a biological sample (trawl) – that’s the daily stuff. I work on combining the acoustic data with the biological sample data to produce abundance and distribution estimates.  I also coordinate pre- and post-cruise logistics.

Matthew: I’m the fish lab lead, so I’m responsible for supervising all of the trawl processing.

Robert: I’m here as an assistant to the fish lab lead and to explore new data types that we could use to enhance our data collection.

Scientist Robert Levine unloading the trawl catch onto the sorting table. Robert wears a heavy orange raincoat and long, elbow-length yellow gloves. He stands behind the sorting table and with his right hand controls the flow of the fish onto the table with a switch or a button on the wall.
Robert Levine unloading the trawl catch onto the sorting table.

What do you enjoy the most about your work?

Sarah: On the boat, it’s teamwork and camaraderie with colleagues. On land, it’s the strategizing and planning around the logistics of fieldwork, both small scale and large scale.

Matthew: Seeing a species that’s new to me! I love seeing new fish, birds, and marine mammals.

Robert: I enjoy the balance between office work, getting to do fieldwork, and working on instrumentation. This group does a lot of research, but it’s all applied, which is the best part.

What part of your career did you least expect?

Sarah: Acoustics, fish, and Alaska!

Matthew: I never expected to be spending so much time in Alaska.

Robert: I never would have thought I would be on a boat actually doing the fishing.

Scientist Matthew Phillips troubleshooting PelagiCam. We see Matthew through an open window in a metal wall, perhaps an outer wall of the ship. He wears a heavy orange reflective coat and a black beanie and works at a laptop on a table at the window. A cable extends from inside the lab through the window out of frame.
Matthew Phillips troubleshooting PelagiCam

What advice do you have for a young person interested in a career in marine science?

Sarah: Take lab-based course work that’s marine related and hands-on. Also, volunteer, intern, try to get a glimpse of the real life experience of what marine science is like. It’s good for giving you connections and for seeing if it’s something you really want to do.

Matthew: Be open-minded about different opportunities and unthought-of locations!

Robert: Find the thing that you like to do or are really good at. If you like chemistry or computer science, get a degree in that. Then apply it to marine science – you don’t have to have a biology degree and you can actually be more effective with an outside perspective.

Personal Log:

When I first boarded NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson I was hoping to be assigned the day shift (4 am – 4 pm). However, after I adjusted to the different sleep schedule, I found myself enjoying the nighttime hours when the ship was quieter. There is still a lot of fish processing to do during the night shift  – this cruise, the ship has actually processed more trawls during our shift! 

While nights are often busy in the fish lab, we’ll also have some downtime between trawls. During a few of these breaks, we played cribbage, a card game that scientist Robert Levine taught me early in the cruise. We’ll also frequent the galley for midnight meals together and to finish off the last of the dessert that our awesome stewards – Danielle and Missy – prepared that day (some highlights include butter mochi, lemon meringue pie, and a zucchini chocolate cake)!

cribbage board and stacks of playing cards on a table
Cribbage Game

On a couple nights, we’ve tracked our candy consumption, competing with the day shift to see who eats more. Being a science team, we felt compelled to convert between different units, expressing our final answer in terms of portion of the bag, mass, and individual sour patch kids!

Did you know?

Because pollock behavior changes at night, the scientists on this particular cruise don’t trawl between sunset and sunrise.

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Nick Lee: The Data, July 15, 2024

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Nick Lee
Aboard NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson
June 29 – July 20, 2024

Mission: Pollock Acoustic-Trawl Survey

Geographic Area of Cruise: Eastern Bering Sea

Date: July 15, 2024

Weather Data from the Bridge:

Latitude: 59° 51.9 N

Longitude: 173° 53.5 W

Wind Speed: 11 knots

Air Temperature: 6.1° Celsius (42.9° Fahrenheit)

Science and Technology Log:

On my cruise, scientists take acoustic measurements along the length of each transect. To ensure that they are accurately estimating the abundance of pollock, they take steps to separate out any backscatter that they believe didn’t come from pollock.

Scientists then apply algorithms to the data in order to estimate pollock abundance over the entire survey area. First, they break up the transect into 0.5 nautical mile (NM) sections and record the average backscatter for that section. Specifically, scientists are interested in the areal density – the amount of backscatter per square nautical mile (NM2).

This data can be challenging to interpret, so one way the scientists represent it visually is with a stick plot over the survey area:

Stick plot showing acoustic backscatter from the 2022 pollock survey. This is a simple map of the Bering Sea, where the land of Alaska appears in gray and the water is white with some bathymetric lines. The transect lines run straight, at a slight angle on this rotated map, across the waters. Yellow bars of different sizes stick up off the transect lines at an angle.
Acoustic backscatter from the 2022 pollock survey.

In this graphic, the transect lines are shown in black, and the density of acoustic backscatter for each 0.5 NM section is represented with a yellow stick. The longer the stick, the greater the density of backscatter at that location.

Scientists then use this data to perform calculations on the entire survey area, including the space in between transects. For each 0.5 NM section of transect, the acoustic density is extrapolated halfway to the next transect on either side.

Diagram showing transect lines, and how acoustic density is applied across the survey area. Three gray vertical lines, evenly spaced, are each labeled "transect line;" dotted lines mark the distance halfway between each transect line. A smaller portion of the middle transect line is colored red instead of gray. It's labeled with a parallel double-sided arrow marking out "0.5 nautical mile." A red box the height of that red section stretches as far to the left and right as the next dotted halfway line; one side is labeled "half distance to next transect."
In this diagram, the red line represents a 0.5 NM section of transect for which acoustic density is calculated. This acoustic density is then applied to the entire pink rectangle, which extends halfway to the next to the transect on either side.

By doing this process for every 0.5 NM section of transect studied, scientists are able to calculate values of acoustic density for the entire survey area.

Map of current survey area with transect lines and boxes showing the area over which transect data is extrapolated.
Map of current survey area and transect lines (black), with boxes (purple) indicating the area over which data from each transect is extrapolated.

Getting from acoustic density to pollock abundance takes another set of calculations, this time making use of trawl data. The pollock caught in each trawl can vary drastically in terms of size – some trawls are mostly juveniles, some trawls are mostly adults, and some are an even mix of both. For a given location, scientists use data from the nearest geographic trawl to estimate the distribution of fish in that area.

Distribution of pollock centered around 20-30 cm. This is a bar chart. The x-axis displays length in centimeters (0 to 80 cm) and the y-axis displays proportion of the catch (0 to 0.125). The majority of the bars are black, but a minor portion are colored partially red, indicating proportions of identified male pollock, or blue, indicating proportions of identified of female pollock.
In some trawls, the most fish were within 20-30 cm in length (above) while in others, most fish were over 40 cm in length (below).
Distribution of pollock centered around 40-50 cm. This is a bar chart. The x-axis displays length in centimeters (0 to 80 cm) and the y-axis displays proportion of the catch (0 to 0.125). The majority of the bars are black, but a minor portion are colored partially red, indicating proportions of identified male pollock, or blue, indicating proportions of identified of female pollock.

Having trawl data is necessary to convert the acoustic data into fish abundance because small and large pollock do not reflect backscatter equally. Scientists have studied this, and they have created a relationship for the different backscatter reflected by different length pollock. Using the distribution of pollock in the nearest trawl, scientists are able to proportionally allocate the observed backscatter to pollock of different lengths.

Graph showing that as pollock length increases, acoustic backscatter also increases. The x-axis shows pollock length in centimeters (0 to 80) and the y-axis shows acoustic size in "(TS, dB re 1 m2)", ranging from -50 to -30. A blue line curves gently from the lower right corner ("small fish, weak backscatter") to the upper right corner ("large fish, strong backscatter.")
As pollock length increases, backscatter also increases. 
(Equation from Lauffenburger et al., 2023. Mining previous acoustic surveys to improve walleye pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus) target strength estimates, ICES Journal of Marine Science, Volume 80, Issue 6, August 2023, Pages 1683–1696, https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsad094)

As an example, let’s simplify the two locations sampled in the graphs above. Suppose the first location had only 20 cm pollock, the second had only 40 cm pollock, and equal backscatter was observed at both sites. Scientists know that, all else being equal, 20 cm pollock produce less backscatter than 40 cm pollock. This means that in order to reflect the same backscatter, there must be a greater number of 20 cm pollock than 40 cm pollock.

By repeating a similar process for each geographic location, scientists are able to estimate the number of pollock in the entire survey area!

Personal Log

The sailing and many of the operations of NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson are done by NOAA Corps officers. I hadn’t heard of the NOAA Corps before sailing, but I’ve since learned that they play an important role in facilitating NOAA research.

To learn more about the experience of NOAA Corps officers, I interviewed Ensign Savi Morales.

Ensign Savi Morales working with John Swenson, a member of the deck crew. Engisn Morales wears the blue every day uniform of the NOAA Corps and stands at a bank of navigational computers on the bridge. Both men gaze down at a display screen.
Ensign Savi Morales (left) on the bridge collaborating with John Swenson, a member of the deck crew.

Why did you decide to become a NOAA Corps officer?

I’ve always wanted to support the protection of the environment and mitigating climate change. After college, I was trying to figure out where I would contribute the most. I really loved being out on the water, and I had sailed plenty but I wanted to find a way to combine my interests in an environment I contribute the most. The NOAA Corps felt like it was a combination of those things.

I also loved the idea of working with the crew, engineering department, and science. I really enjoy that mixture of groups we have aboard Dyson, which makes every trip’s dynamic different. There’s also a lot of hands-on experience on the bridge deck making our 12 days packed with projects I work on. The NOAA Corps embraces a diverse skill set in order to think and act like a Swiss army knife and be a jack of all trades.

What are your responsibilities on board the ship?

My responsibilities are two 4-hour bridge watches as a Junior Officer of the Deck as I work towards becoming a fully qualified Officer of the Deck. In between my watches I work on tasks related to my responsibilities as the Dyson’s damage control officer, assistant navigation officer, and assistant public affairs officer. I track the sea service hours for our augmenting and personal crew, which they can use to upgrade their license. I maintain flags, and I do monthly safety rounds, inspecting fire extinguishers and fire stations. 

What do you enjoy the most about your work?

I enjoy meeting the characters that come to the Dyson, definitely an eclectic but fun group. I also enjoy how much they’ve thrown me into the mix and had me figure things out. It’s a little bit of a trial by fire, but I learn really quick and I’d rather learn by doing.

What part of your job with NOAA did you least expect to be doing?

Checking fire extinguishers, there’s about 100 on board and they all need to be checked monthly. It takes about 3-4 hours.

Here in the Bering Sea you hear about the big, massive waves, but it’s not always like that. The Aleutian Islands are gorgeous with lots of wildlife. I don’t think I’ve seen this many bald eagles, orcas, or puffins in my entire life. They always brighten my day.

What advice do you have for a young person interested in a career in the NOAA Corps?

NOAA Corps requires you to have a four-year college degree in order to apply. Other than that, I’d say find opportunities to go out on the water. There’s high school scholarships, there’s college scholarships. You can also volunteer if you have time. I volunteered at the UC Davis Bodega marine lab. I visited once a week just to hang out with the scientists, with the crew to see if this is what I liked. Be curious and experience things for yourself!

Did you know?

NOAA Corps is one of the country’s eight uniformed services, and its officers operate NOAA ships and aircraft around the country. After completing basic training at the US Coast Guard Academy, NOAA officers assist in fisheries research, seafloor mapping, monitoring atmospheric conditions, and may respond to natural disasters and extreme weather. Learn more at the NOAA Corps website here!

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Germaine Thomas: Fish Reproduction and Why it’s Important, August 18, 2023

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Germaine Thomas (she/her)

Aboard NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson

August 7 – August 21, 2023

Mission: Acoustic Trawl Survey (Leg 3 of 3)
Geographic Area of Cruise: Pacific Ocean/ Gulf of Alaska
Date: Friday, August 18, 2023

Weather Data
Lat 58.18 N, Lon 148.82 W
Sky condition: Partially Cloudy
Wind Speed: 10.55 knots
Wind Direction: 32.58°
Air Temp: 14 °C

Science and Technology Blog

Meet Sandi Neidetcher, she is a fish biologist investigating fish reproductive status. Why care about fish reproduction? Well, the seafood industry is extremely important to Alaska and other coastal states. And they would not have an industry if those “little fishes” could not reproduce. But the ocean is changing due to climate and different types of pollution.

Climate change is making our oceans a warmer place—just a couple of degrees, but that may be enough to really change how fish reproduce and spawn. A few degrees in temperature could change when and where fish reproduce, and then cascade to the fishing industry, the food market, and the people who depend on them as food.

NOAA wants to have background information on fish reproduction so they can recognize whether the fish have changed their reproductive strategies over time and how that could impact fisheries.

Sandi received her Masters degree studying the ovaries of Pacific cod to determine the phenology and geography, or the timing and location, of spawning. She specialized in histology, which is the study of microscopic tissue structures, for her it was specifically the ovaries. To understand the reproductive process and ovary maturation, she studies slides with ovary tissue mounted and stained to show oocyte (unfertilized egg) structures that develop as the spawning season progresses.

a collection of eight histograms presented in two columns. each histogram displays a stained (artificially colored) cross-section of a piece of ovary tissue viewed on a slide under a microscope. in each slide, the tissue ranges from red to purple, with some gray; structures appear as circles, swirls, cells, unfortunately difficult for a lay person to describe helpfully. Germaine likely includes these as a general example of Sandi's research. The slides are labeled: 1) Immature (IMM) - reserve fund, tightly packed oocytes, little tunica, thin wall. 2) No development (ND) - reserve fund, more tunica, thick wall. 3) Developing (DEV) - Cortical Alveoli. 4) Vitellogenesis (VIT) - early to late vitellogenesis, nucelar migration, coalescence. 5) Prespawning (PSWN) - VIT plus hydration. 6) Spawning (SWN) - VIT, some hydration, plus post ovulatory follicles. 7) Partial Spent (PSNT) - VIT (no coalescence or hydration) plus post ovulatory follicles. 8) Spent (SNT) - early post ovulatory follicles, residual VIT resorbing.
Examples of histograms from Sandi’s research, showing the progression of Pacific cod oocyte structure development over the course of the spawning season

Now she is involved in a study looking at the reproductive states of Walleye Pollock. Pollock are multi-batch spawners. They have the ability to spawn (lay eggs) more than once in a season. So the female ovaries can be in different stages of reproduction throughout the season.

The first step in this analysis is to collect the ovaries from the pollock.

Sandi and Robert, wearing foul weather gear and long, yellow, heavy-duty gloves, stand at a work bench in the wet lab. Sandi, closer to the camera, holds a pollock in her right hand over a white cutting board. Robert, standing ready at the fish measuring board, looks down at the pollock Sandi is holding.
Sandi Neidetcher and Robert Levine work together to collect data on a pollock.

In the photo above, the fish will be measured for length and weight, then the ovary and the liver will be removed, weighed, and saved for analysis. The fish’s ear bones (otoliths) will also be removed and used to determine its age. Samples are sent back to Sandi at NOAA AFSC (Alaska Fisheries Science Center) in Seattle, Washington. Half of the ovary will be sent to a histology lab where technicians will prep the tissues and return the sides ready to be analyzed. The other half of the ovary is scanned on the ship.

Sandi is comparing the histological samples to Raman Spectroscopy Analysis that she does aboard the Oscar Dyson. A long time ago when I was an undergraduate student in chemistry, Raman spectrometers were very large. The one I worked with in my physical chemistry class was in the basement of a building on a special concrete slab that stopped any vibrations from disturbing the path of the laser. Did I mention that the whole setup took up almost half of the basement?

view of an equipment set up in the wet lab. the spectrometer (which Germaine has labeled in this photo) sits on a table to the left of the photo. the laser wand, connected to the spectrometer by a cable, rests nearby, adjacent to a small foil-covered plate holding a little blob of pink tissue. there's also a computer monitor displaying a graph of the readings. the table is a bit cluttered, with stacks of paper, a pair of goggles, a file box, a computer mouse.
The computer displays a scan of the ovarian tissue

Raman spectrometers have come a long way since my undergrad. Today, Sandi has a small wand that contains a laser connected to a spectrometer the size of a donut box. A small desktop computer connected to the spectrometer will give an immediate readout of the analysis.

The wand with the laser is held over the ovary to collect data on large macromolecules like lipids, proteins, and DNA.

two hands steady the laser wand over a bit of pink tissue resting on a foil-covered plate (itself on some paper towels.) the wand connects by a cable to the spectrometer, visible in the background.
You can see the laser light as it penetrates the ovary.

The analysis that Sandi does is to compare the molecular composition identified through the spectral patterns with the structures seen in the histology samples, and to determine if the maturation status can be identified through the spectral patterns. The ultimate goal would be to have a small hand-held spectrometer that a scientist could use right as the ovaries are extracted. This would greatly increase the amount of ovaries analyzed quickly and efficiently and reduce the cost and time required for histological analysis

Sandi sits at a table in the wet lab, turning to smile for the camera. She is wearing a gray NOAA logoed sweatshirt. A stack of a box and a binder (and some goggles) on the right end of her table - the foreground of the photo - obscure the view of what she is working on at the moment but this is likely the same table as the previous two photos.
Sandi at her work station on the Oscar Dyson

Pollock have variability in their reproductive strategies and may be impacted by environmental conditions. One strategy is down regulation, where a fish will reabsorb a number of eggs during maturation and, as a result, reduce the resources spent on reproduction. This reduces the fecundity, or number of eggs released by that fish in a season. Knowing how fecund a fish population is helps managers determine how many fish can be removed by a fishery. Atresia is the resorption of an oocyte and can be seen histologically. Mass atresia is where a whole ovary of oocytes is be reabsorbed. If the fish is not finding enough food or the temperature is not correct then, then a female fish can save energy by reducing, or stopping the whole process of reproduction.

Recent warming sea temperatures have been seen in the Gulf of Alaska, and this may be impacting fish reproduction. In 2020, the number of Pacific cod predicted had dropped so low that the federal waters fishery was closed. That same year, crew fishing for Pacific cod reported seeing a number of Pacific cod with mass atresia. Scientists do not know if the observation of atresia, during a warming period, is related to the population crash but studies like this will give more information for the future. Predicting population crashes that may be related to climate change, fish health or temperature differences are an important part of fisheries management and impact us all because the ocean is an important resource.

Personal Blog

Crew Members in the Spotlight

Juliette and Ben cross their arms and lean toward one another slightly to pose for a photo. They are standing in front of a wooden workbench with blue shelving containing small cubbies for nuts, bolts, other supplies. Two hard hats rest on top of the blue shelves. Juliette grips ear protection with her right hand. Ben wears a NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson t-shirt.
Pictured left to right, Juliette Birkner – Engineering, and Ben Boswell – Survey Technician

The Commanding Officer runs the ship, but there are many important jobs that the Oscar Dyson would not function without. Engineering is one of them. There is a small team of Engineers aboard that are constantly monitoring the ship when on shift.

Juliette is a member of the Oscar Dyson’s Engineering department and may have been on the staff the longest. Her personality is direct, friendly and capable. Before becoming an Engineer, she attained her bachelor of science degree at the University of Washington. After receiving her degree she did not really have a clear plan for a job. So she went to a community college and received the equivalent associates degree of a Junior Unlicensed Engineer. Eventually, through NOAA, she can be a fully qualified Engineer with time aboard ships.

Juliette has a wildly creative side and interest in science. The scarf she is wearing in the picture has different layers present in sedimentary rock. She is also a big fan of dinosaurs, placing several all over the ship for people to find when work is slow. Honestly, it is the kind of humor that keeps everyone moving around with a smile. Some dinosaurs even have sweaters that she knitted, in her down time. Her knitting is extremely impressive.

A stormtrooper figurine, riding a Tyrannosaurus Rex figurine, suspended from twine in front of a computer screen
a plastic dinosaur wearing a pink and blue knitted sweater, propped up on a metal surface against a wall

Ben is the Survey Technician for the ship. Survey Technician is the kind of job you would never know exists as a high school student. There are jobs out there in this world that people would never specifically train for in high school or college , but are highly needed where you have different groups collaborating in complex situations. Ben’s job description is a pretty long list; calibrate scientific instruments, collect data, assist scientists, help the deck crew, and act as a liaison between science and the deck crew.

How did he arrive at this position? He attained a bachelor of science in Wildlife Biology and worked in the field for a while. Unfortunately, he found the job hard to make a living with the low pay. Fishing’s siren song came in the form of factory trawling and other crew positions in smaller boats. Because of his academic training and work experience the “perfect storm” of a Survey Technician was born.

Soon we will be taking our last trawl sample and heading to port in Kodiak. There have been moments on the cruise where time crawled in the dead of night while I was struggling to stay awake. Mostly, it has been a trip of a lifetime, with an incredibly capable and adaptive team of scientists and crew members willing to share stories that keep you awake and lull you to sleep, dreaming about tomorrow.

panoramic view over the bow of NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson, from the flying bridge (the top most level); it's a beautiful day, with blue skies and wispy clouds
The view from the Oscar Dyson’s fly bridge