huangt3's Journal

As part of our MERE project Lauren and I had to prepare crab pots. Our research is on the dentition of crab claws. We need to catch different species of crabs at different ages.

What we did to prepare the pots was that we put 2 drumsticks into each pot, zip tied the sides of the cages in case if the crabs escape and loaded everything up into the Coot.

Kevin then drove us to Brown island where we deployed them to the bottom of the Puget Sound. Once they touched the bottom, we threw in another 2 feet of rope and tied the rest up and threw in the buoy as well. We will check up on them 24 hours later.

We went to check up on the pots the next day and guess what, there were at least 5 Dungeness Crabs in each pot. We were so excited to have caught something! Once we hauled up all the pots, we then headed back to the dock. We wanted to catch another species, so we set the crab pots up and lowered them under the dock hoping to catch some Red Rock Crabs.

I've never gone crabbing before so this was a great experience for me!

I thought identifying crabs using a dichotomous key would be easy, but I was wrong. The details Lauren and I had to pay attention to was difficult to tell on different species of crabs. The first time we started taking pictures of the crabs we caught for our MERE project, we thought there were only 3 species. We were so focused on using the dichotomous key to figure out which crabs were what we forgot to look at the carapace shape and claw shape and what not

A couple days later, Kevin gave us a crab identification 101 session. We learned that Hemigrapsus nudus has purple spots on the claw, Pugettia gracilis has a pinched carapace, Pugettia richii has spines on the carapace and so much more.

We had a total of 8 different species and we didn't know it! I'm glad we actually got a chance to go through each crab species and see the actual differences rather than going off of the dichotomous key. I am now a professional crab identifier (sort of)!

All in all, the MERE project is going well. I am happy with our process and I am loving all the things I am learning about crabs that I didn't know before!

In lab last week, we had to dissect salmon heads, boil it then glue the bones back together. I haven't started gluing yet, but I know I will have a tough time trying to put the pieces back together. My first thought was that the dissection part should be too hard, but boy was I wrong.

As I started to cut away at the skin, I wasn't aware that there were so much cartilage and tiny bones everywhere. I basically cut a hole through the right side of the skull so I knew I had to be super careful from then on. I successfully removed most of the skin and flesh. The next step was to take out the eye without cutting into any of the bones around it. The only time I've ever taken out an eye was during my rat dissection in the 12th grade. I was able to take out the right eye successfully! So proud of myself!

I boiled what was left of the head for about 4 minutes, then brought it back to my desk and cleaned off the rest of the bones. I organized it by sides so when it was time for me to glue the pieces back, it would be a little easier. I tried the keep the bigger pieces together, but the bones were so fragile. They are now sitting sitting on my desk in the lab waiting for me to glue them back together. I am looking forward to this challenge and I hope I can do it well!