2011 Alaska Marine Science Symposium

Wow! I just got back from the 2011 Alaska Marine Science Symposium, and even though I was only there for 3 days, I learned A LOT! Here's some of what I caught:

CRABBY STUFF:

In some southeast Alaska sample regions, 100% of primiparous female Tanner crabs (Chionoecetes bairdi) are infected with Hematodinium, the parasitic dinoflagellate causing bitter crab syndrome (BCS) (Sherry Tamone, UAS)

Bering Sea primiparous female snow crabs (C. opilio) had lower sperm reserves compared to the Northwest Atlantic (Laura Slater, ADFG)

Reflexes of snow crab bycatch were impaired, and potential mortality increased, when windchill was < -10° C on commercial fishing boats (Dan Urban, NMFS)

so pumped and ready to talk about snow crabs!!

OTHER FUN TID BITS (taken directly from my notes):

Sea otters are not nutritionally equal to potato chips (James Estes, UCSC)

Not all bloody herring have VHS (viral hemorrhagic septicemia) (Paul Hershberger, USGS)

You can tag walruses with crossbows (Chadwick Jay, USGS)

seriously, crossbows!

I also ran into another Southampton College alum (other than my husband, who had a poster on organochlorine contaminants in Steller sea lion Eumetopias jubatus pups):

action shot: Adam talking with our friends and former NMFS observers

... my freshman roomie Stephanie Grassia, who works sighting bowhead whales and other marine mammals out of Barrow. This is why I love all these conferences!