Each week we’ll try to introduce you to some nifty resource for learning about science and the ocean, whether fundamental or just plain fun. At MLML, our multi-talented students are puppetry and singing pros. Apparently theatre arts and science are not as uncommon a pairing as you might think – enjoy the singing and puppetry exploits of students at UC Berkeley:
On this, the national day of overeating, I thought I would kick off our new featured photo segment with an example of a stuffed gullet from the animal world. For my thesis studying what gopher rockfish eat, I’ve cut open a lot of fish (somewhere in the ballpark of 700, and finally as of this week there are no more fish in my freezer! Woohoo!). Every now and again I’ll see something surprising or out of the ordinary – but none so much as this one.
To give you some perspective, most gopher rockfish stomachs that are empty or have a bit a food are the size of my thumb. The one pictured above was closer to the size of my fist. I’ll put it this way – their stomach lining is some kind of fantastic elastic. What floors me is that this little porker was caught with hook and line, meaning after all that eating, it still went for some bait. But I guess when that pie comes around at the end of tonight, I’ll probably be able to relate.
Just what kind of food does a gopher rockfish pack in at such staggering volumes? Stay tuned to find out!
Snails living on and around hydrothermal chimneys in complete darkness provide excellent material for startling scientific discoveries (Photo taken by ROV Jason II, Dr. Charles Fisher, Chief Scientist) Kyle Reynolds
Can you imagine being pregnant in your foot? That’s just one of the fascinating things I discovered about the snail species I studied for my thesis. I studied animals at hydrothermal vents (seafloor volcanoes) and the adaptations they’ve made that help them cope with their harsh environments. Specifically, I looked at two species of snails that live about 1.5 miles deep in the southwestern Pacific at a hydrothermal vent system near Tonga and Fiji.
These snails get as big as softballs when full-grown and have evolved many ways to deal with life in a chemically toxic volcanic world. My thesis focused mainly on reproductive adaptations, and I was able to find many of those. Not only have they wrapped their larvae in protective coatings, they also house them for a short time in a pouch in their foot! Like I said – pregnant in your foot!
Hangin' at the vent: These black snails and a variety of neighbors make a living in a harsh environment (Photo taken by ROV Jason II, Dr. Charles Fisher, Chief Scientist)
This research was challenging on many levels. First, since I was studying something so far away from California and so deep in the ocean, I had only one chance to get the samples I needed and there was no guarantee they would be reproductively mature. With the expense of the research vessel, the submersible robot needed to collect samples at that depth, and the many crew members needed to run everything, these types of expeditions are much too costly to repeat. So I had one shot to get it right!
Also, I was studying animals that had very little previous research done on them (in fact, no one had ever studied their reproductive systems before) so I had very little guidance and often had no clue what I was doing! It took many visits with experts in many fields before I was able to piece the clues together and see the true picture of the bizarre mechanisms these animals were using to give their babies the best chance at survival.
For me, it was the challenge of this research that was most rewarding in the end. There is nothing like being the first person in the world to discover something! That’s what science is all about. More details to come on all of the crazy adaptations we found in these alien snails…
All you science educators out there, get your browsers ready! The National Institutes of Health have unleashed a learning tool so powerful, it actually speaks:
If a talking glossary could take over the world, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing – at least we’d have one gene-savvy populace.
What sets this site apart from your workaday genetic glossaries is the use of audio snippets from medical and science-y people. And no, they don’t just reiterate the definition that you can read yourself like some kind of brain-numbing driver’s ed – they are actually pretty engaging! Hearing Dr. Francis Collins, the NIH director, discuss genetic discrimination makes me feel like I’m eavesdropping on a cocktail party of the white-coated elite (probably the closest I will ever get to doing so…).
Some of the words also come with an illustration or nifty 3D animation (type in “gene” to see an example). And if you click the button that says “Test your gene knowledge,” you can choose a quiz containing genetic terms you may hear in the classroom or in the news.
Best of all, in this ichthyologist’s humble opinion, is the link to the aquatic world. The one entry listed under “Z”? Zebrafish.
This site is the newest addition to our Teacher’s Corner page, prompting the creation of a “genetics” subheading. Check it out!
Long hours in a tiny, dark windowless room looking through a microscope – yes, this is very much a part of a marine biologist’s job description. Not really the fun and exciting part, but this type of data collection is very, very important. For my thesis and additional projects, I spent well over 100 hours (probably closer to 200!) in the microscope room. In order to estimate the age of a skate, you need to examine its vertebrae and count the number of bands. In order to get a ‘good’ estimate of the growth of a fish over time, you must examine many vertebrae from fish at all different sizes.
Shaara holds her thesis species, the Bering skate
The microscope is necessary, since the largest vertebrae are about the size of the eraser on top of a pencil, and the smallest vertebrae can be as small as 1/10 of an inch in diameter! The biggest challenge I have experienced was trying to locate a little white vertebra that I accidentally dropped on the white linoleum lab floor. For the record – the vertebra was located!
However, studying skates can have its perks – the most interesting aspect of my work was spending time on the Alaska Department of Fish and Game boat the RV Resolution. I really enjoyed spending each day sorting through fish and seeing what we found on the bottom of the sea. It was an opportunity to meet interesting people who have spent their lives working on boats. The views of the Alaskan coast were astounding. I was completely spoiled by the breathtaking scenery and photos just can’t do it justice. While the days were long, and the work was not easy, I would do it all again if I could. We also had access to a whole variety of candy and ice cream, so I think that helped us stay on track and work hard…
The beautiful Alaskan coastline (if you squint, it even looks like somewhere warm!) - not a bad place to be out fishing. (photo: S. Ainsley)
Count them bands - looking at a vertabra from a skate's backbone gives clues about its age
Congrats to Shaara Ainsley of the ichthyology lab who recently defended her thesis and joined the ranks of many other recent MLML grads! Here Shaara shares a bit about her research, and addresses that all-important question: what does it mean to “age” a skate? (aka a flat shark…)
For my thesis, I studied the life history characteristics of a skate from Alaska, Bathyraja interrupta, commonly known as the Bering skate. Knowing the life history of a species of fish is important because fisheries managers use the information to determine whether a fish is vulnerable to overexploitation, or can be fished at a certain level to maintain a healthy population.
So what are “life history parameters,” and how do we study them? From a fisheries management perspective, it is important to know how long the fish lives, how big the fish can get, how many offspring the fish can have, and how often it can reproduce. Estimating the age of an individual fish is at the heart of a life history study. In fisheries biology lingo, this is called “ageing” a fish. Ageing (spelled with the “e”) does not mean that we make the fish older, nor does it mean that we set it aside for a few years like a fine wine! It means that we are looking at structures in the body of a fish that can give us clues about how long the fish has been alive.
Size matters - getting the samples of the smallest/youngest individuals is important for an age-and-growth study
Just like trees, fishes deposit rings or “bands” in their bones. Specifically in boney fishes, such as a rockfish, you can look at the ear bone (or “otolith”) and count the bands to estimate the age. In sharks, skates and rays, which are cartilaginous and do not have boney structures, we can count the bands deposited on their vertebrae. There are many additional aspects of a fish’s life history that are important to management, however the majority of my research has focused on the age and growth of skates. Through my research, I have estimated that the Bering skate can live to at least 22 years old, which is an average life span compared with other skate species.
What is the hardest part about studying how old these skates get? Stay tuned to find out!
Your $10 could solve science illiteracy! OK, it would at least be a step in the right direction. Why? Because $10 (and change) will pay for one subscription to Current Science magazine for Mrs. L’s class in Michigan. “Breaking Science News” is the last project we need to fund to wrap up the Ocean Bloggers Ocean in the Classroom Initiative! The project only needs $177 more to bring exciting, current science to the hands of low-income students. Your $10 may just seem like a drop in the bucket, but the great thing about $10 is that you probably won’t miss it. In fact, Dr. M at the Deep Sea News is so sure you can spare $10 that bad things will happen otherwise.
Put fun science in the hands of kids! Donate today!
Still not convinced? Well here’s my “Let me tell you why I gave $10” spiel. I gave $10 to this project simply because I think communicating science is just as important as doing science itself. We won’t be able to keep doing all the cool research we do if the population at large doesn’t understand why it’s important, or why they should care (or fund us).
Getting my hands on a similar type of current events glossy when I was in 6th grade was one of those world-expanding events that totally turned me on to learning. Help make science tangible, relevant and fun for these kids in Michigan by showing them it’s part of their world!
OK, that’s my soap box. Bottom line: even penny-pinching grad students can spare $10 for a worthy cause. The Ocean Bloggers in The Classroom Initiative has been a smashing success so far, with 7 out of 8 great projects fully funded already (chest waders, coral reef flip-books, a salt water invert tank, and more)! We are just $177 short. So drop in and drop that $10, $20 or $200 today and make a difference!
…Our research cruise on the Gold Rush got off to a bumpy start. We were delayed in leaving Dutch Harbor after working to attach the acoustic equipment, rig up our nets, and wire our electronic devices into the ship’s circuitry. All this had to be done before hitting the seas to gather any data, but it was tough to know that the clock was ticking.
So, we were impatient when we heard that the ocean would be rough, and we decided to motor out anyway and get going on our course. As it turned out, we probably should have stayed in port, gone for beers and a hotel room, and waited for the water to calm down; We did not collect much usable data during that first 72 hours anyway!
A good sign of our impending experience was the ship’s barometer. Keep in mind that anything under 29.92 is considered, on average, a “low” pressure event, and is likely associated with stormy weather…
Photo: C. Waluk
The waves and wind slammed us as soon as we rounded the last point of land and pushed into the open Bering Sea waters. The ship pitched and plunged, leaving us weightless, even as we braced and grabbed with our hands. Everything that was not bolted or strapped down began to slip, slide, and slam every which way. The Gold Rush turned into the storm, facing torrents of spray and heaving mountains of slate gray water.
Photo: N. Jones
Up and up we would rise, pushing through choppy, liquid cornice crests, only to plunge steeply into dark troughs.
The height of the ship's rail is approx. 15' above waterline...
Even the captain, Bert Ashely, who has 30 years’ fishing experience in the Bering Sea, marveled at how unseasonably rough these waters were: seas of perhaps 12-18’, and winds a sustained 40+ knots.
Photo: N. JonesPhoto: N. JonesBlog entry: Nate Jones
The coral Montastrea spawning. Orange bundles of sperm and eggs are released within a few minutes of each other all over the reef. (Photo: Edgardo Ochoa)Shelby Boyer
by Shelby Boyer, Invertebrate Zoology Lab
Timing is everything when it comes to coral spawning – spawning occurs once a year and is when corals synchronize the release of bundles of eggs and sperm into the water. In one of my first weeks in Panama, I was invited to help two coral researchers, Dr. Nancy Knowlton and Dr. Don Levitan, with an experiment on coral spawning.
Dr. Knowlton and Dr. Levitan have been studying a reef on the Caribbean side of Panama for eight years and have found that the colonies will spawn within minutes of the exact same time every year. By releasing their eggs and sperm at the same time, coral gametes have a good chance of coming in contact with one another for successful fertilization. Different species spawn at different times so that they have the best chance of only encountering eggs and sperm that they are compatible with.
To study this phenomenon, I went with a group of about 8 researchers, both professors and graduate students. We hopped on boats just before sunset and headed out to our field site at in island about a mile off of the coast of Panama. The spawning occurs at night so special preparations were necessary for us to dive in the dark and see them. All of the divers had flashlights but these only help you see a short distance. Before dark we got in the water and set up a line of glowsticks underwater so that we would be able to orient ourselves in the dark. From the boat it looked like an underwater rave!
When the time drew near, we all donned our scuba gear and each went to a section of the reef where we watched for the spawning. For the first 20 minutes or so, we just waited…..and waited….and waited….
Soon, I started to notice some of the coral polyps getting swollen on top and some of the bundles showing through the mouth of the coral. This is called the setting phase. Within 5-10 minutes of setting, the colonies released all of their eggs at the same time in a big sheet. The little yellow bundles floated slowly to the surface where they would pop open to release the eggs and sperm in a big gamete soup! At the same time that the corals started to release the bundles, other activities started on the reef. Worms, seastars, fishes and other organisms appeared and took advantage of an easy, slowly floating meal. I even felt little nibbles on my hands (nothing painful or that broke the skin) from so many hungry predators in the water. The presence of all these predators could be another reason for synchronous spawning: if you put thousands of bundles in the water at the same time, there are just too many for predators to eat.
Shelby collecting corals in style!
It was a really exciting opportunity for me to accompany these researchers and I learned so much about coral spawning myself. I was able to make really positive connections with the professors and other graduate students that I will most likely see again as I continue my career as a coral researcher. Stay tuned over the next few months for updates on my own work.
by Amanda Kahn, Invertebrate Zoology and Molecular Ecology Lab
A major part of science is collaboration, because some projects require more effort, resources, or people than one lab can handle. Collaborating allows us to tackle bigger projects and tasks than what would otherwise be possible. The folks at Deep Sea News organized a collaboration with many other marine science blogs to sponsor support of K-12 marine science education. Deep Sea News, the Drop-In, Southern Fried Science, Blogfish, Oyster’s Garter, Echinoblog, Cephalopodcast, The New Blue, The Right Blue, Natural Patriot, and Malaria, Bedbugs, Sealice, and Sunsets have all banded together to support Donors Choose, a website that allows teachers to ask donors to fund special projects for their classes. We worked together and chose some of the marine science projects most in need, and now we’d like to collaborate with you to get those projects funded! Check out the list of projects here: Ocean Bloggers Oceans in the Classroom Initiative.
