Whelk Races and more

I've been saving up for this post! The Great Whelk Race of 2010!

So...it's not so interesting as all that, but some of my nerdier friends might find the fact that I've spent several weeks conjuring up ways to race snails if not intriguing then at least typical.

So, a few weeks ago, I wandered out to Lower Portobello Bay here on the Otago peninsula. I collected several hundred whelks, which are ferocious little intertidal vultures, basically. They hide beneath the mud, with a little elephant-trunk-like tube sticking ever so slightly above the surface. When something dies or is in distress nearby, the whelks rise up from below like so many tiny undead zombies. It's really quite creepy.

Here I am! Getting samples!


But I digress.
The point was to get a fair number of parasitized whelks and see if their speed and accuracy of food-finding was compromised by their parasite load compared to the unparasitized ones.

Once back in the lab, I stuck them in individual containers and subjected them to 25 C incubator temps overnight. This made them release parasites, if they had any.
Aww...trapped.

Are you ready for the jacuzzi?


So, to test their accuracy and speed, I didn't feed them for a few days and let them get nice and hungry. Then I placed them in a container with a freshly killed cockle (clam) and timed how long it took them to find it.
Some get really lost...

How many laps do you really need?!


X-20 is finally homing in on its victim...

Anyways, ultimately, it worked. I got most of them to make it to the food at some point. All 48 individuals got raced 3 times. That's a lot of time spent watching snails crawl.

I'm carefully observing the winning and losing whelks.


So. It was on to grander plans! My great big whelk group race! What could go wrong? Really? So, I set them all up in pairs, matching sizes, uninfected and infected. They were hungry. 6 days without food should be enough to inspire even the laziest of invertebrates.


Unfortunately, it proved difficult to keep them focused on the task at hand...as seen here:


Well, in the end...today, that is. I determined that my whelks are stupid. I can't imagine how they've survived this long. Clearly only about 1/3rd of them are in-tuned with the food-finding. I don't understand why my whelks are so dumb. But oh well. That's science for you. You slave away doing experiments and wind up wishing you'd stayed home with some tea instead. But it was pretty fun for a little while ;)

me having F-U-N.


Oh yeah...and note the disturbing little proboscis and that other darker tube that they use to feed...
creepies.



On another note, I am about to submit for publication my very first manuscript. Ironically, it's nothing to do with my thesis work in Minnesota. Instead, it's a small side-project about limpets I did here in Dunedin. I wrote it up, got input from my lab members and it's almost ready to go. So, you know, next time you're perusing the Journal of Helminthology look for Koppel, Leung, & Poulin, 2010. "The marine limpet Notoacmea scapha acts as a transmission sink for intertidal cercariae in Otago Harbour, New Zealand".
I assure you it will be fascinating! I'm not sure when I'll publish my M.S. work. It's all just about ready to go, but it's difficult to find time to work on it while I'm here and it's not as exciting as New Zealand, so I'm apt to put it off. Even though that's not in my best interest.

Other than racing whelks, not much has been going on. I have been going to a 7am Core class with Kristin that is kicking my ass. And my quads. And my abs. And the rest of my body. I also bought a pass to use the public pool 12 times. I've been a few times now, and swam laps. I also went for my first hilly-ass Dunedin run last weekend. These hills are brutal, but I decided to get serious and I ran them. Whew! I felt great though.

I haven't traveled much lately. My Fiordland trip left me BROKE. I did make a day trip up to Oamaru a couple weekends ago with Jess and Charlotte. We went to the Blue Penguin colony there. It was great! I got to see the birds really close. It turns out these penguins are only about the size of a mallard duck! TINY. But super adorable. And loud. I really enjoyed watching them. They come up out of the ocean at dusk and wander around squealing and honking at one another. They're pretty active all night, too. So I got to just watch them interact. Really cool! Penguins are pretty awesome :)

I'm attempting to locate a job in the Pacific Northwest at the moment. I'm spending loads of time surfing job websites looking for postings in Portland, Seattle, or Corvallis so I can live less than 200 miles from AP, who's been a more than patient bf considering I literally moved to the other side of the planet for 4 months. But, I'm not finding too many great job openings...Here's hoping that something opens up, or that I get into a Ph.D. program. Either would be acceptable. I applied for a Ph.D. studying penguins in Antarctica that is based out of Corvallis. In all likelihood I won't get it because I have never worked with sea birds, but it was a good one to try for! Aim high, right? Every cover letter you write, and every company you contact is good practice, I suppose. I just want to nail something down! I'm getting impatient!

In 3 days I'm leaving to go on a 2-week road trip with Kristin and a friend of hers from Minnesota. We'll be 3 Midwesterners, hitting the kiwi trail. We've got an action packed line-up that includes swimming with dolphins, cruising a sound, a day of hiking, an eco tour, kayaking, glow worm caves, a glacier hike, and a cruise through wine country....and tons of other stuff. I can't wait! Although, I'm sure I'll be sick to death of my sleeping bag by the time we get back.

Well, that's a good enough update for now. I'll have to try to be more on top of my blog. Day to day life just doesn't seem that exciting, so I don't think to write...but really, there's always something going on!