Another day of field work

Last Tuesday (11/6), we took the boat out to work on our research project here at UW's Friday Harbor Labs. My partner and I are assisting one of the grad students here with his community ecology work with Copper Rockfish (Sebastes caurinus). For our project we are looking at the predator-prey relationship between rockfish and shrimp, and figuring out a good way to assess shrimp predation. To do this, we drop frames at two different sites in the area. We took the boat out in the morning, and despite the overcast weather, it was quite peaceful. The water was calm and the rain had not yet begun and there were many animals out enjoying themselves. In addition to the MANY seabirds we saw, we also saw a lot of Harbor Seals (Phoca vitulina) and a few Harbor Porpoises (Phocena phocena). We set out both frames successfully, and deployed a GoPro camera with one so we could get some video footage. All in all it was a beautiful morning to be out on the water!

Posted on November 10, 2012 01:47 AM by