Spawning Oly Predictions

After looking through the new temp data I pulled off the temp loggers yesterday I notice a few trends that have lead to some predictions as to which site will spawn first.

Oyster Bay

Temps are trending upward to the 12.5 C mark that the animals require to begin spawning. It seems that they will have hit that temperature this week and will possibly begin spawning next week. The forecast for next week is also encouraging with the daily ambient air temps to be 75 or higher. This will bring these animals to fruitition. The only problem being that it will be during a spring tide which is not good for spawning. 

If they don't spawn next week it will occur during the following neap tide during the second to last week in May.

Manchester

While these animals have experienced a warming trend, it seems as in recent weeks there has been a stalling of the warm temps. Water temperatures need to hit the 12.5 C mark and maintain them for several days to iniate spawning. It looks like it might be a slow start at Manchester or even a possible abortive spawn if the temps don't stay high enough long enough. I expect these guys to spawn in the last week of May, first week in June. 

Fidalgo

Temps here are colder than elsewhere but are experiencing consistent increases throughout time. It will probably be the last week of May when they spawn. 

5-8-2014 Anesthetization Issues

Dr. Roberts recently asked me why I was getting such a low response rate from the treatments. I was seeing between 5 and 50% of the animals become anesthetized. Monitoring the situation I have a few ideas on why. Which I stated in a response to him in a message which is copied below.

I think it was a combination of the warm ambient air temps that caused an increase in treatment temperature which led to animals not opening in the treatment.

I also checked my treatment calculations and the epsom salt concentration was about half. I calculated it fo 5 gallons instead of the full ten. I'll just double the amount of epsom salt to make it the proper concentration. Hopefully it will increase response from the animals.

Brent has also suggested doing sub samples instead of dosing the whole tray to limit exposure by all the animals and reduce the amount of epsom salt we are using. I think its better to dose the whole tray because I can't guarantee that the percentage of animals that open will stay the same. On top of this variable percentage, there will only be 10-20% of the animals brooding at any given time. If we don't treat enough animals we will be more likely to miss spawning effort. 

Brent also had some useful suggestions about previous work with the treatments as well as some recalculations of the treatment solution to increase treatment concentration.

Katie consistently saw about 30% response (without dessicating them first. I don't have her data on dessication, but response rate was higher).  If we stick with the 5% threshold to see brooders and a 30% response,  you'd need to treat 67 oysters to = 1.  If the response with dessication is closer to 60%, you can decrease the subsample by half.  
It sounds like the oysters may have been too warm to respond--important to bring a thermometer, and probably some ice packs to control treatment temp.  
85g/L = ~7 lbs of MgSO4 for 10 gallons.

It can be argued that we only treat half the tray at any given time to limit downstream effects from the treatment which may affect spawning including abortive spawns or gonadal regression. The problem with this is that too see any signs of spawning we would be looking for 1-2 animals in any group to be brooding. I don't think this is a reliable way to determine if the populations are spawning. We would be better served in treating the whole tray to avoid mixups and hopefully have a higher number of brooding animals to strongly suggest that they animals have spawned.

Fidalgo Bay 5-2-14

5-2-14

Anacortes WA
Fidalgo Bay
Start Time: 9:30 AM
Finish Time: 5:00 PM
Temps: Mid 60s to Mid 70s

Participants: Jake Heare

I arrived earlier in the morning. I pulled up the hanging devices and broke them down into individual trays. I collected dead, counted live, and photographed trays for size/growth for later analysis. Upon completing these metrics the trays were reorganized into stacks containing one tray from each population at a random level in stack (top, middle, bottom). 3 stacks were then rebuilt and hung off the docks.


The 4th stack was treated with an epsom salt mixture to anesthetize the animals for brooding larvae inspection. One tray was dosed at a time in a 10 gallon mixture of 50/50 sea water/freshwater with 6-8 cups of epsom salt in them (roughly 75-80 g/L). Gaping oysters in each tray were individually inspected for brooding larvae. Once inspection was completed, trays were then transferred to a tub filled with 10-15 gallons of fresh seawater to recover from treatment for 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on recovery rate. In the first tray we had 25 animals open up, in the second we had 40 animals open, in the third there were 30 animals. None of these animals showed any signs of brooding larvae. 

Temperatures logged at Fidalgo Bay from Mar 1 to May 2, 2014. Temps logged every 15 minutes. 

Fidalgo	2N1-4	2N5-8	2N9-12	2N13-16	Total
Live	99	100	96	110	405
	2H1-4	2H5-8	2H9-12	2H13-16	Total
	91	100	83	94	368
	2S1-4	2S5-8	2S9-12	2S13-16	Total
	92	104	93	94	383

Calm Day at Fidalgo

Sea Otter hangin out by the dock

Sea Otter Hunting for Prey

Sea Otter after capturing large red rock crab

Sea Otter Eating Large Eel.

Oyster Bay 5-1-14

5-1-14

Shelton WA
Oyster Bay/Totten Inlet
Start Time: 9:30 AM
Finish Time: 5:30 PM
Temps: Mid 60s to Mid 80s

Participants: Jake Heare

I arrived earlier in the morning. I pulled up the hanging devices and broke them down into individual trays. I collected dead, counted live, and photographed trays for size/growth for later analysis. Upon completing these metrics the trays were reorganized into stacks containing one tray from each population at a random level in stack (top, middle, bottom). Since one stack is missing we were unable to completely reorganize the trays as such. One hanging tray has 2 Hood Canal Pops and 1 North Sound pop tray. 2 stacks were then rebuilt and hung off the docks.


The 3rd stack was treated with an epsom salt mixture to anesthetize the animals for brooding larvae inspection. One tray was dosed at a time in a 10 gallon mixture of 50/50 sea water/freshwater with 6-8 cups of epsom salt in them (roughly 75-80 g/L). Gaping oysters in each tray were individually inspected for brooding larvae. Once inspection was completed, trays were then transferred to a tub filled with 10-15 gallons of fresh seawater to recover from treatment for 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on recovery rate. In the first tray we had 25 animals open, in the second we had 3, in the third we had 4. None of these animals showed signs of brooding larvae. 

Temperatures logged at Oyster bay from Feb 28th to May 1st, 2014. Temps logged every 15 minutes. 

Oyster Bay	1N1-4	1N5-8	1N9-12	1N13-16	Total
Live	84	67		100	251
	1H1-4	1H5-8	1H9-12	1H13-16	Total
	89	101	96	14	300
	1S1-4	1S5-8	1S9-12	1S13-16	Total
		74		93	167

Treatment set up at Oyster Bay

Artsy photo of science

Gaping Oyster

Jack trying to help out

Jack decided to drink some epsom salt water behind my back. He made this face when I caught him. 

Manchester 4-30-14

4-30-14

Manchester WA
Clam Bay
Start Time: 10:00 AM
Finish Time: 6:00 PM
Temps: Mid 60s to Mid 80s

Participants: Sammi Brombacher and Jake Heare

We arrived earlier in the morning. We pulled up the hanging devices and broke them down into individual trays. We collected dead, counted live, and photographed trays for size/growth for later analysis. Upon completing these metrics the trays were reorganized into stacks containing one tray from each population at a random level in stack (top, middle, bottom). 3 stacks were then rebuilt and hung off the docks.


The 4th stack was treated with an epsom salt mixture to anesthetize the animals for brooding larvae inspection. One tray was dosed at a time in a 10 gallon mixture of 50/50 sea water/freshwater with 6-8 cups of epsom salt in them (roughly 75-80 g/L). Gaping oysters in each tray were individually inspected for brooding larvae. Once inspection was completed, trays were then transferred to a tub filled with 10-15 gallons of fresh seawater to recover from treatment for 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on recovery rate. In the first tray we had 30 animals open, in the second tray we had 20, in the 3rd tray we had 45. None of these animals had any signs of brooding larvae. 

Temps logged for Manchester from Feb 28th to April 30th, 2014. Temps logged every 15 minutes. 

Manchester	4N1-4	4N5-8	4N9-12	4N13-16	Total
Live	90	97	59	91	337
	4H1-4	4H5-8	4H9-12	4H13-16	Total
	97	85	89	84	355
	4S1-4	4S5-8	4S9-12	4S13-16	Total
	92	91	98	94	375

Tray being treated with epsom salt

Oysters being treated with Epsom Salt

1 tray being treated, 1 tray being examined, 1 tray recovering

Gaping oyster

Sammi processing Trays.

Ferry on the Sound.

For More info see the oly wiki