8 13 2014 Manchester Repro check

Manchester WA

Hi 60's to Mid 70s Mostly Cloudy

Performed the Anesthesia SOP with insulation and ice blocks on the treatment tub. Weather conditions allowed for the pretreatment and recovery tubs to go uncovered. All populations were brooding this week at Manchester and in almost equal numbers. Had good treatment success due to low boat traffic. Surprised at how active this site has become in supposedly the late part of the season. Definitely want to check this site again around the September full moon.

Numbers as Follow

Temps in C

Pretreatment
Initial    9
45        10
1.5       12

Treatment
Initial     10
45         11
1.5        12
2.25      11

Recovery
Initial     11
45         12
1.5        12


Salinity in ppt
Pretreatment   29
Treatment       67
Recovery        29


Brood Collection
4N13-16
Brood    3
Gaping   63
Dead      8
Closed   2

Brooders
#    size    sick
1    31      w
2    24      W
3    22      W

4H13-16
Brood     2
Gaping    59
Dead       8
Closed    0

Brooder
#    size    sick
1    21      w
2    15      W

4S5-8
Brood    2
Gaping   55
Dead      3
Closed    9

Brooders
#    size    sick
1    25      W
2    19      W

Pics have brooders between tube label and calipers and closed on same tile. Gapers on all other tiles.

8 6 2014 Manchester Repro check

Manchester WA

Hi 60s to Low 80s

Performed the anesthesia SOP with insulation and ice blocks on the treatment tub and tarp on the pretreatment and recovery tubs. Forgot my work box when I was packing yesterday and had to borrow a digital thermometer, ruler, refractometer, and notebook from Doug and Andy at the NOAA facility. The thermometer read in Fahrenheit and the refractometer hadn't been calibrated recently. The readings from both seemed accurate enough though the Temp readings will need to be converted to Celsius at some point. As for spawning, the animals at Manchester seem to be increasing their spawning efforts as the next tidal cycle approaches. I had 4 brooders in the southern pop and 2 in the dabob pop, all of pretty good quality. It wouldn't surprise me with the temperatures that if the current temperatures remain through the middle of September these animals might continue spawning until they are forced to stop by temp influence.

Numbers as Follow:

Temps in F
Pretreatment
Initial    64
45        66
1.5       67

Treatment
Initial    68
45        69
1.5       70
2.25     69

Recovery
Initial   61
45       63
1.5      64

Salinity in ppt
Pretreatment      33
Treatment          65
Recovery           34

Brood Collection

4H1-4
Brood   2
Gaping  77
Dead     12
Closed  5

Brooders
#    Size    Sick
1     24      W
2     24      W

4N9-12
Brood     0
Gaping    45
Dead       4
Closed    5

4S9-12
Brood     4
Gaping    50
Dead       11
Closed    7

Brooders
#    size    sick
1    24      W
2    22      W
3    25      W
4    25      Grey

Pics are of all animals. Brooders are between purple ruler and tube label. Closed are on the same tile as brooders. Gaping animals are on all other tiles. Some crossover due to adhered animals on tiles.

7 30 2014 Manchester Repro Check

Manchester WA

Hi 60's to low 80's

Performed the anesthesia SOP with insulation on the treatment tub and water addition to the pretreatment and recovery tubs. Found one brooder in Southern and Dabob populations each. Also talked to Stuart at PSRF about spawning groups, he said they spawn Olys in groups of twenty.

Numbers as Follow

Temps in C

Pretreatment

Initial    11
45        12
1.5       14

Treatment
Initial    13
45        13
1.5       13
2.25     13

Recovery
Initial     13
45         15
1.5        17

Salinity in ppt

Pretreatment   28
Treatment       60
Recovery        27

Brood Collection

4S13-16
Brood   1
Gaping  69
Dead     10
Closed   10

Brooder
#   Size  Sick
1    24    W   *Sample of poor quality due to screen failure

4N1-4
Brood     0
Gaping    45
Dead      12
Closed    7

4H9-12
Brood     1
Gaping    45
Dead       9
Closed    11

Brooder
#     size     sick
1     20       w

Pics have brooders between tube label and caliper. Closed oysters on the same tile. Open oysters on the other three tiles. Some oysters on closed/brooder tiles are open and vice versa due to the fact of the guys glued to the tiles.

7 23 14 Manchester Repro Survey

Manchester WA

Hi 50's to mid 60's Rainy, overcast

Participants: Joseph Stevick and Jake Heare

Performed the anesthesia sop with insulation on the treatment tub and tarp on the pretreatment/recovery tubs. No ice blocks because of the cloudy cool conditions. Found a few brooders in the Southern pop and one in the Dabob pop. Very middle of the road spawning.

Numbers as follow

Temp in C

Pretreatment
initial          8
45 min       9
1.5 hr        8

Treatment
Initial         8
45 min       9
1.5 hr        8
2.25  hr     8

Recovery
Initial        8
45 min      8
1.5 hr       8

Salinity in ppt

Pretreatment    27
Treatment        70
Recovery         28

Brood collection

4H5-8
Brood   1
Gaping  67
dead      7
closed    9

brooders
#     size   sick
1     15     w

4S1-4
Brood   2
Gaping  59
Dead     1
closed    6

Brooders
#    size   sick
1    27     w
2    23     w

4N5-8
Brood    0
Gaping   60
Dead     10
Closed   9

Also took pictures of the entire population. In the pics, the tile with the caliper and label tube are the closed animals except for the animals that are between the tube and calipers which were brooders.

7 16 2014 Manchester Repro Check

Manchester WA

Low 70s to Mid 80s

Participants: Alicia Godersky and Jake Heare

Performed the anesthesia SOP with insulation and ice blocks on the treatment group and tarp over the recovery and pretreatment tubs. Finally found multiple brooders in one population. If you can guess the pop, you can consider yourself an Oly Whisperer. The brooding animals were also much smaller than expected. Half were less than 20 mm which is quite odd.  Also temps fluxed on the tubs on the dock even with replacing water, the combination of sun and no breeze just baked the docks.

Numbers as follow:

Temps in C
Pretreatment
Initial     10
45         12
1.5        13

Treatment
Initial      12
45          13
1.5         12
2.25       11

Recovery
Initial      12
45          14
1.5         15


Salinity in ppt
Pretreatment      26
Treatment          66
Recovery           25


Brood Collection
4S5-8
Brood    3
Gaping   59
Dead      12
Closed   12

Brooders
#     size     sick
1      22      w
2      16      w
3      20      w

4H13-16
Brood     1
Gaping    56
Dead       8
Closed    17

Brooders
#     size    sick
1      17     W

4N13-16
Brood     0
Gaping    61
Dead       6
Closed    8

7 9 2014 Manchester Repro Check

Manchester, WA

Hi 60s to Mid 80s, sunny

Participants: Joe Stevick and Jake Heare

Used the anesthesia SOP with insulation modification and ice blocks in both the treatment and recovery trays. Treatment stayed within 1 degree, while recovery trays stayed within 5 degrees. Found 1 brooder from the Dabob population which was pretty interesting considering that none of the other populations have been spawning.

Numbers as follow:

Temps in C

Pretreatment
Initial        11
45 min      13
1.5 hr       16


Treatment
Initial       11
45 min     12
1.5 hr      11
2.25 hr    10

Recovery
Initial       13
45 min     16
1.5 hr      17

Salinity in PPT

Pretreatment     26
Treatment        53
Recovery         27


Brood Collection
4N9-12
Brood       0
Gaping      45
Dead        12
Closed      2

4S9-12
Brood       0
Gaping      55
Dead        22
Closed      15

4H1-4
Brood       1
Gaping      60
Dead         5
Closed      21

Brooders
#       size     sick
1       21       w

7 2 2014 Manchester Repro Update

Manchester WA

Mid 60's to High 70s Sunny

Participants: L. Christine Savolainen and Jake Heare

Used the Anesthesia SOP with the insulation and ice blocks on the treatment tubs. Found absolutely no brooders. This site just does not have the conditions necessary for these animals to spawn. It must be due to the colder deep water that comes into the bay off the Sound.

Numbers as Follow:

Temps in C

Pretreatment
Initial     10
45 min   11
1.5 hr     15 * sun came out

Treatment
Initial     11
45 min   11
1.5 hr    10
2.25       9

Recovery
Initial     11
45 min   13
1.5 hr    15

Salinity in ppt
Pretreatment    28
Treatment        67
Recovery        28

Brood Collection

4H9-12
Brood          0
Gaping         52
Dead           20
Closed         8

4S13-16
Brood           0
Gaping          31
Dead             4
Closed          48 *Lots of boat traffic shaking the dock

4N1-4
Brood          0
Gaping        40
Dead           20
Closed         18

6 30 2014 June Survivorship Data

Just for toots and googles I worked up the survivorship data from June just to see where we stand number wise out in the field. This comes from the weekly counts of gapers and closed animals which together make up the total number of living animals. These numbers are tentative and will be verified in the future when we do a full scale work up of the samples in August or September for the annual sample taking.

All numbers are for living animals only.

Oyster Bay	N	H	S
1-4	73	86	97
5-8	63	56	0
9-12	85	97	1
13-16	0	12	93
Total	221	251	191
Manchester	N	H	S
1-4	90	96	65
5-8	95	92	93
9-12	61	89	98
13-16	87	79	94
Total	333	356	350
Fidalgo	N	H	S
1-4	96	93	93
5-8	97	99	93
9-12	93	87	97
13-16	110	91	87
Total	396	370	370

While there has been a pretty major loss in Oyster Bay, I think we can safely proceed into year 2 with enough animals to get significant data from their development as well as Year 2 reproductive effort. 

Also in previous counts Manchester had the highest survival but is now well below that of Fidalgo. I think this is due to the much warmer sunnier conditions at Manchester which lead to a 10% mortality event in the beginning of May and may continue to cause a small 1-2% mortality each month during repro sampling. 

This info is also really cool when you compare it to the number of Brooders I've found over the course of the season for each population at each site. 

Total Brooders	Manchester	Oyster Bay	Fidalgo
N	1	15	2
H	1	5	0
S	1	32	11
1st brood	6/18/2014	5/29/2014	6/6/2014
		*1N trays were sampled twice in one sample date

Percent brooders from each pop for entirety of sampling period is as follows

Percent Brood	Manchester	Oyster Bay	Fidalgo
N	0.30%	6.79%	0.51%
H	0.28%	1.99%	0.00%
S	0.29%	16.75%	2.97%

So almost 17% of the South Sound population at Oyster Bay has spawned and about 3% of the same population at Fidalgo has spawned. It blows me away that they are nearly 6 times as productive as the Dabob population in their home site but at Manchester they are not significantly different.  Its also cool that they are twice as productive as the Northern population in South sound and almost 5 times more productive at Fidalgo bay. 

Bonnie has suggested to me that the animals taken from Fidalgo for the original broodstock are possibly from a population that is being restored with animals from South Sound. This could be leading to an outbreeding depression with regards to local adaptation in the northern population and the reason the South sound animals are more prolific than the northern pops. 

The other take away from these numbers is that it seems to me that Dabob animals are juggernauts that don't spawn. They have the highest survivorship at two of the sites (though Oyster Bay is arguable due to the many accidental exposure and other mishaps) and are very close to the North Sound populace at Fidalgo. 

Eventually graphing all this with temps and tide times would be helpful to determine any differences in week to week spawn collections. 

6 25 2014 Manchester Repro Check

Manchester WA

Mid 60's to mid 70s sunny

Participants: L. Christine Savolainen and Jake Heare

Performed the Anesthesia SOP modified with insulation on the treatment tub as well as ice blocks to keep temperatures within range. Found one brooder in the Northern population with minimal larvae and found one brooder from Dabob that had a very strange mix of eggs and what appeared to be semen. This might be evidence for an abortive spawn. also collected all mortalities from trays.

numbers as follow.

Temps in C

Pretreatment
Initial       10
45 min     15
1.5 hr       15

Treatment
Initial       11
45 min     11
1.5 hrs     11
2.25 hr     11

Recovery
Initial        10
45 min      15
1.5 hr        17


Salinity
Pretreatment      27
Treatment          65
Recovery           21


Brood Collection

4S1-4
Brood    0
Gaping     50
Dead      22
Closed    13

4N5-8
Brood        1
Gaping       53
Dead         23
Closed       19

Brooders
#       size      sick
1        25        w

4H5-8
Brood       1
Gaping      52
Dead        7
Closed      33

Brooders
#        size         sick
1        15           W

Harbor Seal watching us work all day. 

6 18 2014 Manchester Repro Check

Manchester, WA

Hi 50's to mid 60's, mostly cloudy until later in the day

Participants: L. Christine Savolainen and Jake Heare

Performed the Anesthesia SOP modified with insulators and ice blocks for the treatment tub. Found 1 brooder at Manchester. It seems no matter where they are, South Sound oysters just love to spawn. Also collected all mortalities from all trays checked. Failed to take a picture of the single brooder, I absent mindedly put the tray into recovery before taking the pic and then couldn't find the brooder when I did remember.

Numbers as Follow:

Temps in C

Pretreatment
Initial         7
45 min       8
1.5 hr        10

Treatment
Initial        8
45 min      8
1.5 hr       7
2.25 hr      7

Recovery
Initial         8
45 min       8
1.5 hr        10

Salinity in ppt
Pretreatment     30
Treatment         71
Recovery          30

Brood Collection

4H13-16
Brood      0
Gaping     63
Dead       4
Closed     12

4N13-16
Brood       0
Gaping     73
Dead        2
Closed      12

4S5-8
Brood      1
Gaping     55
Dead       10
Closed     28

Brooder
#           size       sick
1           19         w

Temperature Logger Readings from May to Mid June 2014

Last week I pulled temperature data from the logger pendants out in the field using the Shuttle. Everything performed stellarly and I have the temp graphs on the computer. I'll go by site for each temp graph.

Manchester, WA

From the temperature readings it appears that Manchester has stayed below the 12.5 C mark for most of the logging period. Only recently have temperatures crested the 12.5 mark and stayed that way for several days. It may be soon that the animals will begin spawning and brooding (or spawned within the last week or so). 

Oyster Bay, WA

From this data and the amount of brooders we have seen at Oyster Bay, its clear that temps have been above the 12.5 C mark  since early May. This again correlates with expectations and as temperatures steadily increase I believe we may see a slowing of reproduction due to stress demands. 

Fidalgo Bay, WA

Contrary to the observations in the field, it seems that Fidalgo bay has been much warmer since the beginning of June. Though it does look like in early May there was a warm period for several days. As of June 1st temperatures crested the 12.5 C mark and headed into spawning temps. We saw our first brooder approximately 6 days after that and saw a large number of brooders approximately 12 days after temps went above 12.5. Though temps have somewhat decreased recently I believe we will continue to see spawning across the board.

Overall I think that the populations are responding to temperature cues nicely, though it does seem that North sound respond quickly to temperature increases. The south sound animals seem to have nearly synchronous spawning during warm periods which would be of obvious benefit in South Sound where temps continue to increase and only stay within the spawning window for a short amount of time. The dabob animals seem to have reduced response to temperature cues and do not actively spawn unless temps are somewhat stable for a duration of time. 

6 11 2014 Manchester Repro

Manchester WA

Temps Mid 60's to High 70s
Sunny

Participants: Joelle Blais and Jake Heare

Used the Anesthesia SOP to check for brooding larvae. I modified this per Steven and Brent's suggestions to temperature control via adding ice blocks to the solution as well as insulate the tub with 2 inch styrofoam insulation with foil top and bottom. Much to my surprise not only did the insulation work, kept water within 1 degree of ambient with out ice blocks, it actually lowered the temps of the treatment when ice blocks were added (2 degrees below ambient). I believe this insulation and ice blocks method will be the way to go from here on out. Even on the warmest days I see it insulating the tubs very well.

Numbers as follow:

Temps in C

Pretreatment

Initial        9
45 min      15
1.5 hrs      19

Treatment

Initial     11
45 min   11
1.5 hrs    10
2.25 hrs   8

Recovery
Initial       11
45 mins    13
1.5 hrs     15


Salinity in ppt

Pretreatment      25
Treatment          65
Recovery           25


Brood Collection

4H1-4
Brood     0
Gapin      63
Dead       2
Closed     31

4S9-12
Brood       0
Gaping      49
Dead         12
Closed       37

4N9-12
Brood      0
Gaping     41
Dead        8
Closed     12

One male in the 4H group had sperm within its shell. I assume these animals are attempting to spawn though water temps seem to be below expectation.

6 4 2014 Manchester Repro Check

Manchester WA

Mid 60s to Low 70s

Followed the Anesthesia SOP to check for brooding oysters. Found no brooders. Water temperatures we also quite low. Last week the surface water temp was around 13 C. This week it was closer to 8 C. I think the bay underwent another turn over event which may lead to either a much later spawn timing for the oysters or an abortive spawn which we will not catch. 

Numbers as Follows:

Temps (Celsius)

Pretreatment 

Initial       8

45 min     9 

1.5 hrs.    10

Treatment

Initial         7

45 min     10

1.5 hr       12

2.25 hr      12

Recovery

Initial      8

45 min    9

1.5 hr     9

Salinity (ppt)

Initial          28

Treatment   63

Recovery    28

Brood Check

4S13-16

Brood    0

Gaping  60

Dead     3

4N1-4

Brood     0

Gaping    43

Dead       15

4H9-12

Brood    0

Gaping   55

Dead      11

Also toured the new hatchery at Manchester with Ryan, saw a chipmunk, and the canadian goose on the docks hatched 4 of it 5 eggs. They goslings were adorable.

Brooding Olys in Hatchery

Flow through with bong screen to catch Oly larvae. 

Various flowthroughs for brooding Olys

Oly larvae (invisible)

Larval Tanks and Ryan's Gesticulation

Chipmunk

Baby Goslings!

Clam Bay with glassy surface waters!

5 28 2014 Manchester Repro Check

Manchester WA

Mid 60s

Started partly cloudy and warm, then rained later in the day while finishing the last tray check.

Took temperatures while the temp probe still worked. Probe failed halfway through the day due to being doused with salt water.

Followed procedure listed in the Reproduction Anesthesia SOP. Modified the procedure at the end by eliminating the time for the final tray to recover due to the torrential rain.

Also took salinity of the water collected as well as the treatment salinity.

Temps as follows:
Seawater for pre treatment in C
Initial:          13.1
45 min:       19.5
1.5 hrs:       23.8

Treatment Temps in C
Initial:          15.3
45 mins:       21.2
1.5 hrs:        23.5

Salinity (taken during initial collection/treatment creation)
Seawater:   26.5 ppt
Treatment:  68.5 ppt

Brooding Conditions as follows:
4S1-4
Brood    0
Gaping   43
Dead      9

4H5-8
Brood    0
Gaping   27
Dead      0

4N5-8
Brood     0
Gaping    54
Dead      15


There were two oysters in 4H5-8 and three in 4N5-8 that looked like candidated for brooding due to darkened gill tissues. Rinsed all 5 thoroughly with seawater in to 52 um screen but collected nothing. Gill tissue color did not change. I assumed these animals were not brooding based on this.

5 21 2014 Manchester repro

Did a brood check today at manchester. Found no brooders. 

Numbers as follows. 

4S5-8

Brood. 0

Gaping. 76

Dead.  3

4H13-16

Brood. 0

Gaping. 16

Dead.  2

4N13-16

Brood. 0

Gaping.  40

Dead.  3

Enjoy this picture of an eagle.

5-14 to 15-16 2014 Reproduction Work Up

5-14-2014

Manchester WA

Participants: Brent Vadopalas and Jake Heare

We retrieved the next set of trays in the dosing sequence and allowed each tray to dessicate for 45 minutes. Trays were then treated in a 10 gallon bath of 50% sea water to 50% freshwater mixed with 7 lbs of epsom salt. The tray was treated for 45 minutes, at which point it was removed and gaping animals were examined for signs of brooding. After examination the trays were then placed into a recovery tub with 100% sea water until the last tray examined had be in the recovery tub for 45 minutes. After each treatment the treatment water was replaced with fresh treatment to reduce temperature flux.  Then trays were rebuilt into a stack and hung off the dock. 

We counted the number of gaping animals and brooders for each tray. 

They are as follows:

4H1-4

brooders 0

Gaping 25

Closed 72
% Open  25.8%

4S9-12

Brooders 0

Gaping  43

Closed  55
% Open  43.9%

4N9-12

Brooders 0

Gaping 31

Closed  28
% Open 52.5%

5-15-2014

Oyster Bay WA

Participants: Katie Jackson and Jake Heare

We followed a procedure similar to that at Manchester. The difference being that the treatment water was not replaced after each treatment. We also counted the dead in each tray.

1H1-4

Brooders 0

Gaping    49

Dead      7

Closed   33
% Open  59.8%

1N5-8

Brooders 0

Gaping    46

Dead      7

Closed  14
% Open  76.7%

1S13-16

Brooders 0

Gaping     59

Dead        8

Closed    26
% Open  69.4%

5-16-2014

Fidalgo WA

Participants: Steven Roberts and Jake Heare

Same procedure as at Oyster Bay. 

2N1-4

Brood 0

Open 53

Dead  0

Closed  46
% Open  53.5%

2S13-16

Brood 0

Gaping  55

Dead   0

Closed 39
% Open  58.5%

2H5-8

Brood 0

Gaping 48

Dead  0
Closed  52
% Open   48%