Field Work Galore!

The interns have really gotten into the swing of things these last couple weeks! They have spent most of their time outside in the field with researchers from near and far, learning about the ecosystems on the Reservation and beyond and how they are studied.

Zoe Lewis, a master’s candidate at Western Washington University, traveled out here from Bellingham to teach the interns all about scat! They went out to the local sea lion haulout to try to find samples and then returned to the office to practice processing scat samples and identifying prey remains from them. In the process she taught them all about diet studies and how they help us better understand ecosystem relationships.

Next up the interns spent the day with the Wildlife department, setting traps for fishers and checking cameras. They got to hear stories from our wildlife biologist Katie about encounters with bears and cougars, and they also learned about the role that monitoring plays in resource management.

One morning, the interns arrived at the crack of dawn to start surveying for olive snails with the marine ecology crew. They threw hula hoops down the beach to select random survey plots, then dug around to count the number of snails present in each area. The morning was misty and a little cold, but the interns found tons of snails – up to 300+ in a single hoop! The second morning of olive snail surveys focused on a different methodology to target the size distribution of snails down the beach. The interns worked hard to find and measure hundreds of snails at increments along a transect line. For Aunjraya, the reward is especially sweet – she will be using this data to inform her independent research project!

A visit from Pete Gaube from UW APL and Tommy Moore from NWIFC brought some tagging activities and oceanography knowledge. Pete shared some exciting stories of tagging fish on the high seas to better understand their movement patterns. The interns even got to practice finding a tag using a radio receiver!

Zach Randell from the Seattle Aquarium came for a two-day extravaganza on kelp forests, urchins, and ROVs. After introducing the interns to some foundational ecology concepts, kelp forest dynamics, and survey methods, he took them into the field to run his fancy ROV! Together they spied on rockfish and compared healthy kelp forest to urchin barren. Back in the office, they reviewed the footage and practiced processing imagery using VIAME.

The interns spent a full day with Travis checking tidbits in the local rivers. Travis showed them some of the temperature logger data they were collecting and talked about the annual temperature cycles in the rivers and what causes them. They also spent some time clearing trails and roads to ensure future access to each temperature logger site.

They spent two full days out on the boat with Jon and the marine mammal program to monitor whales, seals, and sea lions in the area. One day was spent in the Strait of Juan de Fuca searching for whales and then fishing for salmon to collect data for Seactis’ project. They each got to bring fresh salmon fillets home to eat with their families that night – yum!

The second boat day was spent along the ocean side of the U&A, where they saw a gray whale, three humpbacks, sea lion pups, and many otters and porpoises. They also used the plankton net to collect samples of mysid shrimp to monitor gray whale foraging. The weather was sunny and calm and they all did a great job staying on task for a very long field day.

This past week, the interns have been digging into their independent research projects and spending less time in the field. Despite that, they still managed to spend an afternoon helping free a weir at the hatchery that was buried during high water flows this winter using rakes and a fire hose! They also spent a morning with Ole Shelton and Jameal Samhouri from the Northwest Fishery Science Center and Katie Wrubel and Jenny Waddell from the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary learning about scuba equipment, dive surveys and procedures, and rockfish recruitment dynamics!

A big thanks to all our amazing visiting researchers!