Day 4: Phytoplankton, a guest speaker and the raft challenge!
Today marks yet another fruitful day since our arrival on the island. Since we got to wake up a little later – at 7AM – today, our energy was high and, after enjoying our oat milk-based breakfast cereal, we headed to Two Bush to start our research. While my research is more or less lab-based and less dependent on the tidal cycles as I’m conducting a phytoplankton study, I still decided to join the main group to get my body moving and blood running. In fact, my hypothesis – diatom abundance is higher near the dock than the windy Two Bush region given mid-to-low wave and wind actions – requires me to compare across regions. After collecting two buckets, one smaller and the other larger, a beaker, a 20-micron plankton net attached to a collection vial and another PVC/metal chunk of a tube that would be useful for second-time concentration, a squirt bottle, and a string, Steve, a plankton fanatic, and I came down to the coastal region of the Two Bush island. Throwing away the string-attached bucket and seeing that the waterline aligned with the inner line of the bucket, I knew I filled it with just as much water as I needed. And after the first attempt of concentration was successful, I started using a squirt bottle filled with salt-water to gently (but not too gently) rinse off the plankton residues on the mesh. “Not too gentle, not too brutal; Not too much; not too little,” I kept murmuring to myself, knowing too much water could defeat the meaning of a refined concentration, yet too little water simply wouldn’t help. I was as though at that grey area where every step could be potentially fatal.
Nevertheless, I made it, eventually. Taking the sample back to the lab, I started identifying species of interest, which includes Detonula, Eucampia, Chaetoceros, and so much more, though I have to narrow the list down to keep the study within the scope and viable. After the intertidal research time, we welcomed guest speaker Rick Wahle, a research professor at the University of Maine, to talk everything – yes, everything – about lobsters. Some of the statistics he presented were quite astonishing: 90% of the US share of lobsters come from the gulf of Maine; While the lobster population has fallen after the increase since 1980, its price has been soaring even until last year; its record-breaking monocultural value is set on 715 million USD. He also shared some personal anecdotes about how he started studying lobsters. “I started just thinking crustaceans were cool,” he said. But what really distinguished him from other kids thinking marine creatures are ‘cool’ is, as I believe, his curiosity, his insatiable desire of asking questions like “where do the baby lobsters live and go?” that would later prompt him to, using suction samplers and submersible collectors, research further. I asked him one question: “As lobsters become a cultural icon of Maine, the New England region, and even America, arguably, do you consider this cultural encapsulation/representation beneficial or harmful?” “Even knowing the name is important” was the bulk of his answer. Funny guy, I thought.
Now, let’s fast forward to the raft challenge, where all the fun, laughter, and accidents took place. I teamed up with Cassidy, Roger, and Ella, who pretty much did all the work, from tying knots to aligning barrels to actually steering the canoe-like raft – or the raft-like canoe – so I basically just watched and cheered for them from a distance. While we built the raft and succeeded in staying on top of it and making several turns faster than the other group – Waylon, Elisabeth, Elizabeth, and Lucy – we didn’t win the final race. The raft started off stable, yet as it neared the center of the Ice Pond, as Ella and Roger started leaning arbitrarily in all directions, as the strings tying the barrels began falling apart, with a “deafening” sound, it flipped – and they both fell into the water. I’ve been writing this blog for some time now, so I think it’s good place to stop and summarize some other highlights of the day, including that we finally got to take a hot shower (!), found a few reckless fish(e) on Two Bush and wild frog(e)s near the Ice Pond, and had plenty of time to rest. Good night, and see y’all tomorrow at 8AM!
Nevertheless, I made it, eventually. Taking the sample back to the lab, I started identifying species of interest, which includes Detonula, Eucampia, Chaetoceros, and so much more, though I have to narrow the list down to keep the study within the scope and viable. After the intertidal research time, we welcomed guest speaker Rick Wahle, a research professor at the University of Maine, to talk everything – yes, everything – about lobsters. Some of the statistics he presented were quite astonishing: 90% of the US share of lobsters come from the gulf of Maine; While the lobster population has fallen after the increase since 1980, its price has been soaring even until last year; its record-breaking monocultural value is set on 715 million USD. He also shared some personal anecdotes about how he started studying lobsters. “I started just thinking crustaceans were cool,” he said. But what really distinguished him from other kids thinking marine creatures are ‘cool’ is, as I believe, his curiosity, his insatiable desire of asking questions like “where do the baby lobsters live and go?” that would later prompt him to, using suction samplers and submersible collectors, research further. I asked him one question: “As lobsters become a cultural icon of Maine, the New England region, and even America, arguably, do you consider this cultural encapsulation/representation beneficial or harmful?” “Even knowing the name is important” was the bulk of his answer. Funny guy, I thought.
Now, let’s fast forward to the raft challenge, where all the fun, laughter, and accidents took place. I teamed up with Cassidy, Roger, and Ella, who pretty much did all the work, from tying knots to aligning barrels to actually steering the canoe-like raft – or the raft-like canoe – so I basically just watched and cheered for them from a distance. While we built the raft and succeeded in staying on top of it and making several turns faster than the other group – Waylon, Elisabeth, Elizabeth, and Lucy – we didn’t win the final race. The raft started off stable, yet as it neared the center of the Ice Pond, as Ella and Roger started leaning arbitrarily in all directions, as the strings tying the barrels began falling apart, with a “deafening” sound, it flipped – and they both fell into the water. I’ve been writing this blog for some time now, so I think it’s good place to stop and summarize some other highlights of the day, including that we finally got to take a hot shower (!), found a few reckless fish(e) on Two Bush and wild frog(e)s near the Ice Pond, and had plenty of time to rest. Good night, and see y’all tomorrow at 8AM!
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