Icthyology I

Fall 2010. BUMP #2. Block 3.

In this class we studied fish. More than one person should ever know about fish. Fish evolution, fish morphology, physiology, jaw development, species distribution, behavior, anatomy, etc. you name it, we learned it. We spent the entire block in lectures or in the lab as like SEA pt1 it was a course designed to prepare you for a field component. We learned how to ID caribbean reef fish before we left for Belize and ended with a final project. For us that happened to be putting together a fish skeleton (and I got to work with Abby again, yay!)

Step 1. Buy fish from your local fish market

Step 2: Boil fish

Step 3: Peel flesh and muscle off the bones

Step 4. Attempt to organize what's left

Step 5: Begin assembly

Step 6: Label everything...

And eventually you get something that looks like this!

We celebrated the completion by making tooth-brush bracelets like when we were 8...

... and by having a bug tent sleepover! We had to assemble the tents we taking to Belize to ensure that there were no holes/everything was working so we did it up old school and made our own camp.

 

Also my brother came to visit me during this block.

I showed him and his fiance around Boston

And of course went to the local Bills backer bar to watch the game on Sunday

Stay tuned for the Belize field course!

Marine GIS (Geographic Information Systems)

Fall 2010. BUMP #2. Block 2.

I don't really have any photos from this class but if I did it would be of everyone sitting in a computer lab looking like this...

ArcGIS is one of the most useful programs for scientists but is also unfortunately one of the most frustrating to use. We would have lectures from 9-12 everyday and would then spend 12:30 until approximately midnight every night working in the computer lab. We had a series of labs to work through, the end product of which was GIS maps. Even though it was a lot of work and no field time, I still consider this block to have been one of my most rewarding classes at BU. The course was only focused on marine ecosystems even though about 95% of GIS work is land based. At a recent ArcGIS conference there was only one presentation involving marine research, a map that we would eventually re-create in the lab. The scientist was from Stellwagen Bank NMS and was showing how they used whale data and maps to have shipping lanes moved out of areas of known high whale density.  The gray shows where the shipping lanes were moved to, potentially saving hundreds of whale strikes by shipping vessels.

In this lab we mapped out the World's Ecoregions and had to decide which type of projection would least distort our data and visual representation of it....

In this lab we mapped out right whale sightings in four popular whale watching areas in the Gulf of Maine

This lab focused on suitable habitat factors for flounder focusing on bathymetry, bathymertic slope, sea surface temperature, benthic substrate and travel effort. This map shows the bathymetric slope ratings.

These were just a few of the maps produced during the class that I decided to highlight. Please realize that we only had one day to work on each lab and most of these projects could benefit from some editing. I think this block gave us a realistic view on what a career in this field would look like and I will readily admit that I do not want to sit in front of a computer screen from 9-5 everyday...yet.