OCTOBER 2023
Maya's Blog
Maya Mijares, undergraduate student
1 October 2023
Hi everybody!
My name is Maya Mijares! This is the start of my senior year at Western, and my first quarter as a lab manager for the Whatcom Creek project! I am a Marine and Coastal Science major with a Biology minor and I am a part of Western’s Honors College. I am originally from the landlocked state of Colorado, but have always been fascinated with the ocean and marine organisms, so being a member of this lab for the past year has been such an incredible opportunity!
For the past week or so, Kameran (the other lab manager) and I have been working to get the ball rolling on fall observations. We are meeting with the field leads this week to get the protocols finalized so that everyone is prepared for observations to start next Wednesday, October 4th. I have heard that there are a TON of salmon in Whatcom Creek right now, so I am hopeful for a pretty busy fall observation season, and am eager to get in the field and start collecting some data!
In addition to preparing for observations to begin, I also have been finalizing some ideas for my independent research project. Isabel Sheir and I will be working with graduate student Alexandrea Otto to analyze mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) samples that she collected from harbor seals around the Salish Sea. We aren’t sure exactly what question we want to ask yet, but I’m sure I will have a better idea by next month! The first thing we need to do is apply to WWU’s RSP grant, for which the deadline is November 6th. It is going to be busy leading up to the deadline, but I am excited to learn more about how applying for funding works within the science world!
I am so excited to be back in classes and back in the lab, and am looking forward to all the opportunities and experiences my senior year holds!!
Maya Mijares
Jasper's Blog
Jasper McCutcheon, undergraduate student
1 October 2023
Hey all
College is back and in session and it is as hectic as ever. It feels like just yesterday I was driving down the Oregon Coast on my last vacation of the summer. Now I am back in Bellingham, slowly settling into the groove of Fall quarter. The first couple days of classes have gone well, and I am excited to engage with all the new topics I’m being introduced to this quarter.
Our research assistants are out in the field (maybe even as you read this!) working hard and collecting data for a new quarter of research. With the local salmon runs currently going on, we can expect to see a fair share of harbor seals in our area and hopefully even some interesting hunting/feeding behaviors as well. As I am still in the data collection phase of my independent project, I do not have much else to report, but come back next month for updates!
Until then,
Jasper
Alexandrea's Blog
Alexandra Otto, graduate student
1 October 2023
Welcome back!
Just handed off the newly arrived and mixed primers in Seattle this week! So hopefully the next round of GT-Seq panel optimization will have some better SNP markers for more population driven information! We are all very excited to see how this next round of optimization turns out.
We ended the summer strong with a couple more subsampling trips to WDFW in Tacoma, WA, and The Whale Museum in Friday Harbor, WA. We also have been keeping up with extractions as well which helps us stay at a good place in sample processing so we are ready for when GT-Seq is optimized. I cannot express how grateful I am for the wonderful and endless help I had this summer from three undergraduates in the MMEL (Isabel, Haley, and Olivia) and from Victoria!! Isabel, Haley, and Olivia have been absolute rockstars in endless extraction rounds and waking up before dawn to come on multiple subsampling trips with me. Big thank you for all the work and help they provided this summer on this thesis project! Its been an absolute joy getting to work closer with these folks this summer!
School and labs are back in session! Luckily, for myself, I completed my course work last year so I don’t have any courses other than thesis credits right now. I’ve already been loving this schedule, as I can just continue to focus my time on thesis work and research now (plus some teaching this year still). Now the work continues and more than ever as I look forward into the future at possible graduation times…seems scary and a ways away but I know time will fly by in this second year of my Masters! I’m already soaking in all the back-to-school memories and moments I can so far.
P.S. I got to join another graduate student in their field work this summer for their thesis in completing “bee-search” (bee research)! It was amazing to not only hear about their research project in local bumble bee conservation but also get to see and hold the bees as they awoke from their slumber! It was very neat to learn how to id the invasive verse local bumble bees from each other! Super rad “bee-search” Annie and thank you for the field work tag along!
Till next month,
Alexandrea
Kameran's Blog
Kameran Rodriguez, undergraduate student
1 October 2023
Hello!
My name is Kameran Rodriguez and I am one of the new managers for the Marine Mammal Ecology Lab on the Whatcom Creek project! I am in my last quarter at Western. I am currently majoring in Biology w/ Marine Emphasis, and this is my 2nd year in the lab. I'm currently working on my own project to try and determine social networking between the harbor seals that come in and out of the Whatcom Creek using the data we have been collecting. I will specifically be using data from 2018-2021 to possibly find seals who have frequented the creek often and at similar times as others who frequent at that same time. I will also be looking at their foraging behaviors to possibly see from the data we have gathered which method has been the most used and the most effective. This summer I worked all the details out and figuring out which data sets I will be using. I'm finishing up my outline now which is off to my AMAZING editors and hopefully can get that done soon so I can start writing.
School has just started, and I am excited to be taking some great classes like Marine Mammal Biology and Invertebrate Zoology. Both of my classes consist of a lot of people from the lab, which is exciting to have a group of people I know and can work with. It's been a lot of work getting the lab restarted again and getting all our researchers caught up on what's going on, schedules, and photo folders passed out, but it has been great to see everyone again and hear how their summer was. Some people were up to some exciting things! My summer consisted of working a full-time job with WDFW doing crab and salmon surveying which was really fun to be able to interact with the public and I got to do a lot of educating people on how to measure and check for softness on crabs which was also a new thing for me to learn about. I also got to see some seals while I was in Everett and Deception Pass (where I got to see Bri!) which made me miss our seals here so much! Can't wait to get out to the creek, start observations, and see some seals!
I will see you next month for my next post with updates on how the lab is going and progress on my project.
Kameran
Victoria's Blog
Victoria Vinecke, graduate student
1 October 2023
Hi everyone!
Happy October! The fall quarter has started, and the lab is quite active again! I have missed the energy and excitement that comes along with a bustling lab. This quarter I am not taking classes so I will have more time to spend in the lab and field working on my research! As of lately, I have only been completing lab work and waiting anxiously for the return of seals to Whatcom Creek. I believe next week is the start of harbor seal behavioral observations for Whatcom Creek. I look forward to assisting with field observations because I am able to get an idea of how many seals are present at the creek through data collected by undergraduate researchers. Having an idea of when seals are present at the creek is crucial for eDNA sampling. This field season I am hoping to drastically increase my sample size so wish me luck regarding lots of sampling opportunities this fall season!
Along with focusing on my research, I have also taken on the role of the lead TA for the organismal biology lab (BIOL206) that I teach. The responsibility of the lead TA is to ensure the new TAs are prepared to teach and make sure they have up-to-date materials. I am excited to take on this role to help BIOL206 run smoothly and support the new TAs as they learn how to teach. I had a fantastic lead TA last year and I hope to fill his shoes seamlessly. I have really enjoyed teaching and I am looking forward to what this year has in store for BIOL206.
As of now, that is all I have! I hope in my next blog post I will have some exciting seal photos to share!
Until next time,
Victoria