NOVEMBER 2023

Jasper's Blog

Jasper McCutcheon, undergraduate student

1 November 2023

Hi again,

It’s been a crazy month since my last blog with my classes keeping me more than busy. So far, I am enjoying taking higher level biology courses, although they are more work. During my free time, I’ve been working on creating an outline for my independent project with the help of Dr. Acevedo-Gutierrez. While I have a rough idea of what questions I’m going to explore and some supporting sources for explaining the motivation behind the study I still have a long way to go. I have also been considering the addition of another research question to my project along the lines of: does the in-air noise level impact the frequency of occurrence for certain behaviors of harbor seals? To address this question, I would need to have the research assistants collect more specific behavioral data on the harbor seals during their observations than we normally do. This means that before we can ask my new question, I will need to create some additional procedures to add to the observation. It is my hope that I will have some time to work on this soon, so that I can determine the feasibility of addressing my proposed question.

Stay tuned for next month and I will hopefully have some updates on all this
Jasper

Maya's Blog

Maya Mijares, undergraduate student

1 November 2023

Hi folks!

This month has been filled with lots of observations and, because of the salmon run in Whatcom Creek right now, TONS of seals! I was relieved that on one of my very first observations, we spotted individual 0039 (affectionately known as “goggles”), who is one of the seals that the lab sees most frequently. 0039 has been around for a long time, so it was exciting to see that they came back this year!

In addition to observations, I have also been working alongside Alex and Isabel to secure funding for our mtDNA project. To do this, Isabel and I are applying to the Research and Sponsored Programs (RSP) grant, as well as a Marine and Coastal Science (MACS) specific funding source. Ideally, we will get enough money to be able to sequence all 210 samples that Alex collected, but will find out in a few months the amount of money that we are being awarded. We are submitting the RSP proposal today and will submit the MACS proposal in a few days. Wish us luck!!

Through writing a proposal for this project, I have learned so much about both mtDNA and DNA sequencing, as well as information about the history of harbor seals in the Salish Sea. We have decided to direct our research to answer the question “Will tissue samples from female harbor seals that are collected in close proximity to each other show more genetic similarities than those collected from areas that are geographically distant?”. By collecting data about the genetic population structure of harbor seals in the Salish Sea, we aim to assist with decisions about population and habitat management

So far, this quarter has been very busy, but also very fun! I am looking forward to more observations and learning more about harbor seal mtDNA!!

Maya Mijares

One of my favorite photos of 0039 eating a salmon (10/07 observation). Photo by MMEL.

Isabel's Blog

Isabel Shier, undergraduate student

1 November 2023

Hi everyone!

My name is Isabel, and I’m excited to start posting these research blogs! I’m entering into my last year at Western as a Biology major with an Evolution, Ecology & Organismal Biology emphasis. I joined MMEL last spring, and even though I’ve only been in this lab for a quarter, it’s already been a life-changing experience! I’m so grateful for all the ways I’ve gotten to contribute to this lab.

My summer was amazing! I got to spend a good portion of it doing DNA extractions and going on subsampling trips for Alexandrea Otto’s thesis work. I’d never gotten the chance to do much lab work before, and DNA extractions were such a cool foray into that world. On the more fieldwork side of things was subsampling, which was an amazing experience as well! It involved trips to the WDFW office in Tacoma to search through giant freezers for pre-sampled seal tissue. Once we found the right samples, we would cut off our subsamples and put the main samples back. I will say it's not for the faint of heart or queasy of stomach– but if you’re not bothered by dismembered seal parts, or are a weirdo like me and think they’re fascinating– then it’s a blast! I’ve definitely noticed that my tolerance for gross things has gone way up since then though, which has been helpful in dealing with the everyday disgusting things that happen, like finding bugs in my apartment.

As for this quarter, I’m so excited to be working on this research project with Maya Mijares! We’re working closely with Alex, using harbor seal mitochondrial DNA to better understand genetic population structure in the Salish Sea, as an offshoot of Alex’s thesis work. One really cool thing is that Maya and I are going to be using Alex’s DNA extracts for this project– including the ones that I extracted this summer! It’s so satisfying when everything comes full circle like that.

Fall quarter is the planning/setup stage of this project. The big thing we’ve been working on is an RSP grant application to fund our work. It’s been a tight turnaround, but I’m so impressed with what our team has been able to pull together in such a relatively short amount of time.

It’s been such a delight to work with such brilliant and lovely people! Thanks so much to Maya, Alex, Vic, Alejandro, and Dietmar!

Till next time,
Isabel Shier

Kameran's Blog

Kameran Rodriguez, undergraduate student

1 November 2023

Hi everyone!

I hope everyone had a Spooky Halloween! The month of October has been a very busy time for me. The lab is fully up and running with lots of observations which means lot of photo work! It's exciting to see some of the researchers I've trained in photo ID start to get really into it and start to recognize the seals in one glance. Now that I have just finished wrapping up midterms and my job with Department of Fish and Wildlife season has ended, I'm excited to be able to get back to work on IDing the seals and going out on more observations. A couple weeks ago Alex, Vic, some of the MMEL researchers and I were able to go out on the Western boat and travel around the San Juan Islands with our Marine Mammals class and look for Pinnipeds. It was a fun day to be able to go out with everyone and cruise around the islands and see the marine life. It was a much-needed relaxing day! Here is a fun picture of us on the boat!

Boat trip with part of the Marine Mammals class. Photo by D. Smith.

November is here which means graduation is up and coming soon for me. It's a crazy thing to think about after all this time I'm so close to graduating. Maya and I are starting to look into the future for the lab not only after this quarter when I am gone but also for the following school year and starting to plan out our next steps for training the next group of people.

Update on my individual project it looks like I have all my data for my data processing we are just working on getting the details ready for me to hopefully start writing soon!

Till next time,
Kameran

Victoria's Blog

Victoria Vinecke, graduate student

1 November 2023

Hi all!

Happy fall! It is definitely starting to feel like autumn in Bellingham with leaves changing color, crisp cool air, and the return of harbor seals at Whatcom Creek! The Chinook salmon run peaked in early October and the frequency of seals present at the creek increased. The Chinook run has come to an end, but the Chum salmon run should be starting up in the next week or two! With that in mind, I theorize there will be a drastic increase in seal activity due to the increased foraging opportunities.

eDNA sampling is in full swing and the first sampling day was a huge success! Last year I was able to get nine samples from the entire field season. This year we already have four samples, and it is only the beginning of the field season! I am ecstatic with this success and hope the rest of the field season provides lots of sampling opportunities! So again, wish me luck!

October was quite full of activities but two really stood out to me. The first one was the opportunity to join Dr. Alejandro Acevedo-Gutiérrez marine mammals class on their field trip. In which we road around on a boat throughout the San Juan Islands to look for marine mammals! We saw harbor seals, sea lions, and even a harbor porpoise! It was an amazing experience being able to connect with others through our love of marine mammals. Below is a photo of MMEL members enjoying our time on the boat!

MMEL Members on the boat: Fauna. Photo by D. Smith.

The second activity that really stood out was carving the pumpkin with the MMEL members to submit to the biology pumpkin carving contest! Lots of collaboration went into coming up with the design and carving the pumpkin. Moments like these I will cherish for years to come! The winner has yet to be announced but I believe we have a strong chance of winning! Those are the main updates for this month!

Till next time,
Victoria

Alexandrea's Blog

Alexandrea Otto, graduate student

1 November 2023

Hello,

Hope everyone had a spook-tacular Halloween! This past and first month of the fall quarter has been packed full of things so far! Since my last blog post, we have gotten our data back from the last GT-Seq optimization run. I am currently running the optimization script pipeline now and hope to see which primers played well with each other and found good information in order to keep those good primers in the next run. The plan is to get the new primers mixed up and have a short turn around back to the WDFW Genetics Lab in order to finish (hopefully) the last optimization run before the panel is complete and ready to sequence all samples!

In addition to my project, I’ve started collaborating with Maya and Isabel on their combined independent project, which will be a related project to my own! They will be investigating the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) side of things within my same samples in hopes to strengthen any findings over gene flow and movement! It has been fun so far seeing them attack their project already with such interest and joy while also helping them in their process of writing a proposal to submit for their own potential funding. Fingers crossed, Maya and Isabel! At the same time, Victoria has entered back into field work and I had the chance to help her out again. Witnessing Victoria out on the water of Whatcom Creek in a kayak and filtering water for eDNA, never gets old! So far Victoria has already gotten many samples this season. It is a very cool and appreciative moment to repay the favor in helping Victoria in her field work, as she helped me collected so many of my own samples this past summer. The collaboration and support in our lab (and in the scientific community in general) is a very cool component of research that I’m happy to experience and participate in!

The lab has been extra busy it outreach events this past month as well! We were fortunate enough to help in an opportunity at Whatcom Creek with the local nonprofit organization of Northwest Bikes to set up an informal event about the research being done in the lab. We spoke to over twenty bikers and were even able to bring some lab/educational materials out to help explain our work (including the important lab stickers!). The event was very uplifting and motivating to share our interests with others in the community and see them get excited over the same work and research! In perfect timing, even some seals made some guest appearances in the creek for the group to say hi to! In addition to this, the lab also participated in some festivities of the Biology Department as we submitted a pumpkin into a carving contest. A bunch of the MMEL members, Victoria, and myself carved the lab logo into a pumpkin for our contest submission. It was a nice study break from midterms for everyone while at the same time a fulfilling bonding experience between lab members! It was super neat to see people’s artistic and creative side as scientists come out!

Till next month,
Alexandrea

Victoria and Jasper next to our educational outreach table set-up patiently waiting in excitement for the bikers to come through! Photo by A. Otto.

The grand reveal of our carved pumpkin submission as the MMEL! The title of our work is “Seals and Salmon” which is only fitting for our lab and research! Photo by A. Otto.