Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society / American Academy of Underwater Sciences

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Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society / American Academy of Underwater Sciences 2014 Internship Report June 10 2014 - September 26 2014 Katherine Newcomer Introduction As the 2014 AAUS Intern,

1 Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society / American Academy of Underwater Sciences 2014 Internship Report June September Katherine Newcomer Introduction As the 2014 AAUS Intern, sponsored by Our World Underwater Scholarship Society, I spent the summer in Walpole, Maine at the Darling Marine Center, part of the University of Maine. My main goals for the internship were to experience first-hand science diving with a working team, and to learn the role and tasks of a DSO at a marine lab. I split my time interning for the DSO Chris Rigaud and fisheries scientist Rick Wahle. I learned how to teach and lead dive classes and how to collect live specimens through dive surveys. Through the summer I earned my DAN Pro Diver First Aid certification, PADI Nitrox certification, PADI Drysuit certification, AAUS Scientific Diver certification, and my PADI Divemaster certification. I also dove on average twice a week throughout the summer and gained lots of experience planning and implementing dive protocols for scientific projects. I worked with lobsters and scallops and have worked to better understand fisheries population studies and reproductive experiments. 1

I also completed check out dives and swim tests to verify my own abilities to begin the program.

2 Certifications The first task in my dive training was to complete the U. Maine requirements to begin the summer as a Scientist-in-Training. I came into the internship with a Rescue diver certification and a current dive physical, so the next step was to renew my First Aid training. I also completed check out dives and swim tests to verify my own abilities to begin the program. As I began to work towards Drysuit and Nitrox certifications, I did PADI book work on my own and did weekly classroom sessions and in-water training with Chris Rigaud. Eventually, towards the end of June I got in the water in a USiA provided drysuit and had my first training session. My first Nitrox dive was completed while wearing a drysuit on Monhegan Island. Besides these two dive skills courses, I was simultaneously working towards AAUS Science Diver and Divemaster. Although it was a lot of work to do both simultaneously, since both courses complement each other so well, often the lessons from one were useful for the other. I suggest to anyone attempting both to try to do them at the same time, if you have enough time to read all of the material. Chris and I did lessons throughout the summer, starting with First Aid (and the DAN Pro diver course), through equipment training (and computer manual tests), and eventually to physics and teaching others. Dive Preparation A view of the DMC dock, one of the sites U. Maine divers can expect to frequent for check-out dives. After my first drysuit dive. The suit provided by USiA on loan for the summer and helped me earn my certification. Much of what I learned this summer revolved around dive preparation and readiness. In this vein I created Dive Site Cards, to be used by new divers or nonlocal divers, that explained the various hazards and site maps of nearby dive sites. I also created a master Dive Checklist, with all equipment required to successfully dive with U.Maine, including building a Save- A-Dive Kit. Dive Site Cards For the dive site information cards, I created on Google Sketch an example card for each location that U. Maine divers may attend. Information for each site included: City, County of each beach, driving and 2

Dive Site Card Locations:(Top) Thread of Life with

sand goat path entrance, (Right) Pemaquid Point view

Dive Map: These are examples of site maps on a Dive

It shows Hazards, in red, depth, in blue, the water

3 Dive Site Card Locations:(Top) Thread of Life with rocky shore entrance, (Left) Sand Cove with small sand goat path entrance, (Right) Pemaquid Point view from parking lot - steep goat path not in sight. Dive Map: These are examples of site maps on a Dive Site Card. It shows Hazards, in red, depth, in blue, the water entrance, and a general compass direction. (Left) Rachel Carson Salt Pond. (Right) Thread of Life. 3

parking directions, special procedures (like permits and permission), entrance type (Goat Path, Sandy Beach, etc), extra equipment needed, possible hazards, tide preference, skill preference, and a

4 parking directions, special procedures (like permits and permission), entrance type (Goat Path, Sandy Beach, etc), extra equipment needed, possible hazards, tide preference, skill preference, and a dive site map. I made Dive Site Cards for Rachel Carson Salt Pond, Sand Cove, Pemaquid Point, Thread of Life, and the DMC Dock. All are in driving distance of the DMC. The cards are meant to help new or non-local divers. Dive Skills and Check-Out Dives Another big factor in my training is learning the ways to be evaluated as a diver. This can consist of simple check-out dives, where you view and judge the capabilities of a diver to perform various tasks, as well as constructing games or chores for divers to do underwater. Both play a role in understanding the diver s physical capabilities, mental readiness, and their enjoyment and appreciation of diving. As a scientist myself, I found that the best check-out dives were also working dives, where I was supervised while attempting a scientific task - it both allowed me to be calm and enjoy the work while in the water while asking me to multi-task, an important dive skill. However games like golf ball treasure hunts were a useful and entertaining way to judge search and recovery skills. One team deployed four golf balls off a starting point, recording their kick strokes and direction to each ball and then gave directions to a new team. The roles were reversed and whoever retrieved the most golf balls won. Then teams were asked to recover their own balls, and a loss of a golf ball deducted points from golf balls found. Check Out Dive: A view of the golf ball search and recovery game in Sand Cove. (Left) Britney Fleenor (Right) Me. 4

Dive check-outs are an important part of the scientific diver process, and knowing how to complete and how to give check out dives was an important skill I learned this summer.

5 Dive check-outs are an important part of the scientific diver process, and knowing how to complete and how to give check out dives was an important skill I learned this summer. I designed a hypothetical dive check-out that asked divers to map an unfamiliar site, using a U- Shaped search pattern. This would simultaneously allow a dive master to follow their new student and check out their general diving capabilities, figure out their navigation strengths, and also give the diver a chance to learn much more about the dive site than a general tour. Having made a map themselves, the diver is more likely to remember the sites description. It also allows the diver to see a wide area of the site, rather than just focusing on specific locations or tasks. Training Other Divers The last week of August I helped Chris Rigaud teach the beginner diving class in Orono as a divemaster. But first I was tested by Chris using the tried and true method of role-acting. I solved various issues for Chris, including an unopen tank, wrongly assembled gear, fear underwater, and failure to stay with the buddy. These were meant to prepare me for the class in August, where students would be trying diving for their very first time. During Science Diving Class, which started once U. Maine s Semester By the Sea Program began in September, I taught students how to correctly put their gear together, fill and handle tanks, organize dives, and I reminded students how to be safe and careful divers throughout our class sessions. We practiced gear removal and replacement skills, navigation, and rescue skills with the students before beginning their regular AAUS Science diving techniques. This of course included survey skills and population study techniques. The students used me as a resource for both their technical scuba skills and their science project preparations, including dive logs and research plans. 5

6 Monhegan Island: These are photos of Monhegan Island, a location that I dove in July with Chris Rigaud. Here we practiced drysuit diving and I did my Nitrox check out dives. We also had a chance to dive with seals. 6

Research I also participated in research projects in the Richard Wahle lab during the summer, diving most often for lobster suction sampling and scallop collection.

7 Research I also participated in research projects in the Richard Wahle lab during the summer, diving most often for lobster suction sampling and scallop collection. Research varied from dive collection projects to in lab dissections and simple animal housing and care. This summer offered a great view into the world of fisheries science, with a bit of population monitoring, animal breeding, and growth studies. Lobster Collection and Growth Studies The largest project undertaken during the summer was lobster suction sampling and a long-term growth study. Collection bags were filled at various locations on the Damariscotta River through scuba surveys and returned to the lab for sorting. Divers deployed in teams of two with the suction samplers, collection bags, and lift bags. Suction samplers are made of large PVC piping (shown in photo below) and are connected via a yoke and hose to an aluminum scuba tank. The tank, when opened, releases air and the force of the rising air causes a vacuum. A mesh collection bag is tied to one end of the PVC, collecting debris and hopefully lobsters while water and air are allowed to escape. One buddy holds the sampler while the other flips rocks and Dive Day: In this photo taken in July I am on the Wahle lab s boat Turnstone II, holding a suction sampler near Darmiscove. 7

8 boulders to reach the benthic species below. After an approximately 5m x 5m area is covered, or the bag is full, a new bag is added and the process repeats. Each dive team collects seven bags, or as long as the suction tank lasts, per dive. Back at the lab we sort and keep lobsters below 25mm carapace length, which we find on average 2 per bag, depending on the site or day. This project is in tandem with a long-term growth study housed at Maine s Department of Marine Resources. We keep lobsters in separate plastic containers in the wet lab at the Darling Marine center, to eventually be relocated to DMR. These lobsters are measured weekly and monitored for molting. We also, at the beginning of the summer, sorted out Jonah crabs for the capstone project of another intern at the Wahle Lab, Audrey Knowlton. Audrey is also completing a growth study on the crabs, measuring the size of molting crabs before and after molting. She is also comparing the rate of growth by staining the crabs with a fluorescent chemical that is recorded in its the calcium stores. After a successive molt from the staining, she begins dissecting out the gastric mill, similar to another procedure I completed over the summer with lobsters (described below). I helped keep records of the growth and molt cycles of the crabs throughout the summer, besides collecting them during dives. Dive Day: In this photo taken in July I am on off of the Wahle lab s boat Turnstone II waiting for my buddy to descend at Darmiscove. 8

9 Besides learning the usefulness and necessity of diving for research projects, I also learned that planning those dives can be tricky. Coordinating dive team members around their own personal research and education schedules as well as the lab s schedule can be difficult and result in lost dive days. Moreover, boat and equipment prep can easily set back a project for weeks. Research dives require intense planning and flexibility and should only be used for projects without a large sense of urgency. Lobster Dissection and Staining We also received lobsters throughout the summer from fishing boats that we dissected for the gastric mill and eyestalks. These parts of the lobster retain calcification through molt cycles, and have recently been shown to have temporally incurred bands. A recent paper suggests that these are yearly bands but it is also possible that these bands are related to molt cycles. Lobsters were originally thought to absorb or secrete all calcium throughout the molting cycle, and that no reliable calcium record was left behind, but the eye stalks and gastric mill provide an opportunity to attempt to age the lobsters. Aging the lobster is a large part of current fisheries questions about the future of lobsters. Although their numbers have been increasing in the last decade or so, not a Gross Dissection: A shot of the first day of dissection to sort out the gastric mill of lobsters in order to count the calcified bands. 9

lot is known about their age or growth rates. Especially since lobster growth rates seem to be highly linked to temperature. The dissections take two days to process.

10 lot is known about their age or growth rates. Especially since lobster growth rates seem to be highly linked to temperature. The dissections take two days to process. The first day is a gross dissection, where each lobster is measured, sexed, and labelled. Then the claws and tails are removed before cutting off the top of the carapace and removing the eyestalks and stomach as one. These are placed into a labelled bags and stored until day two. On the second day a fine dissection removes out the gastric mill from the stomach sac, which are then stored in bags until band counting can begin. Band counting involves a close cut of the mill, and counting using microscopes. This project was the most personally challenging for me, as it required sacrificing the lobsters for study. It was one of the first times that I have used this destructive method to sample. Although I whole heartedly agree that the research we re doing could potentially have great benefits for the species as a whole, and its successful propagation through time, it was still in the moment a difficult task. Hopefully, it will teach me to be exceedingly careful in the ways I choose to study animals in the future and help me decipher between projects I know to be important or those less so. Scallop Collection and Gonad Indices The other dive survey I participated in this summer was adult scallop collection. Scallops were collected to use for measurement and GSI recording for Skylar Bayer s Ph.D project, one of Wahle s graduate students. During a boat dive to waters deeper than 55ft, I and a buddy collected scallops in a bag that were approximately 7 cm in diameter or larger. These were returned to the boat by lift bag, and then brought to the lab to be measured, dissected, sexed, and then weighed to determine the GSI. Adult scallops were also hung in lantern nets nearby the DMC, and I helped to care and maintain these nets for a growth study throughout the summer. Scallop Spat Sorting The final main project I worked on this summer was to sort scallop spat from retrieved deployed nets, as another part of Skylar Bayer s Ph.D project. The nets had been sunk last summer in order to determine spat settlement. The bags were pulled up early this summer and lab members sorted and cleaned each deployed line for scallop recruits. Each deployment had approximately 10 bags and each bag varied from between 100 spat to 1000 spat. Depending on the density of each bag, 1/4, 1/2, or the whole bag were counted exactly for the number of scallops. Scallop Spat: The scallop young of year in this photo range from 1 mm to 8mm in shell diameter. 10

11 Other Projects I also helped Marissa McMahan with a Sea Bass transect survey. For this project we laid 30m transects - using transect tape - while recording on pre-made data sheets the number of fish seen. We were particularly looking for conners and black striped sea bass. Fish were recorded in size classes on the data sheet. For each site we sampled we did four transects of random bottom. Marissa s protocol represents one of many different ways to do fish surveys, and reflects the inherent difficulties of trying to see every fish in the vicinity and guess at its size underwater. By standardizing the area and the fish counter, she hopes to fix for any diver errors. But scuba surveys are one of the best ways to get fish data, as population counts are difficult from boats, and extremely difficult to project from fish landings at docks. Another project I aided was a sponge survey, which was testing out different collection techniques. Having previously overwhelmed one location through dredging and lost all sponge presence, the researchers hoped to create a more delicate method of collection. Chris Rigaud and I offered our services as a dive collection team, and sampled one portion of the site as an example for future possibilities. The team hasn t yet decided what method to use, but the dive was an example of the many ways that divers can change the impacts of science. Throughout the summer I also went on a few search and recovery dives. I successfully found a lost lobster collection pot and unsuccessfully searched for a lost accelerometer. I also successfully found a lift bag that I dropped myself. These dives highlighted the importance of search and recovery as a dive skill, especially in waters with as much low visibility as Maine waters. Moreover, you can t always count on GPS devices, as the GPS coordinate system on Turnstone II was consistently broken during the summer months and was the original reason the accelerometer was lost. Knowing your local dive sites and taking nontechnology dependent notes on an objects location are crucial to being able to continue work, no matter what. I also helped keep the wet lab up and running throughout the summer, cleaning and keeping various animals alive. The extra creatures we gathered during suction sampling for lobsters were placed in the touch tank, including brittle stars, hermit crabs, sea urchins, and sand dollars. Transect Surveys: This is a photo of me holding a straight line with a compass in order to start a transect line for sea bass surveys. 11

12 Acknowledgements I would like to thank AAUS and Our World Underwater Scholarship Society for sponsoring me as an intern. I would also like to thank the University of Maine and the Darling Marine Center for housing me and hosting me this summer. I would also like to thank Chris Rigaud and Rick Wahle for their guidance and all of the members of the Wahle lab and the DMC community for welcoming me and helping me along the way. They provided great opportunities that undoubtedly will affect my life for a long time to come. Also Jenna Walker, Stephanie Roach, George Wozencraft, Roberta Flanders and Martha Sanders for coordinating between myself and OWUSS and AAUS, their support throughout the summer was crucial to my success as an intern. I d like to thank USiA for supplying me with with a drysuit for the summer. Many other people impacted my summer, like Linda and Lisa from the main DMC office, Skylar Bayer and Noah Oppenheimer for offering me chances to work on other science projects, and the other interns here at the DMC. Waking Goodbye: A shot off of the back of the Sea Ventures boat on the way from Monhegan Island after a great dive day. 12

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