Grace Project

On Friday, my father and I will be going fishing in order to have a fish to practice extracting otoliths on. Most likely the fish we catch will be a redfish for not only an easy catch , but also a more ethical one. I found that through the process of my project I have been dreading the day where I will have to dig through the lion fish head in order to extract its otoliths, hence the delay in extraction and more of a focus on research. In catching a redfish, its life will not have been wasted. It will be used for scientific practice as well as food as will the lion fish.


Future of the lion fish

Future of the redfish

My goal in extracting the otoliths of the lion fish in the near future will be to measure its age based on the rings in the otolith due to the chemistry of the water in which they swim. This project will just be dealing with the otoliths of lion fish and will answer the questions:

What is an otolith?
Do all fish have otoliths?
What are otoliths used for?
What can otoliths be compared to?
Where are lion fish from natively?
How did lion fish come to be in the Atlantic Ocean?
What do lion fish eat and how do the otoliths of their prey compare to that of the lionfish?
How long have lion fish been in the Atlantic Ocean?
How long can lion fish be expected to stay around?

 

MORE TO COME FRIDAY AFTER FISHING (:

Brittnie-I've started my coral dissolving project

Thursday I finally started my coral dissolving project. 

Adding 10 mM of HCl to containers of seawater

I had six 125 mL containers that needed to be filled with seawater and each have a different pH, to lower the pH of seawater I needed to dilute 1 M (molar) of HCl (hydrochloric acid) to 10 mM (millimolar) of HCl. 

10 mM of HCl

I did this by finding out how many mL of HCl was needed to be added to seawater to create 125 mL of 10 mM of HCl. Using this equation, 1000 mM HCl  * V_i  (mL) = 10mM * 125 mL, I found that V_i (mL) = 1.25. 

Adding 1.25 mL of HCl to 123.75 mL of seawater

My control pH was 8.07, the original pH of the seawater; to get the other five pH’s, I slowly added the 10 mM of HCl to each container, ending up with: 7.52, 7.6, 7.78, 7.91, and 8.02. 

Six containers of different amounts of pH

I used pliers to cut the coral into pieces, then I used the caliper to take three measurements of each piece, I took a dry weight of each piece, and then I soaked them for 24 hours. 

Cutting the coral with pliers

After they soaked, I took a wet weight of each piece and measured them with the caliper again. 

Finally I dropped each piece into a different container.

Measuring each piece of coral with caliper

Weighing each piece of coral

  

Tuesday I measured the pH of seawater in each container, took a wet weight of each piece of coral and measured each piece of coral with the caliper. All of the pH’s had gotten lower, the weight had increased, and the caliper measurements had decreased.

Measuring the pH

For example, my control had seawater with a pH of 8.07 and had decreased to 7.36, while the piece of coral’s wet weight had increased from 7.0569 to 7.2715, and the caliper measurements had decreased from 1-1.74 mm, 2-1.46 mm, and 3-3.07 mm to 1-1.65 mm, 2-1.33 mm, and 3-3.02 mm.

I will continue to see how fast the pH of each containers water will decrease and how fast each piece of coral dissolves.

Deanna - Project and Seining

Seining

I just briefly wanted to over our day at Ponce Inlet learning to do seining. Seining is collecting vertebrates by catching them up in net in a specific way. Then we identified each type of fish and counting how of each type. This was very interesting. I grew up in the plains and mountains, so I have little to no knowledge about the fish, ocean, and seining.

Dr. Woodall happy to be outside!

Seining net.

Carefully pulling in the net.

Looking at the catch...not a lot this time.

Got a little one there!

Chad from Marine Science Center showing us how to do this.

Got us a few this time!!

Count fast so they don't die!

Measuring the length.

After the seining was a really super part of the day. Going to the Marine Science center was very educational and enlightening to me. Again, I grew up a long way away from the ocean, and I haven't seen these types of fish before. But, the best part was petting and feeding the mantas!

Oh yeah! Too cool!!

There were some interesting things.

The mantas were unreal!

Even Jeff got in on the mantas!

Project Update

We replaced one of the pieces on our CMD (Current Measuring Device), as we didn't think that there was enough buoyancy in a swift moving current. We have to have no more than a 90 degree angle, or we have flat line data. We are also going to get another piece of PVC so we can make an extension for deeper current.

Our CMD can be used setting on the bottom...

...or by floating on the top.

Friday we will be going on the boat with Dr. Woodall and doing our 1st test. Very excited and nervous!! But reality is that most things take a couple/few times before it works and works well. Good thing we have a couple weeks!

Look in next week to see if it is a success or if it is 'back to the drawing board'!

update from Jeff

So, we took the device back into the pool. I increased the compartment size from 1 1/4 in. to 2 in. We were having buoyancy issues. Looks like it might work; also tested the wet-suit.

Well, I would like to tell you that we have clearance to the lazy river at Oceanwalk to test our device..... Sadly I can not; however, Dr Woodall went down today and played the Doctor card. We should know by Friday... and hopefully we will be calibrating the beast under a controlled environment.

Til then, we are going out on the boat Friday to take some readings with the Hack 950 Flowmeter and collect some data with the HOBO. The HOBO is the instrument we will be using to measure angular displacement or tilt. We will have to convert the data into current speed.
Note: finally, all that Math and Physics will pay off.

We will be testing data collecting tomorrow and playing with the program. We will also be modifying the apparatus to accommodate the river.

Indian River Lagoon Water Sampling - Seaira

Click here to link to a map of Seaira's Field Sampling Stations

Today I wanted to take some water samples in the northern region of the Indian River Lagoon to assess the water quality in the lab tomorrow. My field work experience was not as pleasant as I would have hoped, as the weather was rather difficult to work with. I decided that for my project I would like to take five samples from the Indian River Lagoon and test the TSS, pH, salinity, turbidity, PO4 (dissolved phosphates), nitrates, and chlorophyll a levels. Today I collected two samples from the Indian River Lagoon Persevere Park in New Smyrna Beach, this is a location at a very northern point of the Indian River Lagoon system in an area referred to as Brown's Bay. This park had a dock for fishing where I took the water sample; I used the same procedure as the previous water sampling techniques which involved rinsing the 250mL sample bottles twice, and dumping them away from my sample site. I wore gloves for the sampling, and immediately put my samples in a cooler. The second sample site I visited was in Canaveral National Seashore, I went to the end of the park which has access to the northern most tip of Mosquito Lagoon. I used the same sampling procedure as stated above. The weather conditions today may produce some error in my turbidity and TSS readings, because the water was choppy due to the strong winds. Today the winds were classified as "gale force" and were directional North at 22mph with the occasional 40mph gusts.

Indian River Lagoon Preserve, New Smyrna Beach (Brown's Bay)

Canaveral National Seashore(Mosquito Lagoon)

* Note: I did not cross over restricted areas for sampling, because of oyster and mangrove restoration projects in effect.







While out in the field I saw an abundant amount of vegetation such as Red Mangrove, Saw Palmetto, Marsh Grass(Spartina alterniflora), and Sea Purslane(sesuvium portulacastrum).
I will attach a link to Indian River Lagoon news page because it frequently reports status on algae blooms, and wildlife death. I discovered from the St. John's River Water Management site that as of October 14th biologists have recorded a decline in seagrass beds in Mosquito Lagoon due to poor water clarity, and brown tide (Aureoumbra lagunensis) blooms in the area.
For my next sampling site I want to go to Satellite Beach which has also recently reported excessive algae blooms and fish deaths in the area.
http://floridaswater.com/itsyourlagoon/currentnews.html

Rebecca - Frank Rendon Park

I was finally able to get back out to the beach and work on my project. I'm trying to determine if mole crabs prefer a certain sediment size/type for their habitat or if it doesn't affect them at all. This time I traveled south to Frank Rendon Park in Daytona Beach Shores. This is a part of the county that allows driving on the beach. I noticed right away that the sand on this beach was very hard. I walked about a quarter of a mile south from the beach ramp pausing occasionally to dig for mole crabs. I  did not find a single mole crab. I did however find tons of washed up jellyfish and a few egg cases, or devil's purses. Egg cases surround the fertilized eggs of sharks or skates.

Jellyfish

Egg Case

I decided to to take a sample of the sediment anyway to compare to the sediment where I did find mole crabs. Just looking at the samples I can see a difference between the two. One sample is full of broken shells and has a reddish-brown color to it. The other sample is your typically looking sand with no color or shells. I'm going to use the sieves in the lab to record the sediment size of each sample. I also want to record how much of the sample is biogenic, comes from organisms, and how much is lithogenic, comes from land.

Sediment Samples

Angela - Garbage Patches

April 2012 I saw my very first television clip on the Great Pacific garbage patch, ocean plastic, and the resulting debris that ends up on Hawaii's beaches. Hawaii, the most beautiful place I've had the opportunity to visit, unbelievably also has one of the world's dirtiest beaches as you can see in the video below (not the one I saw in April):

"5 Major Gyres", Image Source: Wikipedia

To my dismay I've come to learn that there isn't just one garbage patch, but because plastic gets trapped in gyres which are vortexes created by currents, there are several patches of plastic debris floating in our oceans.  The only "benefit" to this discovery is that I don't have to wait until I move to the West coast to study ocean plastic, but through this project have had the opportunity to initiate my research on our Florida beaches.  

So far, while researching whether Florida's east or west coast has more (if any) plastic, I've completed my east coast investigation and luckily have not come across a beach as littered as Kamilo Beach featured in the above video clip; however, I've found more plastic than I had expected and watching plastic being deposited with each wave hitting Pompano Beach was especially gut churning. Is one organized beach cleanup per year enough preventative treatment, or will our beaches slowly develop giant plastic tumors?

Lizzy - Invertebrates Lab and Project

 Last Friday our class was able to observe the Bob's, Basic Observation Buoy's, which were deployed only a short time ago! Truthfully, I was not expecting for much to have grown and was shocked when I saw what was on the plates!


I thought it was very neat how the class was able to identify a few organisms and add them to the online library. (Such as the tube worms, flat worms, jelly, feather dusters).


As for my project, Dr. Woodall was able to help me get in touch with the Marine Science Center (MSC). This Saturday morning I am going to the MSC and meeting with Rich Colesanti to fill out paperwork and start volunteering there soon. Talk about exciting!

GRACE lab and project

Last week in our lab, we analyzed our settling plates that were suspended from the Basic Observation Buoys (BOBs) that were deployed about a month ago. In the murky looking water with insects swimming around on the surface, the settling plates were covered in what looked like algae and dirt, but was then discovered to be living organisms. The organism commonly known as a feather duster was identified to be a member of the Sabellidae family. The feather dusters look like plain tubes when exposed to the air, but when under water their tube lets out a dome of tiny hair-like cilia. It was questioned as to why the feather dusters at the surface would shrink away if we moved. When movement took place, casting shadows over the feather dusters, they sensed the change of lighting and shrank away as if to escape an attack of a hovering predator.

Analyzing what's on the settling plate

Discovered organisms



 

 I have been waiting for what seems like a lifetime for my lionfish to arrive so I may extract its otoliths, but it seems to be taking longer than expected. When my lionfish hunter traveled to West Palm Beach, FL the first time, he reported that there were only a small number of sightings of the lionfish on their dive. Last weekend, for the second trip to West Palm Beach, still not many were seen. My current questions are, "Where are the lionfish that were so invasive? Were they over hunted during the Lionfish Summit a few weeks ago? Has the 'no bag limit' contributed to this decrease in sightings in the same area?"

Still my scientific questions ask, "What are otoliths used for in lionfish? How do they compare with otoliths of other fish? Can they be related to any otolith like part of humans?"

Michelle LaComb - Hydrophone Recordings

Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to go out and make any new recordings with the hydrophone this week. I sorted through some of the recordings that I have stored on my computer and put a few of them into a short video that I'm hoping will work here on the blog. There's not really anything super interesting in the recordings but I wanted to share them anyways so that you guys can get an idea of the stuff that I've been picking up. As for the video itself, I had intended to include some photos and videos I shot when out recording but my new memory card reader has yet to come in the mail. Blame the postal service for the boring video! haha

Ryan Dail - Project Update

Being that my topic is about how NOAA uses otoliths to benefit coastal fisheries, I wanted to take time to learn a little bit more about the otolith itself instead of just what it is used for. Each fish (with the exception of a few species) have calcium carbonate structures located behind the brain called otoliths. The otoliths are commonly referred to as "earstones". There are three types of otoliths in a fish, all of which help in hearing and balance. The sagittae being the largest of the three, is involved in detecting and converting sound waves into electrical signals. This is the otolith that researchers use to gather specific information about the fish and its environment. The second otolith is called the asterisci. This otolith aids the sagittae in the detection and processing of sound. The lapilli is the third otolith and this otolith is involved in the detection of gravitational force as well as sound.

Deanna - Last Week's Lab and Project

Invertebrates Lab

The lab was so interesting this week!! I really wasn't sure what to expect. It was only about a month ago when Dr. Woodall deployed the BOB's (Basic Observation Buoy's) in the river. In that short amount of time there grew an amazing amount of invertebrates on the settling plates that were attached to the bottom of the BOB's!

Plastic bin used to transport the settling plates with water from the location.

Before we could look at the life under a dissection microscope (no we didn't dissect anything), we had to  match the salinity of the water in the plastic bins that the settling plates were in. Once we took 'sea water' and diluted down to match the saline of the bins, we put that water in plastic trays. Then we placed a settling plate in the tray and set it under the microscope.

Making 24 ppt solution to match the water from the location.

Wow!! There were so many living organisms on that plate! I would never have thought that it would look like it did. We saw tube worms, feather dusters, and some translucent jelly that appeared to be breathing. It was insanely interesting but at the same time it was gnarly! Life is just amazing.

Settling plate with very small organisms on it.

Tray with the settling plate under dissection microscope.

We tried to identify as many species as we could. It is quite difficult to do the identification. Sabellidae family (tube worm), Planariidae family (flat worms), and cirripedia family (barnacles) were a few of the organisms that we found. It was a good lab.

Here's what it looks like under the microscope!! If you enlarge the pic, you can see tubeworms, feather dusters, and the living clear jelly.

Project news

We are getting things ready to take our prototype out on the water to try and calibrate it with the current meter. We have decided to take some extra parts and pieces in case of necessary modifications.

Have a great week and be curious!

Brittnie-Coral Project

Tomorrow afternoon I will start my project by cutting my piece of coral into five pieces, then putting each one in a different pH; 8.1 will be my control because that is the average pH of the ocean since industrialization, before then the ocean pH was 0.1 higher. 

To be exact, acidification has caused the oceans pH to drop from 8.179 to the current 8.069. Over time the pH is expected to decrease down to 7.8 by the year 2100, so my four amounts of pH will be the oceans pH decreasing over a hundred year span; 8, 7.9, 7.8, and 7.7.

I will measure each piece of coral before putting it in the water, and twice a week for three weeks. I will also weigh each piece of coral before and after the experiment, but before I weigh the coral after taking it out of the water, I will have to let it dry out. I will mix Instant Ocean with distilled water to create saltwater, then use HCL (hydrogen chloride) with a dilution equation to lower the pH. 

At the end of the experiment, I will record how much the pH has decreased. By doing this experiment, I will find out how fast coral dissolves in each amount of pH. 

If you go to this URL below, you can watch a piece of coral dissolving in vinegar. The pH of vinegar is typically between 4.25 and 5, so my coral will not dissolve this fast but I thought it was a good video show.

http://centerforoceansolutions.org/climate/wp-content/uploads/flash/player-licensed.swf?width=600&height=400&file=Acid_Ocean.flv&autostart=true

Northern Indian River Lagoon - Seaira

During my research of the sea grass beds in the Indian River Lagoon, I would like to concentrate on the northern region of the lagoon, including Mosquito Lagoon. I am interested in this particular area because of a recent brown tide that was very destructive in 2012, this algae bloom started in the northern lagoon region. I also noticed from the 2011 "superbloom" investigation that the northern region of the lagoon  had extremely high levels of chlorophyll a still present in the water from the June 2012 water sampling that was conducted. I found through my research that the brown tide experienced in 2012 was a result of a certain type of algae in the Pelagophyceae class, which is prevalent in marine environments. This algae goes by the name of Aureoumbra lagunensis, and when a bloom of this algae grows out of hand from excess nutrients it can cause poor water clarity, and light attenuation resulting in death of sea grasses and organisms in the pelagic and benthic environments.

I hope that from the 5 sample sites I select from the lagoon that I can get a over-all picture of the health of the lagoon in the Northern region.

Turbines and Tidal Energy by Jeffrey

For those of you checking in for the first time; De and I are working on an unmanned instrument that will collect tidal energy data, current measuring device (CMD). Based on our data we will determine if tidal energy is a viable alternative and renewable source of electricity.

                                                                                                    
This week I wanted to share some other styles of water turbines.The sea kite is designed in Sweden and will be deployed off the coast of Ireland for testing.                                                                                           

These units at a minimum of 20 meters below the surface are tethered to the sea floor. They work in low velocity currents: less than 2.5 m/s and can produce 500 kW.

What I found totally interesting about these units is they perform 10 times faster than the current they operate in. That results in a 1000 times more energy; which means they are very efficient.






The hydrocoil or clustered hydrocoil is designed for areas where water is on the constant flow; whether it be culverts, streams, rivers, or  ocean currents. 







The single unit has a 2 kW output. It is similar to an Archimedes Screw; but, it uses the more advanced helical design. This design is much more efficient.


Efficiency is key when it comes to output. The propeller style turbines are ~20% efficient; while the helical design is ~35% efficient. The Pelamis style is ~70%.  

Last week Houston had asked a question in regards to the horizontal turbine; the TideGen  produces 150 kW. For Angela; the TideGen is in use off the coast of Italy and the river turbine is currently in use in Ecuador. One unit serves 10 households and meets the World Bank Standards for Rural Electrification.