FEBRUARY 2023
Holland's Blog
Holland Conwell, undergraduate student
1 February 2023
It’s been such a busy start to the quarter! I find it hilarious looking back on last month’s blog post where I said, and I quote, “my course load looks much better now” with a “cushier schedule”. Comedy gold. This last month, I’ve been readjusting to the workload that comes along with an upper-level molecular biology lab. While I’m excited to be learning some more bread-and-butter lab techniques, I definitely have my hands full this quarter! So far this quarter, I’ve also been learning the ins and outs of being an undergraduate teaching assistant for Biology 204, and I’m really enjoying it so far.
Aside from my classes, I’ve been diving deeper into the discussion section of my manuscript. I finished up an outline of the discussion and decided how I wanted it to flow. Before I started writing, I also wanted to gather my sources and really flesh out my discussion outline, but I initially had lots of trouble finding a resource that could inform me on haul-out proximity to different Pacific salmon runs in both Washington and British Columbia. After lots of asking around and searching, I luckily ended up finding this information on ArcGIS hub, which led me to some cool maps made by WDFW. With this resource, I was finally able to connect the dots between sex ratios at each haul-out site, male and female diet at these sites, salmon runs and timing, and diet trends relating to geography. It was super satisfying to put this puzzle together, and my next step is to organize this information into a written discussion!
Other than working on writing, I’ve been hard at work with the other lab managers putting together hiring materials and preparing for next quarter. Each of our projects will have some open positions for the spring, so we decided to work together and do lab-wide hiring instead of hiring for our separate projects. So far, we have a timeline put together, our flier is now circulating throughout BIO/ESCI/MACS, and we have applications flooding in. It’s wonderful to see so much interest in our lab’s research, and I’m excited to see what this next month brings!
Madison's Blog
Madison Gard, undergraduate student
1 February 2023
Winter Quarter is notorious for being a challenging time - and so far, this year it has lived up to its reputation. Aside from the winter blues, I had a couple of family emergencies this month and made an unexpected trip home to be with loved ones over MLK weekend. Fortunately, my professors were understanding and granted me extensions for assignments while I took some personal time to process. As the month is coming to a close, I feel as though I’ve caught up and settled into my classes for the quarter.
I’m currently enrolled in two Spanish courses, Survey of Latin American Literature and Spanish Conversations. Starting every morning with a Spanish lecture/discussion class has already made a big difference in my abilities to speak and listen in the language. I’ve even noticed myself thinking in Spanish occasionally, as opposed to English, which is exciting! In the College of the Environment, I am enrolled in the Habitat and Ecology of Pacific Salmon and Trout class with Dr. James Helfield along with a field practicum in Fish Habitat Assessment with Dr. Leo Bodensteiner. We went out to Padden Creek on Tuesday to measure the creek’s discharge and conduct pebble counts, which was a lot of fun even though I accidentally filled the right side of my waders with water by stepping too far into a deeper portion of the creek, lol.
In the lab, Bri and I have settled into a good routine with co-managing the Whatcom Creek project. To kick-off the quarter, we hosted a safety meeting to update all of the research assistants on the new protocols, as well as offered a de-escalation training meeting with Sergeant Wolf Lipson from WWU PD. Unfortunately, there was another safety incident involving the same individual that harassed our research assistants on Dec. 8, as he returned on Sunday, Jan. 22. Luckily, the Bellingham Police responded quickly, and we have reached out to other resources on campus to once-again reassess safety protocols moving forward.
The lab managers, Vic, Alex, Holland, Bri, and I, are beginning to receive applications for new research assistants from students interested in joining the Marine Mammal Ecology Lab. I’m really looking forward to getting to know everyone in the interview process and hiring some new lab members! We’ll definitely need their help this spring around the time of the hatchery’s smolt release and on all of the other ongoing MMEL projects.
This February, I have the goal of submitting my paperwork to be approved for my Senior Thesis project through the Honors College. I’m hoping to conduct concentrated observations before, during, and after the hatchery smolt release in Whatcom Creek to determine whether there is an increase of seal activity during that time. I also hope to finish a complete draft of the qPCR Manuscript to begin the editing and publishing process. Hopefully this next month brings better weather and better vibes than what January graced us with!
Victoria's Blog
Victoria Vinecke, graduate student
1 February 2023
Happy February!
It has been quite a busy January with having to get back into the swing of graduate school. I had the opportunity to tag along with the other graduate student Alexandrea to help subsample seal tissue for her project. It was really fun to see the WDFW Tacoma office location and meet some WDFW employees. I also enjoyed spending time with Alexandrea and helping out with her project!
This quarter I am taking a multivariate statistical class which I am enjoying quite a bit! I have worked with a couple of really interesting data sets. For example, as a class we analyzed the differences in multiple prehistoric dog breeds skull shapes.
Besides taking classes, I am still TAing BIOL 206 (Organismal Biology) and continuing with my research. Speaking of research, I am pleased to announce that I have completed extracting all my eDNA samples from 2022 field season and have moved onto qPCR! This week I plan to wrap up the first draft of my thesis proposal and continue with qPCR. My goal for February is to continue working on my samples and hopefully get my thesis proposal approved!
eDNA sample extraction. Photo by A. Otto.
See you in March!
Victoria
Alexandrea's Blog
Alexandrea Otto, graduate student
1 February 2023
Hey there,
So many exciting advancements have taken place this last month, but at the same time I’m just trying to stay on top of all the moving parts as well! Started the quarter with some lab work, helping Erin mix primers for genotyping-in-the-thousands sequencing and helping Victoria extract environmental DNA for her thesis project’s water samples. I’m excited to soon be extracting samples myself hopefully! On that note, there is great news! My letter of parts authorization for seal tissue was approved by NOAA! This is very exciting as now I am able to subsample tissue samples from collaborating marine mammal stranding network partners and transport the tissues back to Western for DNA extraction.
Just recently I’ve had the opportunity to travel to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Marine Mammal Investigations office in Tacoma, WA to subsample seal tissues. My past field experiences have varied but never once have I had the opportunity maintain a sterile field and subsample blubber for skin tissue. I’ve helped many graduate students collect data for their own masters’ projects over the years, but it was especially thrilling and surreal to be collecting my own data finally! Shout-out to Victoria and Bri, one of our current MMEL lab managers, for making the trip down with me and helping alongside! It was great meeting everyone within the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife office as well! More trips across Washington to follow hopefully.
Subsampling a harbor seal blubber sample for skin tissue. Photo by V. Vinecke.
At the same time of exciting lab and “field” work, I am sharpening my writing skills within forms and my proposal. Currently, I have gotten my first proposal draft out of the way but as in any writing process, I’m on to the next draft! I hope to be applying for funding within this next month as well. Full transparency, scientific writing has always been a skill I’ve consistently had to work on and one I will continue to work on the rest of my career. Writing and getting ideas on paper in a coherent string of thoughts can be hard! Luckily, I’m glad for the opportunity to grow in my writing capabilities and have the feedback and support from my advisors and peers! Things are moving fast in graduate school so far, but I hope to have a lot more wrapped up by the next time!
Till then,
Alexandrea
Brianna's Blog
Brianna Hull, undergraduate student
1 February 2023
This is my first blog post through Alejandro, I am not sure what to write so lets just see how my quarter has been going thus far. I started my final quarter here at WWU this January and my one class indigenous resource management of the Salish Sea, is going good so far, I have my midterm this weeks so I am stressed and prepping for that. We have gone on a few fun field trips to harvest Garry Oak acorns in Oak Harbor, WA, along with harvesting Camas bulbs right in the backyard of the ESCI building at WWU. I am fascinated with the content in the class as it educates me on the native tribes here and what practices they used to harvest and where I can still harvest these native species. It is fun stuff!
This is my first quarter as the manager of the MMEL lab and it has been a difficult quarter. I have found managing the same tasks as previous managers would to be quite simple and straightforward but, there has been an increase in shady characters around the creek where we observe, and it has been impacting the lab greatly. Maddie, my co-manager and I have been finding it difficult to manage safety for our team at the creek when the safety can really be out of our hands, we can take every precaution necessary without canceling observations all together and the people still come. This I have noticed takes a toll on the mental health of the students as they feel less safe on these observations that I find we would really enjoy. It has been a heavy burden to bear but I believe Maddie and I are managing it to the best of our ability. We have implemented the managers be on every observation to support the students and mitigate any issues a stranger could pose, we have been keeping the Bellingham police and WWU police in the loop for all incidents, and a few more things. The hard part is I do not see safety improving until the police force in Bellingham gets more workers and in todays world I notice that is quite difficult.
Moving onto a brighter topic I had an awesome experience with Alex Otto, a graduate student in the lab who is looking at seal DNA. I went down with her last week Wednesday to Tacoma, WA to the fish and wildlife center to sub-sample the seal skin. I will spare the gory details but it was not a pretty process. I did really enjoy it overall as it was good experience for me and Alex is such a lovely person so I enjoyed the time spent with her most of all. We will be going down south a few more times to sample so I am really looking forward to it! I have attached a photo of me using a scalpel to cut a small part of the seal skin off.
This quarter is off to an overall good start and I hope things begin to improve as the quarter progresses.
Here’s to February and I’ll see you in March! ~ Bri