More bleeding...

My dad came a couple of weeks ago and took some pictures of another bleeding project. This one was done by MJ for her own research, but it involved the same things we did at Woods Hole with Allison. They caught about twenty-five crabs in Pleasant Bay and then brought them to the BioLab in Truro where we measured them, bled them, separated their blood with a centrifuge, then used a refractometer to do a protein analysis. After this we tagged them and put them back in the bay. Below are some pictures that Dad took:

From left MJ, Stacey, myself, Matt, Kelly, and Nicki...













Kelly holds the crab open so I can measure the prosoma...













Taking blood by inserting down into the hinge...













Their blood looks milky and slightly blue-tinted due to copper content...



















Getting the centrifuge ready...













Loading the centrifuge...













Putting the spun blood on the refractometer...













Nicki reads the refractometer...













That's all for right now, I'm almost out of laptop power. More pictures to come!

Break in updating...

Sorry again for the long break in updating. I haven't been able to get online in awhile. We've been doing some really interesting stuff, though!

Mike came for a surprise visit on Wednesday night and was able to come with us on Thursday when we went to the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA to bleed crabs as a continuation of Allison's study. The crabs that we sorted a couple of weeks ago into barrels were taken to Woods Hole after some were bled for the pharmaceutical company (where they take up to 30% of the crab's blood). This time we took 10 cc of blood from the bled crabs and the unbled crabs to check their protein levels. Of course I forgot to bring my camera, but one of the interns there had one, so as soon as those pictures find their way back to me I'll post them with a better explanation of what we did.

For now, I have some general pictures of what a survey looks like:

This is a view from the boat with Stacey, headed out for the survey on Hogs Island...















This is Hogs Island...















This is Stacey setting up the quadrant, no crabs inside this time!















We're also trying out surveys at a new site that's near where the plovers and other endangered Cape Cod birds are nesting. This is one of the phalaropes...I'm not sure which...a sandpiper, but I don't know which one! I need to work on my birding skills.














While Mike was here, we went to Chatham Harbor to see the seals. I was able to get a few pictures but none too clear.

A harbor seal on its belly...















A gray seal...















Another gray seal heading out...















Well I'm off for now. It's rainy here today and a nor'easter ( :P ) is on its way, so we're having trouble getting our boat stuff done, but perhaps we'll be able to tag today if the weather clears up. Hopefully my next update will have pictures of the bleeding.

Terrapin training...

Last Wednesday, all of us (Kelly, Nicki, Matt, Stacy, and Chris) went to the Wellfleet Mass Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary to get training on finding the nests of diamondback terrapins, a protected species. They have very impressive facilities and I recommend anyone visiting Cape Cod to stop by their new green visitor center and then take a walk around the sanctuary, it's amazing!

This is a male diamondback terrapin...















This is what we need to look for to find the nest. The eggs will be buried underneath what is called a "disturbance." Once she lays her eggs, the female will walk around and try to make the nest unnoticeable. She does a good job...















This is a PE, a predator excluder, which we put over the nest once we've found it, to protect the eggs from being dug up by raccoons and other predators...















This is our instructor showing us how to bury the PE...















This is a picture of some of the Wildlife Sanctuary. It is incredibly pretty there...















So, we start looking for nests within the next week or so. The babies hatch in around August so we'll miss that part but hopefully we'll get to set up some PEs to get the nests protected.

Actual horseshoe stuff...

Alright, I finally have another post having to do with horseshoe crabs and not what I did over the weekend, lol.

On Tuesday (June 2nd) we helped Alison Leschen, the head of the horseshoe crab fishery for the Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries, with a study she's doing on the effects of bleeding, transport, and captivity on horseshoe crabs. We met at Paw Wah Pond at 5:30 AM and Jay Harrington (a fisherman licensed for biomedical collecting) brought us 300 female crabs to sort. They only collect females for bleeding and it was quite surprising to see so many in one place since we see so few out in the field. It definitely gave us an idea of where all of our females are going!

So, the crabs needed to be sorted into three random groups, one which was going to be bled, one which was going to be held in captivity for two weeks, and one which I can't remember (lol). So our job was to take the crabs from barrels, measure them, and Alison told us a random group to put them in based on a data sheet she came up with. After we got our group number, we put a color-coded band on the crab's tail and then placed them in the appropriate bucket. We did all this inside of a fishy smelling refrigerated truck to keep the crabs from drying out. And, yes, I have pictures!

A large female being measured on a block designed by Alison especially for horseshoe crab measuring...















Banding the crabs...















A finished bucket of crabs...















Chris' favorite bucket...















The finished 300 crabs...















Our group plus Alison's intern, the one not smiling (lol)...














So that was pretty fun. We've got our full moon surveys this weekend and hopefully we'll get a good amount of tagging done during the week.

On Wednesday (June 3rd) we went to the Wellfleet Mass Audubon building to get training on finding Diamondback Terrapin nests. We'll be helping them out doing nesting surveys. In my next post, I'll put some pictures of our training. But for now, that's all!