Charleston Charters

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For my summer project, I’ve been working on the curriculum development of the Guide and Outfitters Recognized Professional program, also known as the GORP program. The purpose of the GORP program is to create an educational standard for guides and increase the professionalism of guiding. This way, guides who go through the program can better market themselves to their visitors and help them get more out of their experiences. At this point in the summer, I have finished most of my work on the curriculum aspect and am now starting to interview guides to learn more about what the profession and how the GORP program may help them.

Charleston is well known as a small town with beautiful views of the marina and excellent fishing. The best way to experience fishing in the area is going out with one of the three charter companies. I got to meet with two charters and learn about their owners, and what makes each business so special.

Captain John Blanchard single handedly runs Sharky’s Charters. John started as a commercial fisherman but decided to switch to guiding and has lead charters for four years now. He is the only captain, and takes out smaller groups of 4-6, which is a great way to get more valuable one-on-one instruction. When asked what his favorite part of being a guide was, he said that he likes meeting people and forming friendships with his customers, who frequently return for fishing trips. He also loves sharing his passion with others and remarked “If you do what you love, you don’t work a day in your life”.

Kurt Smith is one of the two captains at Betty Kay’s Charters and has about 18 years of experience. He will be taking over as owner of the company in the upcoming months. Kurt takes pride in his charter company’s commitment to customer service and making sure that every customer has a fun trip and great experience. He thinks that the value provided by hiring a guide is immeasurable, as they have all the “local insight” and know where the fish are better that any visitor could figure out on their own. Betty Kay’s is able to accommodate larger groups and more people depending on trips, fitting about 20 passengers on a boat.

One of the universal factor of fishing charters is they are entirely weather dependent. If the ocean is too rough or winds are too strong, they must cancel charter trips for that day, so it is important to be flexible when hiring a charter company. If you or someone you know is interested in fishing in the Charleston area, try giving one of the local charter companies a call!

Developing Models and a Connection with the Coast

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After timeless weeks of video review, the time has come: data analysis. I am comparing species richness of rockfish, lingcod, and cabezon between daytime and nighttime lander footage at two sites on the Oregon coast, Siletz Reef and Seal Rock. Preliminary statistical analyses thus far indicates that species richness is higher during the day, which has important implications on the overall project. Chartering vessels for lander surveys would be more economical conducted as a 24-hour operation. However, because we are seeing species richness decrease at night, this difference could seriously affect the development of a fisheries-independent index. While chartering vessels in the daytime hours only may be more expensive for the agency, it will yield a more accurate index. The empirical data I’m compiling will be an important asset in decision-making as ODFW further develops their landers.

I have been using the terms “day “ and “night” loosely, so it is important that I define the time variable in my study. In fact, I started my analysis with time being separated into two elements, hours before sunset, day, and hours after sunset, night. After running a couple tests, I actually found that defining time continuously as hours since sunset provides a better model for the dataset. Developing this model also shows that our count data varies significantly ±2 hours of sunset. I will be conducting more analyses, running more models, and finding the best ways to present my findings in the coming weeks in preparation for the Sea Grant Summer Scholars Final Symposium.

Exploring the cliffs along the Oregon Coast Highway (photo by Illianna Termuehlen)

Although I have been spending a great deal of time learning the coding/programming language R for statistical computing and graphics, life here for me in Oregon is not restricted to videos, data, and coding. I’ve had many opportunities to explore the beauty of the Oregon coast, venturing up the famous Oregon Coast Highway, viewing wildlife from breathtaking cliffs, and camping in state parks. I’ve also had the chance to meet and spend time with a wonderful community of people here in Newport, some scientists, but other locals who are fishers, surfers, students, and artists. The Oregon coast is one of a kind, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of my time here has in store.

A group of Black Oystercatchers in Depoe Bay (photo by Dani Hanelin)

Latino Conservation Week

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June 14 through the 22 is Latino Conservation Week. In the spirit of this week I will be participating in a twitter version of ask us anything. Learn about all the amazing for Latinos around the country are doing in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields and in ocean conservation. Details: https://go.usa.gov/xUXgE 

To ask questions on twitter us the hashtag #LCWChat and #LCW2018

 

Here is a previous of some of the types of questions I have been answering:

 

What does the National Marine Sanctuary System mean to you?

Imagine if we had no Yellowstone or its iconic Old Faithful geyser and American bison, no Statue of Liberty or its history, no Grand Canyon that was carved into the red rock by the Colorado River. The national parks have helped ensure these special places will still be there for future generations to enjoy. That is what national marine sanctuaries do for special places that are underwater.

 

Sanctuaries help preserve and protect iconic coral reefs, protect nursery habitat essential for many fish and other marine life, preserve historic and culturally-important sites that are part of this nation’s history, and more. National marine sanctuaries help ensure that we will be able to enjoy these special places for generations to come and that we can continue to use these resources in a sustainable manner.

 

How do you help protect the ocean?

 

Here are a few of the way I try to help out the most:

I make sure to make sustainable seafood decisions. When buying any seafood, I make sure they were caught sustainably by either buying locally and asking the fishermen how they caught it (this of course requires a bit of research on what are sustainable fishing practices), or you can check through Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch list or look for certified sustainable seafood by the Marine Stewardship Council.

I also make sure to try and recycle everything, and use least amount of plastics possible. For example I never buy disposable single-use plastic water bottles and always carry my refillable, reusable stainless steel water bottle. In my family we also use small mason jars and re-fill them with juice instead of buying juice boxes that also create a lot of waste, and have a few stainless steel straws at home which we use instead of plastic ones. We always use paper bags or reusable bags when going to the grocery store. It has been well documented that many marine life die because of ingesting plastic materials, such as plastic straws or plastic bags.

Beach clean-ups and dive clean-ups are also a great way I like to help out ocean. Every piece of plastic or other marine debris removed from our beaches and ocean make a huge difference. We are now learning about the effects of microplastics on our ocean, and just picking up one single-use plastic water bottle (which eventually breaks into thousands of microplastic pieces) can make a huge difference! Anyone can help pick up a few pieces of trash anytime they visit the beach.

 

How does your heritage inform your experience in the outdoors?

 

I grew up in Ecuador surrounded by amazing marine and aquatic ecosystems. Since I was quite young, I was drawn to the Galapagos Islands and the Amazon region. Being part of this vast and unique biodiversity gave me an unbounded curiosity and enthusiasm for nature, for animals, and for our water resources. I saw their inherent beauty, and early on recognized what an important resource our waterways were to all living things and how much we owed them in return.

 

At a young age, I also realized that there were issues troubling our ocean, and it was then that I made it my goal to dedicate my life to finding ways to protect them. When I was little, my mom would take me to the beach in Ecuador, and I remember always going to the fishermen’s boats as they would come in early in the morning after spending all night fishing and looking at all the fish they caught and being fascinated by all the unique life that lived just beneath the surface.

 

My whole life since I was little I always thought of myself as a mermaid, mean to live life in the ocean, beneath the waves. The first time I dived into the deep blue I could not see the bottom. I was in a very special marine protected area off the coast of Ecuador called Machalilla, Isla de la Plata. My heart started racing with a mixture of excitement, curiosity, and a slight fear of the unknown. As I slowly started to descend I began to see the wondrous life that surrounded me; I could hear the fish pecking at algae on the reef, I saw a wall of fish dance and change forms as other fish swam around them. A baby sea lion playfully came close to me, blew bubbles in my face, and ran off to bring back its toy piece of algae. I felt like my heart skipped a beat, that moment I knew that is where I was meant to be, I have to come back as often as possible to visit the most beautiful places on Earth.

Although I began scuba diving later in life, I was able then to observe our impact on coral reefs and other marine habitats, and how we have decimated so much of our marine life. As I have grown, I have learned that marine ecosystems and the fisheries they support are some of our most priceless legacies, but if not handled properly they may soon be irreparably damaged. I cannot remember ever having a different life goal than to dedicate myself to preserving these special places.

 

As an optimist, I believe that change is possible and this is my motivation. It is a common misconception that conservationists, scientists, and fishermen must forever be embattled over “to fish or not to fish.” Rather I believe that we have a common goal: to ensure best practices so that this source of livelihood and cultural heritage does not decline over time, and that our descendants may enjoy and benefit from it too. It is possible to have both a healthy ecosystem and a prosperous economy.

 

What is your favorite way to enjoy the ocean and Great Lakes?

 

When I was little I loved to go tide-pooling and see all the cool little critters that make the rocky shoreline their home. I also love bodyboarding and hope to learn how to surf. It wasn’t until recently that I was able to experience the joy of diving. Diving has given me the opportunity to become a mermaid and to interact with the most amazing marine life. I have had the opportunity to go diving with sea lions and sharks in the Galapagos, dolphins and manta rays in Hawai‘i, and I hope to be able to go diving in kelp forests off the Oregon and Washington coastlines and see the rockfish that I am studying first-hand in their natural environment.

 

Mesocosms and Mud shrimp

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These past three weeks have been filled with getting to know my new coworkers, fieldwork, and our first run with the mesocosms mentioned in my first blog post.

Kelly Muething (left) and Ylva Durland (right) enjoying the joy ride while pulling into port at Nahcotta, WA

I began working with Ylva Durland and Kelly Muething, two of Dr. Brett Dumbauld’s technicians. Kelly just finished her masters degree at OSU and had Brett as an adviser so has worked on many projects with him. She is also continuing her work comparing the growth of two oyster types in and out of eelgrass beds. Ylva Durland had been working with ODFW’s SEA-COR program before beginning with Brett and is bringing knowledge on both eelgrass and shellfish. Ylva earned her masters in her home country, Sweden, studying predation patterns of green crab on native oysters. I feel lucky to be working with such talented women and Brett, and appreciate their support and guidance.

We spent a hectic week finishing up preparations to have the mesocosms ready to deploy during the neap tides at the beginning of July. Being ready required collecting Pacific staghorn sculpin and housing them long enough to starve them for 24 hours, collecting over 130 second instar Dungeness crab and marking them with nail polish so we knew which crabs we placed at the end of the experiment, and acquiring oysters to place as our oyster habitat. We also had to find an appropriate edge of an eelgrass bed to work on. Most importantly, we had to determine how much time we would have during the tidal exchange to work within our two-foot tall mesocosms.

Dr. Brett Dumbauld USDA-ARS, searching for megalope in Yaquina Bay, OR.

Tagging 130 juvenile Dungeness crabs with red and orange nail polish.

On July 4th, we set out the mesocosms to acclimate to the environment for the following day’s experiment. The next day, we placed the crabs in all mesocosms and gave them one hour to acclimate before introducing the predator into the three treatments. After another hour, we placed dividers along the edge of the habitat and scooped out the sculpin and as many crabs as we could. We recorded the number and color of crabs on each side of the mesocosms to compare against what was originally deployed.

Ylva Durland showing off the installation of the mesocosms in Yaquina Bay, OR.

An example of a mesocosm in action. One side contains eelgrass, the other oysters placed to mimic on-ground aquaculture. There were two with this configuration to have a treatment (predator) and control. We also had a treatment and control for mesocosms with oyster aquaculture on one side and bare ground on the other, as well as eelgrass on one side and bare ground on the other. 

Ylva Durland placing the two sculpins into a treatment tank with Kelly Muething on standby.

Our preliminary results show a trend of higher crab presence within eelgrass and less movement of crabs in the treatment mesocosms. However, we only retrieved 76% of the crabs deployed and are unsure if they were eaten or simply weren’t retrieved. We plan on rerunning the project in early August and are still fine-tuning the details beforehand.

I’m happy to say that I’m writing this blog while sitting in my hotel room, looking out on the Pacific Ocean. We are currently on a field-trip to Willapa Bay and staying in Long Beach, WA. We’ve been out in the field collecting data on burrowing shrimp size and frequency, checking on Kelly’s oyster growth study, and sampling native eelgrass to measure biomass later. Between the boat rides, working outside with great people, and stopping at the Cranberry Museum, it’s hard to choose a favorite part of the trip!

Brett Dumbauld and Kelly Muething heading back to the boat over the tide flats in Willapa Bay, WA.

Me and the trusty toothbrush I used to remove periphyton from the oyster-growing tiles for Kelly’s project in Willapa Bay, WA.

The boat waiting for us while we collect and monitor burrowing shrimp in an oyster aquaculture site in Willapa Bay, WA.

Brett Dumbauld measuring ghost shrimp carapaces collected from one of the monitoring sites in Willapa Bay, WA.

Kelly Muething (the frog), Ylva Durland (left), and I (right) taking advantage of the photo-op at the Cranberry Museum in Long Beach, WA.

Let’s Promote the South Coast!

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Sophia and me posing while hiking in Shore Acres.

I’m lucky to be able to work with Wild Rivers Coast Alliance, an organization that funds community projects on the south coast of Oregon. It implements the triple bottom line concept, which consists of community, conservation, and economy, to help boost sustainable tourism and promote economic development in the region. This past week was a little different than my usual job – I, alongside Keana (OSU Marine Studies Initiative) and Sophia (Sea Grant Scholar), got to work on a grant-funded project to create a library of photos to be used in marketing the Oregon coast by the Regional Tourism Network.

Two photographers from Portland, Justin and Erik, drove down here to shoot the photos while Keana, Sophia, and I all tried “modeling” for them. We had a busy few days and got to shoot all over Coos Bay, Charleston, and North Bend. We modeled a night out at Seven Devils Brewing Co., awkwardly tried to pose while tasting tacos at the farmers market, pretended to shop in downtown Coos Bay, and ripped into a delicious plate of fish and chips at The Boat Restaurant. A majority of the photoshoot was outdoors. We went on a few short hikes, kayaked and paddle boarded in Sunset Bay, took a buggy in the sand dunes, went crabbing, and explored Golden and Silver Falls. We had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs (especially laughing at each other’s awkward poses, as you can see in these photos). I don’t have any photography experience, much less modeling experience, so it was super cool to see what goes into taking a stunning photo. Justin and Erik had a lot of patience with us newbie models, but I know they took some great photos and we had such a fun time doing it!  

I feel very lucky to have been a part of this experience. I worked with an incredible team of very talented photographers who captured the beauty of the Coos Bay area. This project was a huge collaborative effort by people along the coast to help promote tourism in this beautiful area; it felt great to be a part of that. I don’t know how or where these photos will be used, maybe on websites, brochures, or magazines, but I’m excited to see!

Sophia pretending to look for gray whales.

 

Organic Oregon

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WOW! I feel as if I have left the country and that I am living in an entirely different world. I have never seen so many Subaru cars in my life or beards! All in all, I am having a fantastic time here in Corvallis and I am loving my project. Since my last blog post, I have had the pleasure of attending the 3rd Tribal Environmental Health Summit held here in Corvallis, OR and have had the opportunity to speak with high school students from various summer programs about my experience as a college student and Oregon Sea Grant scholar. My project is quite challenging as I attempt to navigate my time meeting with administrators and program directors affiliated with various organizations and universities across Oregon and the country. Despite some difficulties, everyone that I have met thus far has been very welcoming and helpful with the project. I have not had the opportunity to visit the Confederated States of Siletz Indians reservation yet, but hopefully I will be able to make a visit there soon.
As far as my own Oregon adventures outside of my work environment, I have been able to visit quite a few places since my arrival. To begin, I went river rafting for the first time in my life from Corvallis to Albany which was quite the adventure of me trying not to freak out about drowning. :) I have also managed to make quite a few friends from the REU and other summer programs here on campus. Our groups have had the chance to visit some of the local hiking spots around the city and we go to the Farmer’s Market from time to time. One weekend we went on a coastal road trip to see the Sea Lion caves, visit Newport, and to hike up a random trail alongside the highway with spectacular views. We spent the Fourth of July watching fireworks from the riverfront downtown and have gone to the movies a couple of times, as well as, discovering some awesome dinner spots along the way. (Although, I do have to say that one of the only things I miss about AZ is the food. For example, I have had a pulled pork sandwich without any barbecue sauce because the owner does not “believe” in barbecue sauce and I just had a Huevos Rancheros dish made with Spaghetti Sauce!!! That is unacceptable!!!) Sorry, but I LOVE my Southwestern and Mexican food with a passion! Finally, last weekend we hiked the South Sister summit which was one of the most challenging hikes I have EVER completed in my life! At 10,380 I thought I was going to die from exhaustion, but in reality I survived with just sunburns. It was a breathtaking sight that I will never forget and one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen on this planet, simply time stopping. Afterwards, we drove to Bend to be tourists and explored a nearby cave where we had to crawl on our bellies to reach the end of that underground trail! We then ended our trip by stopping at the Dee Wright Observatory in the Willamette National Forest to check out some volcanic rocks and to see some more mountains in the distance.
I am thankful for all of the academic and non-academic activities I have had the pleasure of experiencing over the last few weeks. I am beyond thankful to be an Oregon Sea Grant scholar this summer and to have the opportunity to share my aid to the OSG-OSU project. Now I must hurry to pack my bags once again as I head to Crater Lake for the weekend! Until the next blog everyone and thank you for reading!!! :)

My First Restaurant Review

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I’ve never left a yelp review, nor have considered myself a “foodie,” but today I had a great burger. I also had great company, Rasha, another sea grant scholar. I must give a shout out to Cornucopia restaurant’s “Aloha Burger” in Eugene, Oregon. Topped with pineapple, house made slaw, and teriyaki sauce, this burger was one of the best I’ve had! The fries were great too, and our waiter was a nice guy. This was a tasty, highly recommended experience!

Last week I worked in the ODFW Newport office, which allowed me to get together with some of the sea grant scholars spending their summer in Newport. We caught up on our busy new lives, watched SNL clips on Youtube, (my favorite is “Totinos with Kristin Stewart – SNL”), visited the Oregon Coast Aquarium, saw the Incredibles 2, walked along Bayfront, and to stick with the theme of my blog, got dinner. Now this was another food experience worthy of a restaurant recommendation to M & P Authentic Thai Cuisine. The menu was larger than any I’ve seen for it had pictures of almost every food option they served, a very useful development for people who do not like reading menus, such as myself. I ordered the Chicken Drunken Noodles with extra spice, out of the two times I’ve had Thai food, I must say this was my favorite. The noodles were soft, the vegetables tangy, the chicken drunk, everything was perfect.

Unfortunately, I did not take photos of the food I’ve mentioned, I’m not one to judge food by its cover. Instead, I’d like to show some other cooler nature pictures I’ve captured such as the spores found beneath the leaves of a Western Sword Fern. I’ve never seen this process of plant reproduction, it was super exciting to find this. I also have included a photo of an Amphipod, otherwise known as a sand flea, or beach hopper. They are adorable and are found hopping all over the Bay coast. The crab I’m holding is a Purple Shore Crab found at Sunset Bay State Park. In my completely honest, unbiased opinion not at all affiliated with Oregon Sea Grant, I will admit I think this crab is the prettiest.

 

 

Differences of opinion and Oregon’s marine reserves

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It’s 6 am. We’ve just arrived at Cascade Head, which is one hour north of Newport. This is when the intertidal of this ODFW marine reserve is exposed to the marine mist. With sleep deprived eyes I witness one of the reasons why the reserves are in place–to preserve and study the rich biodiversity of the Oregon coast.

I have so many memories I would like to share with you. I feel lucky. It’s only been three weeks since I arrived at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, OR, but they have been filled with rich moments. Most of these I have shared with my fellow scholars in Newport (Taylor, Dani, Abby, and for just last week Alexa) immersed in the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest. But I have also spent a significant portion of my time digging deeper into the psyche of those that call the Oregon coast home.

As described in my last blog post, I am working in the Human Dimensions Project of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) Marine Reserves Program. This means that I am learning how to conduct research and think like a social scientist about environmental policies. For the past two weeks I have been hard at work coding nearly 800 open-ended responses to a comprehensive subjective well-being study conducted in part by my mentor Tommy Swearingen. This systemic survey captures how people think, their moral frameworks, their sense of place, personal and community resilience, and what people believe contributes most to their well-being, among other things. The robust data set also reveals how coastal residents respond to hypothetical changes to the community–such as an expansion or contraction of the marine reserves. The possibility of change prompted many respondents to voice their opinions.

The result was hundreds of insightful explanations into what constitutes a good quality of life overall. I had the privilege of looking at the world through the lens of people with disparate opinions than my own, and was surprised on more than one occasion by the complexity of their worldviews. For the most part, people get that balancing economic needs with the environment is a difficult trade-off to maneuver. Many of the towns up and down the coast rely on the commercial industries of fishing and logging to survive. People think on the scale of the individual to the community; often, when faced with these changes, they worry about their neighbors who work in these industries and might lose their jobs because of regulations. They fear the loss of their culture, their way of life. Some responded to the survey in all caps, telling the government to back off. History has disappointed them, and they prefer autonomy over future mistakes. People on the other side of the coin also fear. They are worried that we will further degrade our public lands, that their grandchildren won’t have access to a high quality environment. Most everyone is concerned about personal or community financial security. In this inflammatory age of politics, we often categorize people by the political party they stand behind, of which there are only a handful. What I realized when coding this response is that what is more important than ideology are the values that motivate it.  If we seek to understand each other on this level, we might start to feel for one another again.

I’m in the process of developing a technical backbone for social science coding though this work. But inadvertently, the empathy I hold for my fellow human beings is expanding the more I listen.

Firefighter training high above the rocky intertidal of the Cape Falcon marine reserve.

This is not the only work that I am poised to do during my summer scholar experience. In fact, it is secondary to my role as an interviewer of local fishers. However, as many projects go, our timeline did not proceed according to plan. Because this type of work has ethical considerations for human subjects, such as confidentiality, every detail of my involvement had to be cleared with OSU’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) within the Office of Research Integrity. I was left hanging, feeling like the firefighter to the right for a short period of time before knowing what might impact my involvement in this work. At the present moment, most worries have been smoothed over, and we are proceeding onward with the project. So fingers crossed that next time you read my post in a couple of weeks I will be speaking of an entirely new and exciting adventure!

Since my work revolves around the marine reserves, I have also made an attempt to see what they are about with my own eyes. Even if this required waking up at extreme hours to see the intertidal. My fellow summer scholar in the ODFW annex, Taylor Ely, has already woken up around 4 am to complete her work in the field, and will likely have many more mornings like this. But as far as I have seen, the reserves are worth it.

My first encounter with one of the reserves was Otter Rock. It is the smallest reserve and is situated just outside of Newport. Once the sun broke over the cliffs, rays of light were punctuated by fantastic rock formations. At low tide anemones dripped from the rocks reaching toward the water, and we could walk right into Devil’s punchbowl–which is a churning mass of water when the tide rushes in.

Sun breaking over the cliff at Otter Rock

Otter Rock in the distance behind a wall of dripping anemones.

Cascade Head was equally as impressive. Biodiversity filled each and every cranny, and at one point while helping the ecological team survey starfishes, we found over 170 sea stars (predominantly Pisaster ochraceus, but also the six-legged sea star Leptasterias) in a single transect! That was within an area no larger than a typical living room.

Me at center within the rocky intertidal of Cascade Head. At points we were down on our stomachs face first in invertebrates such as starfishes, anemones, and the occasional nudibranch.

The rocks at Cascade Head. Though we were conducting survey work with ODFW, we were not the only people exploring the rocks at daybreak. Recreation is an important past-time for people living on or visiting the coast–both for enjoyment and as a key part of the modern economy.

The little Leptasterias starfish that I found. It was the first and only one of the day!

Though I still have Redfish Rocks and Cape Falcon on my bucket list to visit, I have most recently explored Cape Perpetua–and from an entirely different view. Instead of viewing nature through a macro lens, up close and personal, I took a step back. Within the easily accessible old growth forest there are a multitude of trails. We took one that led to a 550 year old Sitka spruce, and another that gave us a sweeping view of the shoreline. It was worth the effort of climbing 800 feet above sea level to see the land (and even a resident gray whale). Cape Perpetua is also where you can watch the spouting horn and Thor’s well, which in action convinces the viewer that the ocean is breathing. With each ocean swell the divot in the volcanic rocks fills with water only to expel it in a massive exhale. Breathing in, the water recedes from Thor’s well, exposing thousands of mussels which cling to the water’s edge. And this repeats, indefinitely.

The land and the ocean are violently alive. And the people–they are right here to endure it all.

700 feet above sea level and counting. Cape Perputua down below.

Thor’s well on a mild day.

A Coast of New Meaning

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This weekend I got to drive down the same winding road that opened my horizon to the Pacific Ocean for the first time. This time, on my way back from an adventure to Portland, the coast felt more familiar. It was a place comprised of new memories and a coast that I now knew harbored an abundance of natural resources. One of these resources is the rockfish, a genus of fishes highly sought after for being both a delectable piece of seafood and hefty game fish. Rockfish, by the nature of how they reproduce– not mating until 20 years of age and producing very few offspring– are prone to overfishing. Understanding and assessing their population statuses are essential for conserving this ecologically vital species and managing its associated economically important fishery.

Studying their populations is easier said than done. Because many of the rockfish on the Oregon coast live in deep reefs and rocky habitats, the traditional benthic species stock assessment method of trawling cannot utilized; it would destroy both the habitats and the equipment. As a result, ODFW has been faced with the challenge of coming up with a new way to conduct stock assessments of Oregon rockfish. Instead of sending nets below, ODFW has suggested dropping cameras, known as benthic landers, instead. Benthic landers consist of two standard handheld video cameras sealed in a waterproof housing attached to a large metal frame. The landers are secured to a long piece of line and deployed over the side of a boat until they hit bottom. Once at the seafloor, the cameras record the surroundings for 15-20 minutes, and, fast forward a few steps, the footage eventually ends up on a computer server for ODFW scientists and interns, like me, to review.

A yelloweye rockfish, Sebastes ruberrimus, captured by a benthic lander

An average day in the office consists of me reviewing lander footage and identifying the species of rockfish, as well as any other benthic fish, that pass in front of the cameras. At the end of a video review, I go back and mark the frame in which I saw the most of each species; this is called the MaxN frame. The MaxN data is what I will be analyzing statistically in the future, specifically in regards to comparing daytime lander footage to nighttime lander footage. The implications of my research is to show empirically whether time of day affects surveying and answer questions in regards to when lander deployments should be done. The ODFW marine resources research team’s long-term goal is for landers be used as a surveying tool across the entire Oregon coast and provide accurate fisheries-independent data for rockfish stock assessments. Before then, many practicality and methodological questions must be answered. My research works to answer one of those questions–maybe more in the coming weeks– and help develop a safe, cost-effective means of assessing rockfish populations in Oregon and beyond.

There Are Trees and Rivers Here!!!

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Hello Everyone!!! My name is Fatima Molina and I am from the beautiful city of Flagstaff, Arizona. I am beyond excited to be a part of the 2018 Oregon Sea Grant Summer Scholars cohort this summer and for all of the experiences that are bound to happen! I have never been to the state of Oregon before, but as soon as I step off the airplane in Portland I fell in love. I was used to having the San Francisco Peaks and ponderosa pine trees in my backyard growing up in Flagstaff, but during my time at the University of Arizona in Tucson I was surrounded by the hot desert filled with spiky cacti and poisonous animals (although Tucson did have some stellar sunsets).

This summer I am stationed on the Oregon State University (OSU) campus, where I am helping OSU faculty develop a Native American College Readiness Program for students from the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, as well as, for other Native American tribes around the country. Part of my role is to investigate similar programs established at other post-secondary institutions and to build a correspondence between their administrators and OSU faculty. I will also be working with OSU faculty to develop an IRB-approved survey and protocol for interviewing focus groups to identity barriers to high school graduation and college enrollment. I am super excited to be helping OSU develop this important program to reach out to Native American communities around the country and to further increase diversity and inclusion on the OSU campus. As a Native American myself, it is always fantastic to witness higher education institutions take the initiative to recognize, form communication bridges, and help Native American students receive their Bachelor, Master, and Ph.D. degrees. I am also excited to learn more about the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians in the Pacific Northwest and the history of their tribes. There is a Pow Wow in early August that I would love to attend and if anyone is interested in joining me that would be great! Just let me know!

In the meantime, I will definitely be taking advantage of the local opportunities here on campus, in Corvallis, and throughout Oregon. This past weekend I visited a superb bookstore in downtown Corvallis and walked along a chill bridge across the river. I am not exactly tech savvy so I failed at uploading photos with this blog, but I will try to figure it all out by the next one! Thanks for taking the time to read about me and my project! :D