My Internship Experience on the R/V Rachel Carson
By Lucy Roussa for CICOES Magazine
I HAVE ALWAYS HAD AN AFFINITY FOR JELLYFISH. hey were my favorite organism to watch in the aquarium, not to mention the various jellyfish-related wall hangings and trinkets I have around my house, so it was an uncanny coincidence that I was chosen to work on a CICOES intern project with Dr. Julie Keister involving Moon jellyfish (Aurelia labiata). As you can imagine, I was very excited!
The focus of the project is to investigate the effects that large Aurelia aggregations have on forage fish populations in Puget Sound. My role was to improve an existing image processing protocol that uses aerial photos of jellyfish aggregations to estimate their size in square meters. his process was primarily done using ImageJ, a tool that is used to equate pixels to actual measurements. he data could then be used to make comparisons over years to gain an understanding of how the aggregations are changing. After my internship was finished, I was given the amazing opportunity to join Dr. Keister and other scientists on the R/V Rachel Carson, University of Washington’s research vessel where I would aid in field work for this project for six days.
I HAD NEVER SAILED ON A BOAT for more than a few hours, let alone a few days! I did not know what to expect, but I was completely ready to be hands-on with jellyfish. When I arrived at the dock the main objective was to set up all of the equipment so we could begin working that same day. Before we started working there were many items that needed to be checked such as all the wet lab equipment (fluorometer, centrifuge, filtration system, acetone dispenser), and all the equipment on the deck (ring nets, jellyfish measurement station, bottles, hoses). After an introduction and a safety briefing it was time to get going. We headed to our first destination of Quartermaster Harbor.
My first job on the ship was to scout for jellyfish; not a bad task if you ask me. I stood on the stern on a beautiful sunny day while I stared into the water. Once we found jellyfish, we dropped anchor, attached the ring net to the winch, and dropped it into the water. I remember making a beeline for the weighing station. he thing I wanted the most was to pick up a jellyfish with my bare hands! Thankfully moon jellyfish are not able to sting humans, so they are safe to handle. When the first net with jellyfish was on the boat I took the end of the net, unclipped the cod end, and dropped the slimy, translucent creatures into a bucket. Releasing them from the net always made a satisfying “plop” which I came to enjoy over the six days. Once the jellyfish were captured, I took them one by one from the bucket and lipped them upside down onto a ruler and measured them end to end. hey ranged in size from two inches to a large dinner plate but on average they were about the width of my hand if I stretched out my pinky and thumb as far as I could. I loved every job on the ship, but handling the jellyfish had to be my favorite part.
“I didn’t know what to expect, but I was completely ready to be hands-on with jellyfish.”
Each day we would switch jobs with someone else, and by the end of the cruise we were all capable of working every position. One of those positions was learning how to collect zooplankton samples. his was done using an identical method to collect jellyfish, but we used a ring net with mesh that was very fine so microscopic animals could not escape. Once the net was on board it needed to be washed meticulously to ensure each zooplankter went into the catch bottle. I would then detach the bottle and pour the water into a sieve. After lots of rinsing, the zooplankton would be put in a bottle with formalin (a preservative) and stored for later analysis. Out of all of the jobs this was, in my opinion, the hardest especially if a jellyfish was caught in the net. It takes a long time to collect tiny zooplankton when they are all suspended in jellyfish goo!
I also enjoyed learning about the large, highly technical equipment on the boat such as the CTD and Multinet. These devices were deployed into the water by the winch and then controlled by a computer inside the boat where the bottles/nets could be closed at different depths. It was amazing to see these specialized tools in action.
One of my favorite places that we stayed overnight was the Bremerton dock. At er dinner we would look over the concrete dock and gaze at the water teeming with life. Anemones, nudibranchs, crabs, jellyi sh, tube worms, barnacles, limpets, seaweed, and schools of little i sh all in a concentrated area. I would lay on the dock and hang my head over the side just looking at all the little things going on. I was even able to catch a few nudibranchs which are tiny, cute sea slugs smaller than your pinky. One night when I was laying there, I saw three Lions Mane jellyfish floating around the boat. They were so large and beautiful with their hundreds of thread-like tentacles drifting below them. Unlike the moon jelly, their sting is quite powerful.
IT IS BECAUSE OF THIS opportunity to work on a research vessel that I feel fully coni dent in my pursuit of biological oceanography. It is no longer just a dream but has become my reality. I am proud to say that I have experienced research at sea, and I will continue my education to do just that. I plan to apply to graduate programs in this i eld and would like to embark on similar research projects as I have been part of in Dr. Keister’s lab. h e experience I’ve had with UW and CICOES was honestly life changing and I could not have dreamed of an internship more geared towards my research interests.
I would like to thank UW and all affiliates of CICOES for allowing me to become a more coni dent researcher and all around more coni dent individual. I cannot express how much I have enjoyed my time spent working on this project over the summer both remotely and in person.