Conservation Blog

Almost time to go home...

2009-07-13T15:51:00.004-04:00

A few more pictures that my dad took when he was here...

My rainy-day uniform...

A rainy boat ride...

A rainy survey on Hogs Island...

A day survey at Nauset Marsh...

Night survey at Nauset Marsh...

Kelly and a crab...

Kelly's crab in detail...

We're doing core sampling right now and hopefully I'll have some pictures to show of that in a little while. We're looking for eggs, embryos, and trilobites. We haven't found very many at all. The Nor'easter that came through might have something to do with that.

More bleeding...

2009-06-24T23:11:00.004-04:00

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...

2009-06-21T10:46:00.005-04:00

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...

2009-06-08T19:24:00.004-04:00

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...

2009-06-05T14:42:00.006-04:00

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!

More Pictures...

2009-05-27T16:18:00.006-04:00

Alright, a few more pictures to make this blog more interesting. The weekend before this past weekend, Mike and I went to New Jersey (as I stated in my previous post) and the only thing we found to do was to go to the Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange. It actually turned out to be a cute little zoo and since they lacked funding you could get dangerously close to the animals - yay!

White wolf behind glass...

A very sleepy sloth...

An even sleepier groundhog...

Brazen peacock...

Kangarooo...

Some penguins...

And a very cute Red Panda (yes, Mike, Red Panda)...

Today we did a little tagging, but failed to find more than 28 crabs. For Memorial Day we went to a pig roast at a restaurant in Orleans. It felt more like a family BBQ and we were definitely feeling like out-of-towners, but we had fun anyways.

Sorry for the lack of words, but I have a cold and am too tired to think of anything else, haha.

Lapse...

2009-05-21T14:51:00.005-04:00

Sorry for the lapses in updating. I keep forgetting to take my camera into the field and the only interesting things to post are pictures.

We've tagged about 400 horseshoe crabs so far and started our second group of surveys today for the new moon. Last week we put transmitters and Star ODDI tags on about twenty large females. The transmitters ping off of buoys placed around Pleasant Bay that have equipment attached that will record every time the crab passes by. This way we can see if the crabs wander around a lot or stay in basically the same place when spawning. The Star ODDI tag records GPS data, temperature, and depth so we can see where those particular crabs are going and how deep. The only problem with those is that we have to find them when we're done! That's where the transmitters will come in. We can put a hydrophone in the water and listen for the certain series of pings associated with the crab with a Star ODDI on it.

Yesterday we went out on the boat to check the transmitters attached to the buoys, to see how far away we could get and still hear the pings. Many of the buoys lost their signals only 10 meters out, but one had a good signal all the way to 640 meters. These have transmitters so that they can be found at night or if the buoy somehow gets removed. The equipment attached to the buoy is expensive and has valuable data so we can't go losin' it in the Bay!

I went to New Jersey to see Mike for the weekend and then he came up to the Cape with me for two days to look around. Unfortunately, the crabs decided to hide for his visit and the weather decided to be fairly cold. We did go to Provincetown, though, and had a nice dinner at the Orleans Inn Restaurant.

Today it was around 80 degrees, beautiful, and sunny. After doing our AM survey, I went to the beach and layed out for a bit. Then I checked the post office to see if I'd gotten any general delivery mail and found I had two postcards from Jess and Melanie! I love those gals. I bought some postcard stamps and will finally send out the postcards I wrote them two weeks ago. Lol.

Some pictures...

2009-05-10T14:17:00.010-04:00

Hello all, I've finally uploaded some photos so you have a better idea of what our work entails.

Walking to Marsh 2/3 on Pleasant Bay to tag some crabs...

Marsh 2/3...

The tags we use...

Nicki placing a tag after having drilled a hole in the prosoma...

Some tagged crabs...

That's it for now, I'll have more pictures once I get a chance to take some.

Rainy day...

2009-05-05T16:47:00.004-04:00

We had a long safety training session yesterday and learned all about the evils of deer ticks. Also, if ever we find an unexploded ordnance, we are not to call it a bazooka over the radio.

After our training we went to Nauset Harbor to see if we couldn't tag some crabs. No crabs were found, but we did get the canoe from the BioLab and strapped it to our government vehicle.

Today we were going to help Matt (the BioTech) moor the boat at Paw Wah Pond so we could go out to Hogs Island, but there was a small craft advisory. So instead, we could only drop the canoe off and check out the high tide at Erica's Beach.

Hopefully tomorrow it will be less windy and rainy so we can go out on the boat. Also, we're going to drive to Marsh 2/3 to tag crabs since we had the best luck there.

Settling...

2009-05-01T17:48:00.004-04:00

All settled into the house now and have a much better idea of what we'll be doing. The other girls and I were a bit puzzled as to our daily activities but we're getting the hang of it now.

On Tuesday we met with MJ in the morning to go to two of the sites we'll be surveying in Pleasant Bay. One was Erica's Beach, which is a little beach owned by a sweet old lady who's a horseshoe crab enthusiast. She does surveys during the day so we'll only be doing the night surveys at that beach. MJ taught us how to count the crabs in 5m quadrants. I'll post pictures of this when we go out and actually do a spawning survey.

The next survey site we went to was a salt marsh in Nauset Bay. MJ showed us the start and end points of the area we'll be surveying. After that we went to the BioLab to see where to wash the park service vehicle off and where we would later be measuring egg densities.

On Thursday we learned how to actually tag the crabs. What we do is spray the area with alcohol, dip a drill bit into iodine and then drill a small hole in the left posterior point of the prosoma. Then the little circular tag just snaps into that hole. We record tag number, sex, and size of the crab at the widest point of the prosoma. We did our tagging at Marsh 2/3, which was a very mucky area and required hip waders. This is a spawning survey site that we can only do during the day because it floods too much at the night high tide.

Our last survey site is an island that we'll have to get to by boat. So, we do our surveys at the high tides on the full and new moons throughout May and June. In July we'll be measuring egg densities. When we're not doing spawning surveys we'll be tagging the crabs as much as possible.

Alright, that's it for now. I keep forgetting to charge my camera battery so I'll post pictures as soon as I take my camera out in the field with me.

I'm in Connecticut for the weekend with Mike so that's all until Sunday! :)

Arrival Day

2009-04-27T19:00:00.004-04:00

Got up at 4 AM this morning and made it to Cape Cod at around 2:30 PM. I think that's pretty good time! I missed the D.C. traffic but got snagged in New York just a bit.

The beach house is a lot nicer than I imagined - much like a college dorm, bare but not entirely uninhabitable. We may have an ant problem, though. I'll try to take some pictures.

It's cold here right now - in the 60s - but I'm sure that will change near the end of May.

Tomorrow morning we meet with our project coordinator to go over the basics of what we'll be doing. I've been reading up on horseshoe crabs and I'm really excited to start.

Thus far I've gone grocery shopping, dusted my room a bit, and started unpacking. Right now I'm at the Wellfleet Public Library. Hurray for public internets.

That's all for now. I'm going to make a big pot of spaghetti for dinner so I need to find some meatballs.

Absolutely perfect...

2009-03-12T12:25:00.004-04:00

...and fantastic!

I was offered an internship at the Cape Cod National Seashore to study horseshoe crabs for the summer.

I will be arriving there on April 27th and staying until about July 20th.

Don't quite know where I'll be living, a beach house somewhere in Eastham. I've never been up that way before, but I've heard good things.

Right now I know that I'll be tagging horseshoe crabs, counting spawning pairs, and taking core samples of the sand to count their eggs. I'm sure there will be more and I'll update on that as I go.

Right now, I'm just extremely excited. Fantastic!