Heppell Lab at PICES

During the week of October 25th through the 29th a few members of the Heppell lab current and past attended the annual meeting for the North Pacific Marine Science Orginization (PICES), in Portland, Oregon. This meeting was an opportunity for students in the lab to interact with scientists working in the north Pacific from the US, Canada, Russia, Japan, South Korea, and China. Oregon State University was well represented with multiple scientists from Hatfield Marine Science Center as well as students from Fisheries and Wildlife, COAS and zoology.

The meetings theme this year was"North Pacific Ecosystems Today, and Challenges in Understanding and Forcasting Change". Much of the meeting's sessions were on the influences of changing climate on species distributions, trophic interactions as well as large scale oceanographic considerations. Current students, Kevin Thompson and Luke Whitman had research relevant to this theme in the north Pacific and were lucky enough to attend for free and receive lodging from PICES in exchange for volunteer time at the registration desk. Luke presented one chapter of his thesis with a talk entitled "Variation in the distribution and energy density of juvenile walleye Pollock in the southeastern Bering Sea". Kevin's poster, "Factors affecting the diets of groundfish in the Gulf of Alaska" presented some preliminary results of his dissertation work. Both presentations were well recieved and both students had an opportunity to discuss their research with multiple scientists representing a variety of agencies. Current student Linsey Arnold and former students Ali Dauble (now with ODFW) and Marisa Litz (now with NMFS Northwest Science Center) took the opportunity to attend portions of this meeting.Overall, it was a great opportunity having this large, international meeting so close in Portland and multiple members of lab took that time to make important contacts as well as increase exposure to the lab's research.

For more information on PICES, this last meeting as well as future meetings go to www.pices.int



















Luke Whitman presenting and Kevin Thompson with poster at PICES 2010

Bringing Enthusiasm and Science to Alaska: WGC 2010

From April 26- 30, seven members of the Heppell lab attended the 16th biennial Western Groundfish Conference (WGC), which was held in Juneau, Alaska. In addition to gorgeous weather, highlights of the trip included a whale watching adventure in Auke Bay where we spotted hundreds of bald eagles, two breaching orca whales, bubble netting and feeding, a spyhopping humpback, and numerous fluke shows that I was never really able to capture with my camera. Additionally, the Heppell lab presented a poster and 4 talks, one of which won 2nd place for best student paper (way to go Ali!). There were a number of great talks in addition to those from our lab, including talks on habitat and distribution, stock assessment, fishery monitoring/ management, ecosystem processes, life history (a.k.a. the OSU session), and advanced technology of our western groundfish. When we weren’t listening attentively to these talks, we could be found on one of the many amazing hikes around town, likely the Mendenhall Glacier (which is ~12 miles long!), at the Alaskan Brewing Company (6 free “samples”!), or walking around downtown Juneau. Entertainment for the week also included a tour of the Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute (where some Heppell labmates got left behind… not naming names or admitting anything), a banquet with a comedian, a show with Ira Glass, and a few conference socials. Additional excitement was brought by all of the schwag and prizes that we took home, including a t-shirt with the 2010 WGC logo (by Doris Alcorn), which was particularly cool, door prizes that ranged from painted moose poop (literally) to black cod (which I accidentally left in the hotel room) to two tickets on another Bay tour, and Tom’s grand prize win of the Lotek pop-up satellite tag (you’ve got to love high-tech Lotek). Overall, it was an amazing week in Juneau, with the Heppell lab representing in style and volume. I can’t wait for WGC 2012, Washington!

Heppell lab talks:
1. Luke Whitman: Variation in the distribution and energy density of juvenile walleye Pollock in the southeastern Bering Sea.
2. Noelle Yochum: Reaping the rewards of collaboration: fishermen, scientists, and managers develop and implement surveys to monitor California nearshore fishes.
3. Ali Dauble: Juvenile rockfish settlement patters in Oregon estuaries.
4. Linsey Arnold: Maternal effects in a long-lived, deep-dwelling rockfish, Sebastes alutus

Heppell lab poster:
1. Suzanna Stoike: Collaborative rockfish research with the Oregon live fishery: lessons learned.

-Noelle

First picture: Juneau, AK.

Second picture: Bubble netting.

Third picture: Heppell lab members enjoy a wonderful afternoon of whale watching (with beer and wine) in Auke Bay. [From left: Luke Whitman, Alena Pribyl (recent graduate from Carl Schreck’s lab, OSU), Ali Dauble, Scott Heppell, Suzanna Stoike, Linsey Arnold, Tom Calvanese, and Noelle Yochum]

Fishing/Diving day in Port Orford

On February 18th, the weather in Port Orford FINALLY gave us a break.
A van full of Heppellians including 4 research certified divers in the lab headed south to volunteer their time to help complete video recompression work on rockfish.
As a part of the Port Orford tagging project, we used a recompression cage with an attached underwater camera to watch fish, specifically gravid rockfish, as they were lowered back to 1 atmosphere (~33 ft). After release from the cage divers followed the fish until they could no longer see it, or until the fish came to rest.
The day was a great success, sans the broken camera and the impossible surge towards the end of the day. We were able to capture two visibly gravid (pregnant) china rockfish and watch them as they returned to depth.
A huge thanks to the volunteers; Tom, Kenny, Sarikka, Scott, Stephanie, Ali, and Luke. Thanks to our wonderful charter captains, Aaron and Evan, for showing us a great day.

The Missing Pyramid...

Total missing GPS units from Heppell Lab:
1

Total number of search dives to recover location of pyramid:
7

Looking for a small pile of cinderblocks in cold water in a wetsuit on the Oregon coast in the dead of winter with fellow Heppell Lab members:
Priceless.



Shivonne, Scott, Stephanie, Luke, Brittany and Heather. Photo by Ali Dauble.

One of my artificial reef structures, the elusive fifth pyramid (of six), has been "missing" for several months now. Since the pyramid is about 1800 lbs of cinderblocks and mortar inside a large steel frame, it has not moved to another estuary, contrary to popular lab opinion. A recreational boater probably ran over the mooring buoy, so it is not currently marked (aka, "missing").

The artificial structures were constructed and deployed specifically for the purpose of developing an estuarine juvenile rockfish recruitment index, one part of my master's thesis. The structures were originally deployed in February 2008 and have remained in the murky waters of Yaquina Bay on the central Oregon coast ever since. Dive surveys on the structures for the last two years demonstrate that they were extremely successful in recruiting newly settled juvenile rockfish in both 2008 and 2009, in addition to many other fish and invertebrate species, and will provide us with more information regarding juvenile rockfish settlement rates within an estuary on the Oregon coast.



Does anyone remember "We found the sixth pyramid!"? Stephanie and Heather. Photo by Ali Dauble.

The photos in this post are from one of the search dives in late October where I had a large crew of divers from the Heppell Lab come out with me (and actually remembered my camera during all of the planning). Unfortunately, these search dives were all unsuccessful in locating the fifth pyramid (see photo above). As of now, the current plan is to do some slow trawling with the lab boat, the Marine Team whaler, instead of search dives, continuing sometime in December. This will allow us to cover a lot more ground during slack tide and not kill me organizing more large dive crews.

A special thank you to all who came out to help dive for these search dives and thanks for your volunteer dives over the last two years!


The dive crew on a (surprisingly) beautiful day in Yaquina Bay. Scott, Heather, Shivonne, Ali, Brittany, and Stephanie. Photo by Ali Dauble.

Introduction to the Heppell Lab

We are a diverse group of ecologists and physiologists working on a variety of topics!  We hope this blog gives you a way to get to know us better.  Current research topics include work on:

• larval quality in Pacific Ocean Perch
• science and education surrounding marine reserves in Oregon
• methods for improving stock assessment
• rockfish recruitment in Oregon estuaries
• rockfish conservation through cooperation with fishers
• trophic ecology and ecosystem modelling of the Bering Sea
• heat shock proteins as indicators of thermal stress in eastern Oregon streams
• reproduction of lake trout in the Great Lakes
• interactions between redband trout and mountain whitefish in the Crooked River
• behavior and population trends of grouper in the Cayman Islands
• using vertebral chemical composition to distinguishing natal origins of sharks and rays
• nesting behavior and movements of sea turtles
• understanding the consequences of invasion of Humbolt squid

In addition, members of the lab have been to interesting national and international meetings, have received a number of awards, and often find themselves on trips to new and exciting places associated with their research.