So, I’m up to my ears in otoliths (pun intended). I’ve gotten a decent way through sorting all of them and picking out a pretty representative sample from each season to put in immersion oil, and I’ve finally started taking pictures of and ageing the otoliths that I put in oil last week and the week before!
An Electrona otolith that I’ve aged to be about 8 years old
A Pleurogramma otolith that I’ve aged to be about 6 years old
It’s really exciting when they look this great!!
But then other times they turn out to still look like this:
My notes for this one just say “nope”
And then most of they time they’re somewhere in between
This one’s currently down as 3 years, but I’m gonna re-check it in a few days
My favourite ones though are the juvenile otoliths of the Pleurogramma
Those bands aren’t annual, but they’re so cool to look at!
Last night, Prof. K had me over for dinner and I had fried clams for the first time! They were DELICIOUS!! Max showed us some magic tricks, and Lillian sang lots of Frozen songs. And I also got to see Darrell, a seabird biologist from CA who I met at PSG and got to help out with some Scripps’ Murrelet surveys on Catalina Island last semester, so that was really fun also!
I’m still having such a great time here! Living on the beach, fresh seafood, and a whole bunch of really freaking smart people who are all into marine science–it’s paradise!
I do have to get back to work now though.
Until next time 🙂
Mimi