Ask A Grad Student: Lauren Divine

Summer is ending and with it ends the summer survey season. (Luckily for me I'm heading out on a fall survey, so I still have sea days to look forward to!) Fisheries graduate student Lauren Divine went to sea last year and wanted to share her experience with everyone, especially those of you who haven't had the pleasure of taking a "cruise" in the Chukchi Sea!

Age: 27

Degree: BS Wildlife and Fisheries Management, MS Biology, PhD Marine Biology (in progress)

Current City: Fairbanks! Golden Heart City!

1. Describe your project, in 4 sentences or less.

My project looks at snow crab in the Alaskan Arctic (Chukchi and Beaufort Seas). I am interested in how they fit into the benthic food webs in this region because they link lower trophic levels to more charismatic species such as walruses, seals, and whales. I'm also interested in how many snow crabs are actually in the Arctic, where they can be found, and how big they are. Finally, I hope to look at the likelihood of a fishery for snow crabs opening in the Arctic under future climate changes and fisheries management scenarios. BOOM.

an arctic snow crab! AHHHHHH!

2. You recently got to work in the Chukchi Sea (I am trying to contain my jealousy). What was the biggest challenge you had working on deck, and how did you overcome it? What was the best/craziest/most amazing thing you saw out there?

The biggest challenge for me wasn't the time on deck, it was the massive amount of time that we spent inside the boat. I was expecting to be on deck a lot more than we actually were because the catches were small, so adjusting to the large amount of time on a small vessel was the most difficult. Getting out on deck was the highlight of the day! I also battled sea sickness for about a week and a half, so getting out in the fresh air helped me a lot.

icy fresh air!

The most amazing thing I saw was a polar bear on a huge floating ice berg. We had been floating close to the ice edge for a few days and seen lots of bergs, but this one had an exceptional guest!

oh hi!
(This image was taken as an observation of a marine mammal sighting aboard a NOAA chartered vessel for scientific research. This animal was well past the required distance from the vessel at all times and did not appear to show any reaction to the presence of the vessel. The vessel proceeded at a safe speed until the animal was out of sight.)

"I'm just chillin' out" - polar bear

*ba-dum-bum*

3. Why Alaska? What's your favorite thing about Fairbanks?

I was coming out of a master's program in Statesboro, GA and was really looking for a challenge and an adventure. This fit what I was looking for! My favorite thing about Fairbanks is the extreme light during the summer! I am outside all the time, the gardening is fantastic, and everything about the summers is worth suffering through the winters for!

live life Alaskan!

4. You're a mom - how do you juggle classes, research, and parenting? Was it a difficult choice to get your Master's degree as a mother, or was it a pretty straight forward, go get 'em plan?

I had Brynn as an undergraduate. I was fortunate enough to get to take a year off after graduation and spend time with her (while guiding rock climbing trips!). I decided to get a master's because I had not been having much luck with the job market after graduating with my BS, so the choice was kind of made for me. The master's program was certainly a learning trial. I am very thankful that I have a good support system in place. If an emergency comes up, I can always count on a friend or family member to take Brynn for a while. If Brynn has an emergency, I have the flexibility in my schedule to take care of it and catch up on my work later. I have been known to tote Brynn to a meeting or sit through the occasional lecture with my little side-kick watching iPad cartoons with headphones on! I think everyone goes through their own challenges during graduate school, mine are certainly not unique. One thing I will say, however, is that I have learned how to be very productive with the time that I have; it is what you make of it after all, right?

eeeeh - baby crab!

(it's almost as cute as Brynn)

5. What is your favorite piece of crab paraphernalia?

Good question. I am certainly lacking in this department... I don't own crab jewelry or clothing. I do have a head scarf that is pink and has tiny blue crabs and corals on it. That is probably my favorite, along with my "Snow Crab Love" mug! Thanks Molly! :)

You're welcome, Lauren! Thanks for sharing your photos!

Ask A Grad Student: Raphaelle Descoteaux

It's been a while since we've had an interview with a grad student, but this one was worth the wait. Raphaelle is on the cutting edge of ocean acidification work, which we learned a little bit about here and here, and won for best student poster presentation at this year's Alaska Marine Science Symposium. Oh yeah, and she can speak English and French!

Age: 24

Degree: M.S. Marine Biology

Current City: Fairbanks, AK

1. Describe your project, in 4 sentences or less.

My project looks at the effects of ocean acidification on the development of crab larvae (Tanner, Dungeness, and black-clawed cancer crabs). Part of the carbon dioxide we emit in the atmosphere gets dissolved in the oceans and reacts with water molecules to form an acid, causing the oceans to become more and more acidic. So I performed experiments in the lab in which I placed newly-hatched crab larvae into waters of different pH, or acidity. I am now at the stage of measuring things like body length, weight, and shell composition to assess whether the different pH conditions in which the young crabs were raised affected their development.

And in French…

Le but de mon projet est de déterminer si l’acidification des océans aura un impact sur le développement des crabes an Alaska. Une bonne partie du dioxide de carbone que nous produisons se dissous dans les océans et réagit avec les molécules d’eau, formant un acide. Ainsi, plus nous émettons du dioxide de carbone, plus nos océans deviennent acides. J’ai effectué une expérience dans laquelle j’ai placé des larves de crabes dans des eaux de différent pH et je suis présentement au stade de mesurer différents paramètres comme la longueur, le poids et la composition de la carapace de mes jeunes crabes. En comparant ces paramètres parmi les crabes qui ont grandit dans les eaux de différents pH je pourrai déterminer si l’acidification des eaux aura un impact sur le développement des crabes dans le futur.

closely-monitored flow-through systems

2. What has been your biggest challenge with this project so far and how have you overcome it?

One of the big challenges so far has been dealing with logistical difficulties of working with such small animals. The crab larvae I am looking at are very small. They are about 1-2 mm long and weigh a fraction of a milligram. Measuring, weighing, and analyzing their shell chemistry at this scale has required a lot of team work, patience, and imagination!

can you believe how cute these little

Tanner crabs (Chionoecetes bairdi) are!?!

3. Why Alaska? Are you from here, or did the project lure you here, or was there something else about AK that brought you here?

I am originally from Quebec, Canada and came to Fairbanks as an exchange student for the senior year of my undergraduate degree. I was studying at McGill University in Montreal and felt like I needed to experience something different. Wow! Fairbanks was definitely different and I just fell in love with it. I knew I had to stay! I met my current advisors, Katrin Iken and Sarah Hardy, and we came up with this great ocean acidification project for my Master’s degree.

4. Which was harder: finishing the Equinox marathon or keeping larval crabs alive?

I actually walked the Equinox marathon once and ran the relay last year. The goal is to run the whole thing this year. I’m sure training for it will be difficult but I would still expect keeping larval crabs alive to be harder! This year has been a great learning experience for me in terms of raising larval crabs but I still have lots more to learn!

the Eqinox Marathon profile - yes, that does say a gain of 3,285 feet!

5. What is your favorite piece of crab paraphernalia?

I don’t own much crab paraphernalia frankly but I do LOVE my brand new “I love snow crabs” mug!

woo-hoo! the Snow Crab Love mug in action!

Thanks, Raphaelle, and good luck with the Equinox!

Ask a Grad Student: Laurinda Marcello

Laurinda is a master's student working not only with fisheries in Alaska, but also reaching across our neighbors to the east and looking at the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Newfoundland/Labrador Shelf! Oh, and she practices karate, so watch out!

Age: 26

Degree: MS, Fisheries

Current City: Juneau

1. Describe your project, in 4 sentences or less.

My research is part of a larger project looking at interactions between gadoid fishes and crustaceans in Sub-Arctic areas (Ecosystem Studies of Sub-Arctic Seas working group 4). I’m using regression models to look at things from the perspective of one crustacean: snow crab. I want to know how environmental conditions, spawning stock biomass, and predation by gadoid fishes influence snow crab early life history. Finally, I’m comparing results across several ecosystems to learn whether snow crab recruitment is governed by the same principles across areas or not.

Pacific cod: "Get into my belly!"

2. What was the most surprising result of your model?

The relationship between snow crab spawners and later recruitment was surprising. You would think that more adult crab means more offspring, right? Well, when I looked at models I didn’t see that. Sometimes spawners didn’t matter at all. Other times, higher spawning stock biomass resulted in lower recruitment. I have some ideas on why that might happen, but I’ll save that for my talk.

3. You don’t work directly with crabs but have you had any field work on other projects? If not, is there anything you’d like to do/work on in the field?

I previously worked for Sitka Tribe of Alaska monitoring sockeye salmon at the Salmon Lake weir. A coworker and I would tag each sockeye, take scale samples, and record its length and gender. We also tallied the other salmon and trout species passing though the weir and kept a daily log of environmental conditions. A few times during the season our bosses would come to the lake so we could run a beach seine (to better estimate population size using mark-recapture methods).

Salmon Lake weir

sampling the sockeye (Oncorhynchus nerka)

It was a nice change of pace to be outdoors for the better part of the summer. I was living in a wall tent so there was a lot to do besides counting fish. Every week or two we would hike then boat to town for groceries and fuel. During my free time I liked to take pictures, fish for trout, watch brown bears, and play cards.

home sweet home

In the future I would definitely love to land a job that gets me out on the water or trekking through the woods on a regular basis. I know I’ll have to spend a lot of time at a desk, but I’d like to do field work again.

view from Salmon Lake: definitely beats an office!

4. You grew up in Alaska. If you could live anywhere else, where would it be?

I really love Sitka and intend to move back there. But you know what? Hawaii is really nice too: ocean, mountains, rain, and cool people. I could see myself in a small town or rural area like Hana.

5. What is your favorite piece of crab paraphernalia? If not crabby, then ocean-themed paraphernalia?

My jar of sand from Sandy Beach in Sitka. I’ve been carting the thing around with me since I first left for college.

a sweet sandy momento

Thanks Laurinda!

Ask A Grad Student: Scott Vulstek

Scott Vulstek is one lucky guy: he gets to play Maury Povich on a daily basis, only with red king crabs (Paralithodes camtschaticus) instead of people. This means all the baby-daddy anticipation with none of the dramatic running off-stage (which is actually quite entertaining... if you're on break at work in a factory and you are bored... not that I know from experience or anything). I'll let Scott explain more.

Age: 27

Degree: MS, Fisheries

Current City: Juneau

1. Describe your project, in 4 sentences or less.

My project involves describing the spatial and temporal population genetic structure of red king crab in Alaska. I am looking at eleven populations that range from Norton Sound down to Southeast Alaska. I am also studying female red king crabs and their broods to look for any evidence of multiple paternity. That is, are female red king crab mated by more than one male in a given season?

male red king crab X: you are NOT the father!

2. Your interest in this project is more focused on the genetic work than the king crab aspect. Why king crabs and why Alaska?

King crabs are pretty gnarly critters and I have always wanted to come to Alaska. When I got the option to check out both, while doing some interesting population genetics work, I had to take it. I’m glad I did.

3. There has been seeding of king crabs in Russia. Can you tell us more about that and how you think it may or may not impact the population dynamics of North Pacific king crab stocks?

Red king crab stocked in Russia are moving west into Norwegian waters and so are not likely to directly affect stocks in the North Pacific. The crabs are having some serious negative impacts on the environment in the Barents Sea, however, and it shows us the damage that introduced species can do.

the Arctic, with the Barents Sea starred

(map from here)

4. Genetic work with king crabs can be challenging. How have you overcome these challenges and what do you do to unwind?

Red king crab, and invertebrates in general, can be very challenging to work with when it comes to population genetics. I’m lucky to be in a lab with some smart people and I can usually bounce problem solving ideas off them. If that doesn’t work I try to approach the problem from a new angle. Fly fishing is my favorite way to unwind. When I can’t do that I like to go hiking and camping, or tie flies.

5. What is your favorite piece of crab paraphernalia?

My favorite piece of crab paraphernalia is a huge crocheted crab that my mom bought from some old lady she works with.

crochet me crab-crazy!

Thanks Scott! Good luck with the genetics work, and fly fishing!

Ask A Grad Student: Greg Albrecht

Don't let the fish throw you off; Greg is a true crab lover all the way! While not studying snow crab genetics, he's playing dress-up with decorator crabs. He's a model for the rest of us!

Age: 27

Degree: MS Marine Biology

Current City: Fairbanks

1. Describe your project, in 4 sentences or less.

My project focuses on defining the genetic population structure of snow crab within the Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. I'm using 7 microsatellite markers and have 613 samples collected from 13 locations. The hypothesis I'm testing is that due to their long distance larval dispersal abilities the entire stock will have low genetic differentiation. This is an important question for management of the current fishery and figuring out what's going on in the arctic.

a lovely C. opilio

2. Have you come across any opilio-bairdi hybrids, and if so, have you included them in your genetic analysis? In your opinion, are they truly 2 separate species (C. opilio and C. bairdi) , or simply subspecies of one another? Let’s fuel the debate!

To my knowledge, none of the crabs sampled were hybrids; however, that's hard to tell since identifying them can be difficult especially if they aren't first generation. Genetic techniques can be used to distinguish the two, or at least what portion of each species they are; however, we didn't conduct any of those tests or collect any Tanners, which would have been necessary.

So yeah... a species: they are typically defined by two animals that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring; however, that means that opies and bairdis would be the same. There are other examples of this like the cutthroat and rainbow trout that make a cutbow hybrid. So, to the best of my knowledge (which is just basically Wikipedia and asking the grad student in the office next to me) often times genetics and the ecological niche that they fill are used to define the species. Opilio and Tanner crab have different habitat limitations (mostly based on temperature) and although they overlap, I don't think a Tanner would stand a chance in the Arctic. So with that and the significant differences we see in their DNA (at least at this point... given that hybrids don't rule the Oceans... yet) we can say they are still different species.

Now as to "subspecies" well that's kind of a fuzzy line in my opinion. I think that technically subspecies can interbreed, but don't very regularly due to behavioral differences and ecological barriers (i.e. dogs and wolves). In my opinion, Tanners are still morphologically differentiated in a number of ways (size being one big one) and at this point are still defined by different habitats (thermal tolerances).

3. You have also been studying decorator crabs and their decoration choices. What led you to this work and what’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen a decorator crab choose?

I have long thought decorator crabs to be cool, but diving in Kachemak Bay this past summer gave me an opportunity to start a small study on their behavior. I have found flagging tape, viable fish eggs and of course lots of algae on crabs; however, the funniest finding was a crab sampled from a location containing a mix of algae and trash (95% and 5% cover, respectively) who had placed a piece of an old windshield wiper on his carapace.

decorator crabs showing off their flair


4. You eventually want to teach high school: why? (What sparked this interest?)

So that I'll have summers off to play with decorator crabs and go fishing... oh yeah, and I guess to "inspire" the next generation.

 oh snap!

I'm inspired!

5. What is your favorite piece of crab paraphernalia?

My crab pot

crab on!

Thanks, Greg! And I have some great crab dip recipes, just in case you don't know what to do with all that king crab. Just saying. 

Ask A Grad Student: Ben Daly

Ben Daly lives in Seward, AK, working with the Alutiiq Pride Shellfish Hatchery raising baby king crabs from fertilized females collected in the field. He will also soon be raising a baby of his own! Congratulations!!

Age: 29

Degree: pursuing PhD in Fisheries

Current City: Newport, OR

1. Describe your project, in 4 sentences or less.

My project explores the feasibility of king crab stock enhancement in Alaska. Specifically, I am looking at ways to optimize hatchery production of juvenile crabs. I am also developing release strategies for juvenile crabs.



2. Your lab is in Seward but you are currently working in Newport, Oregon. What is a challenge you’ve had to overcome with this location change (and how)?

The biggest challenge in working in other labs is learning how the seawater systems work in terms of supply, filtration, temperature control, etc. For example, at the Newport Lab, the seawater temperature is controlled by adjusting heat exchangers, which is impacted by the flow rates into the various tanks containing crabs, fish, etc. Changing the flow in one tank can affect the temperature in other tanks. To adjust for this, I have had to be very careful in maintaining flow conditions in my experimental tanks.

3. You take all of your classes through video-conferencing. What would be your top 2 tips for other distance students?

1. Try to participate in class (ask questions, make comments) as much as possible. This keeps you feeling involved with the other students and the professor. It also reminds them that you are a real person and not just a face on a TV screen.

2. Bring coffee to stay alert. It can be easy to become distracted or to lose focus.

4. Has raising baby king crabs prepared you for raising baby humans?

Ben: Yes, raising baby king crabs is preparing me for raising humans. The crabs require daily care, especially as larvae. The larvae are very sensitive to temperature fluctuations and an inadequate food supply, just like baby humans. One nice thing about baby crabs: they don’t cry.

Beate (wife): No, not unless the baby crabs need to be nursed or have their diapers changed!

"Feed me!!"

5. What is your favorite piece of crab paraphernalia?

We try to limit our crab paraphernalia as it can get out of hand due to gifts from relatives. Right now our favorite piece is our crab “welcome mat”, which has a big picture of a blue crab. Sometimes it can feel good to stomp on the mat with my boots to get out any built-up animosity towards the crabs……..just joking……..I love the crabs.

Thanks Ben!

Ask A Grad Student: Jon Richar

Jon is, well, he's Jon. He listens to techno while processing data, speaks Russian, and, like any self-respecting born-and-bred Alaskan, wears shorts in December. He also has the wonderful distinction of working with crabs, albeit in the form of years of data, and as such is our next interviewed grad student!

Age: Chronological: 27; mental: 10—just ask Chris [Jon's old room mate, to whom he did this:

ah, bromances]

Degree: Masters of Science in Fisheries

Current City: Juneau, AK

1. Describe your project, in 4 sentences or less.

I am examining possible recruitment controls for Tanner crab in the eastern Bering Sea region using 2 different methodologies. The first employs generalized least squares (GLS) based regression analyses to compare estimated recruitment to the 30-50 mm carapace width (CW) size class against various biophysical parameters measured in previous years. The second employs regional ocean modeling system (ROMS) hydrodynamic modeling to attempt to model advection and subsequent settling patterns of larval crab, with these then being compared against data on the aforementioned biophysical factors and recruitment index using geostatistical methods present in ArcGIS.

blue king crab from the Chuckchi benthos (see the Chionoecetes too?!?)

2. As a modeler working with YEARS of data, what is a challenge you’ve had to overcome and how did you do it?

One of the major proposed recruitment controls is wind vector, which drives directionality of Ekman transport. Unfortunately my data for this came in the form of 60 192*94*365 data matrices — just to extract the data in R required learning to look at several 2D arrays and then mentally project those into a 3D matrix to grasp the internal addressing system used by the dataset, which was necessary to subset the specific data that I wanted. For someone used to working primarily with Excel spreadsheets, this was…….painful.

3. You don’t work directly with live crabs, but you have worked at sea and in the field. What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen/done?


Gerstle River



Craziest thing I’ve done? Dear god, that’s a hard one….off the top of my head, back in the summer of 2007 I was part of a US Fish and Wildlife team that was sent into the old Gerstle River training area just out of Delta Junction. This area was used in the 1950’s and 60’s by the army to test chemical weapons, including nerve agents such as VX and sarin, though it was subsequently closed and decontaminated. Long story short: we were getting anecdotal reports of growth abnormalities in the local populations of game and fish that could have resulted from exposure to the agents or byproducts of their decomposition, suggesting that perhaps something had been missed during the cleanup effort. To confirm/disprove these reports my team was sent in to survey local wildlife populations for any indications of abnormalities and to look around for any signs of old munitions. Problem was our only protection was the following advice: “If you see something that looks like a bomb or an old metal barrel, immediately go the opposite direction for at least 500 ft, and if at any point you experience difficulty breathing for any reason, do not be afraid to call 911”.

I was actually rather tempted to take a red shirt out with me, but I didn’t think my boss would think that it was funny. And no we did not find anything, which I do not actually regret….well, except for a ginormous mutant wasp-thing, that the boss didn’t think was conclusive evidence of anything.

Girstle River gigantor mutant wasp thing

Craziest thing I’ve seen: in the summer of 2008 I was part of an American team participating in the International Polar Year cruise of the T/S Oshoro Maru, a research and training vessel operated by the University of Hokkaido. On the last night of the cruise one of the Japanese students on board decided to try his hand at deep sea fishing, and, well, to say he caught a big one would be a bit of an understatement—he snagged a full grown humpback whale. It was of course subsequently released. [Blogger's note: The guy was using a pink pixee! True story.]

T/S Oshoru Maru -- don't tell Sea Shepard!

4. You are a scientific diver. How long have you been diving and what inspired you to start?

I’ve been diving since the fall of 2005, and as for what inspired me, well, when I was a kid I was something of a tidepooler and was *very* interested in the various organisms I found. Thing was, I knew I was only seeing a snapshot of their life cycle and that it was not representative of what things were like when the tide was in. Additionally, I was extremely curious about what things were like in the subtidal and deeper regions, and what lived there. Then when I was 8 it happened: the local NBC affiliate began running old episodes of a show produced by Jacques Cousteau and I was introduced to SCUBA, leading about 3 seconds later to a “EUREKA!” moment.

5. What is your favorite piece of crab paraphernalia?

That would be a picture I took last winter of a very large Tanner crab molting.

Jon's Tanner crab molting = AWESOME!

Thanks Jon!

Ask A Grad Student: Megan Murphy

We talked with a student looking at adult crabs, and a student looking at juvenile crabs, but what about the larvae? Is anyone thinking about the larvae?!? Oh, yeah, Megan is!

Age: 30

Degree: Biological Oceanography

Current City: Homer

1. Describe your project, in 4 sentences or less.

My project was a first step at answering the question, "Are the adult crabs in Kachemak Bay the source for new recruits or is the bay dependent on upstream sources?" I looked at the presence and abundance of brachyuran larval crab across the inner/outer Kachemak Bay boundary over an entire larval crab period (March - October). The idea was to determine what crab exist as larvae in Kachemak Bay, when they are present in the water column, and (hopefully) if they were coming or going?

2. You are creating an ID guide for brachyuran crab larvae. In your opinion, which crab has the cutest larvae?

The crab with the cutest larvae is a hard decision. I get most excited when I see a Dungeness larvae because they were the least abundant. They are all fascinating... I don't know if cute is the word I would use. Perhaps when they become megalopae, then they look like cute miniature 'crabs'.

YIKES! A Dungeness crab zoea!

Dungy megalope -- way cuter

3. What was the most difficult part of your project and how did you overcome it?

The beginning seemed the hardest... just figuring out how to make the sampling work effectively. Basically, making words on paper happen in real life with a real boat, real weather issues, and steep learning curves. Try, try, and try again. Relax, laugh a little, then try again.

Megan sampling, for real!

4. You just defended your thesis (congrats!). What’s next?

I've been working full-time since September of last year... so, I am looking forward to 'just' working full-time and using a different part of my brain... hope to take pottery this semester at the local campus.

5. What is your favorite piece of crab paraphernalia?

My friend, Sarah, made me a 'crab lady' bracelet.


Thanks Megan! Enjoy relaxing with your "9-5"!

Ask A Grad Student: Miranda Westphal

Miranda is my crab lab mate -- she's co-advised by Dr. Sherry Tamone (my advisor) and Dr. Ginny Eckert (my committee member) -- and my office mate in the Lena building, as well as my ELISA accomplice!

Age: 34

Degree: Candidate for Master’s of Science, Fisheries

Current City: Juneau, Alaska

1. Describe your project, in 4 sentences or less.

I study the growth physiology of red king crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus), specifically comparing wild caught red king crab (from Southeast Alaska) and hatchery-raised red king crab (from the Alutiiq Pride Shellfish Hatchery in Seward, Alaska). There are two aspects to my project: 1. is to determine how often the crabs molt (molt interval) and how much they grow with each molt (growth increment) 2. look at the fluctuations in circulating growth ecdysteroids (20-hydroxyecdysone) in the hemolymph throughout the molt cycle. Additionally, I conduct monthly beach surveys (during the low low monthly tides in Auke Bay) to measure the wild juvenile red king crab that live in the intertidal in order to help determine if there are any differences in growth that may result from rearing crabs in a laboratory over time. By understanding the early life history of king crabs, specifically how they grow and behave during their most vulnerable time (first few years of life), managers will be empowered to manage the fishery in a more informed and predictive manner; moreover, this research may be used to better classify (or “age”) young crabs that are encountered during surveys or other field research opportunities, giving managers and researchers a deeper understanding of how movement and behavior of differing age classes of juvenile king crabs in the field will ultimately affect the fishery into the future. (I know that last sentence is kind of long and a run-on but I only had four sentences!)

a red king crab's growth over subsequent molts (all photos scaled the same)

2. You were living in Florida before. What drew you to Alaska?

I loved working in the warm waters off of Florida but couldn't pass up the opportunity to work on an amazing crab fishery in the last frontier. It really was the project and my advisors that drew me to Alaska. The bonus is that Southeast Alaska is an amazing place to live and work!

at work on ADF&G's R/V Medeia with a blue king crab

3. What has been the most challenging aspect of your project? The most fun?

The most challenging part has been learning time management. It's a real challenge to fit in all of your research as well as classes, meetings, lab work and all of the other little things that tend to come up! The most fun is, without a doubt, working with live animals. Even though it can be challenging and time consuming, it brings me a lot of joy watching their behavior and watching them grow. I often feel more like I have thousands of little pets rather than research animals!

first stage juvenile red king crab

4. Will you continue to work with crabs after you graduate?

I sure hope so! I love working with juvenile shellfish and I really do prefer working with decapod crustaceans (e.g. crabs, shrimp, lobster, etc.). I am considering continuing on with my education and pursuing a PhD but I haven't made any decisions yet.

5. What is your favorite piece of crab paraphernalia?

When working with a specific organism or class of organisms, you really do tend to accumulate a lot of paraphernalia! Without a doubt, my favorite is my crab beach ball that I got for my birthday from my sister-in-law. I also really love the crab business card holder that I got for Christmas.

the greatest beach ball EVER!

a card holder with crabby bling

Thanks Miranda!

Ask A Grad Student: Joel Webb

Want to hear about other crab lovers' work? Here you go!

Joel works as both a grad student at UAF SFOS in Juneau and as a shellfish biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. He's helped me with crab sampling in the Bering Sea and sharing his extensive literature collection, not to mention his amazing memory of past crab research.

Age: "Old"

Degree: M.S in Fisheries (pursuing the next one...)

Current City: Douglas!

1. Describe your project, in 4 sentences or less.

Why aren't snow crabs taking over the world? Because most (~>99%) of them die before they can reproduce. However there may be times when the location, abundance, and number of eggs carried by mature females is related to the number of mature crab years later. By characterizing the number of eggs carried by mature females of differing size/age for several years we will estimate the number of eggs produced by the population and look for possible relationships between egg production and the abundance of small crab several years later.

Joel's trawl survey ladies ready to be measured

2. You work at sea a lot. What’s your favorite part of shipboard life? Your least favorite?

My favorite survey experience is seeing the patterns of crab size/age across the distribution; least favorite aspect of shipboard life is looking at the scale after three weeks of fried food.

Joel hard at work!

3. If you weren’t going to study crabs, what animal would it be?

The Tapertail Ribbonfish

4. After you get your PhD will you pursue a job in academia or stay with Fish and Game?

ADF&G all the way! :)

5. What is your favorite piece of crab paraphernalia?

A small tapestry acquired in Guatemala showing what could be a crab!

 

Thanks Joel!