January 2001: Pam Rogers, Editor
Beulah Davis Is the New HMSC Business Manager
Beulah Davis has rejoined the staff at the HMSC as our new Business Manager, replacing Luke McIlvenny who moved to the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences. Beulah comes to us most recently from the College of Forestry, where she supervised a budget of $10.5 million and a staff of six full-time classified staff. Her office also managed between 175 and 200 research grants, contracts, fellowships and co-ops with annual expenditures of about $10.4 million.
Old-timers at the HMSC will know that Beulah was an accountant here at the Center from 1989 to 1993, before moving on to OSU Research Accounting. She worked with Marilyn Sander and Louise Webb and feels like she is coming back home. Her familiarity with the HMSC and with all the ins and outs of OSU accounting are big pluses for the Center.
Stop by and welcome Beulah back.
CAP Research Activities
The Cooperative Ageing Project (CAP) is a joint effort between several State and Federal agencies. The unit was initially established in 1995 to reduce the ageing backlog for two species of groundfish and to generate ages for species used in stock assessments. Production ageing for stock assessments is still a major component of the workload and generally is done from November to April. During the reminder of the year CAP members get involved in various projects and research activities. Members (see photo) are Patrick MacDonald, Marion Mann, Bruce Pederson, and Ernie Wheeler.
Dover Sole Workshop Project:
In 1999 efforts included the examination of bias and precision information between age readers as a result of ageing workshop activities. This project attempted to measure the changes in ageing generated through workshop activities. The Dover Sole Ageing Workshop is held annually in Eureka CA and started in 1990 as a cooperative effort between Oregon and California. It has since expanded to include several different laboratories and agencies and reached peak attendance in the year 2000. Ageing workshops serve an important function in the acquisition and preservation of skills, as well as in streamlining ageing techniques and networking current news and information. It was hypothesized that workshop activities should decrease ageing error and bias in participating age readers. In addition, it was expected that changes may be specific to ageing experience or ageing laboratories. Three separate samples were selected and aged before, during and after the Dover sole workshop in 1999. Age data collected were analyzed using common statistical means, and results were reported at the 11th Western Groundfish Conference in Sitka, AK.
Title: Changes in Precision and Bias for Age Readers through Hands-on Workshop Activities - what does it mean?
Abstract -- Early stock assessments placed much weight on length frequency distributions, and limited the importance of ageing data. Model builders today using Stock Synthesis and AD Model Builder are increasingly depending on ³solid² age information when developing age class and recruitment matrices. Ageing workshops have been used as communication channels, fine tuning of ageing techniques, networking new information, and streamlining age-reader data. The design of workshop activities generally varies, but tends to include microscope and ³ hands-on² activities using various species. This study examined the effects of activities during the ³Dover Sole Workshop² on measures of bias and precision for Age Readers. Three independent exchange samples of 50 bones each were aged by 10-13 different age readers before, during and after the workshop. Workshop data were evaluated using common statistical approaches, including ANOVA, Index of Precision, and CV. For analytical purposes changes in precision were measured against a ³tester² - both with respect to individuals and groups. The tester was selected based on within-reader precision analysis, as well as ageing experience. There were no statistically significant differences found in precision among experienced readers or within specific groups before, during or after the workshop. Empirical data, however, did suggest a ³tightening² in the entire groupıs performance after workshop activities. Inexperienced age readers, deviated statistically significantly from the tester during before-workshop reads. Ages generated by this group fell within expectations after the workshop. Yearly workshop activities provide strong support for inexperienced readers, and appear to aid in maintaining reader consistency over time. Monitoring of future workshops will help to distinguish long term benefits.
Current and ongoing projects include the development of a precise ageing methodology for Shortspine Thornyheads and Marginal Increment Analysis (MIA) for Petrole and Dover sole.
Shortspine Thornyhead project:
Shortspine Thonyheads are a deep water slope species slotted for the upcoming stock assessment in 2001. This species inhabits a range of depths from 90 to 1000 m and can be found from Baja, CA to the Bering Sea. They are known to ontogenetically migrate down the slope into deeper waters after settling to the bottom at 14-15 months of age. Most of the adult life is spent with other deepwater slope species in an oxygen-poor environment called the oxygen minimum zone. Two separate radiometric age validations research projects have been completed, and it is generally understood that this species can reach ages up to 140 years. Due to their longevity and habitat conditions it has been difficult to generate acceptable ages usable in a stock assessment model. Age data generated by different readers and facilities so far have had significantly large variances. The need to evaluate ageing techniques used and develop a consistent methodology became apparent.
For this purpose 460 pairs of otoliths were used to assess different treatment procedures and to develop skills in the identification of growth patterns. Treatments include three physical preparations - thin sections, baked thin sections, and cut and burn - and two staining techniques. For each bone in a pair a different treatment was assigned and two experienced age readers aged all bones. Precision, bias and matching growth curve information is being evaluated using common statistical means. Methodologies with the best results and most feasible preparation time will be used to generate age data for the stock assessment.
Petrale Sole project:
Petrale sole are a commercially important species that have been taken since before World War II. This sole is almost exclusively caught with bottom trawls. Petrale sole can be found from N. Baja to the Bering Sea on soft bottoms, such as mud and sand. The stock structure of petrale sole is not well understood. These fish can live to a maximum of 25 years. However, most of the fish landed commercially are 4 to 10 years old. Ages generated for this species are used in assessing the stock status along the west coast.
The otoliths of petrale sole show interpretable growth patterns. These growth patterns are present in the form of alternating light (fast growth) and dark rings (slow growth). It has been assumed that these patterns are formed on an annular basis and could be reliably counted to assign an age to each fish. Marginal increment analysis (MIA) is a tool used by fishery biologists to validate this assumption of annular formation. It requires that otoliths be collected throughout an entire year, usually monthly, and in sufficient numbers. We looked to validate petrale sole of ages 5, 6 and 7.
Otoliths were thin sectioned using slow speed saws. The distance between the last annulus (dark ring) and the edge of the otolith was measured using Optimas 6.2 imaging software. A large distance indicates that there has been a lot of growth (light ring) since annulus formation. A small distance indicates less growth and suggests recent annular formation. An average distance was calculated for each month and for each age class. This averaged distance was then graphed over time by month.
A single period of small averaged distances followed by increasing larger distances (growth) was observed. The smallest distances occurred in February and March. After March there was increasing growth until the following February. This study validates the assumption that annular formation occurs once per year. Over 180 otoliths from petrale sole caught in 1992 were examined for this MIA study.
Library News
Yaquina Bay Bibliography
The direct web address for the bibliography has changed to
http://berlin.library.orst.edu/RIS/RISWEB.ISA. You can still get to it
through the Guin Library web site or by searching Oasis for Yaquina Bay
Bibliography.
Web Delivery of Articles
Beginning in January, we will be experimenting with delivering many of the
articles you request via the web. Currently, we receive most of the
articles via the internet and print them out for you. The new system will
let you either print or view your article.
Here's how it will work. You will be notified via email that your article is available on the Prospero server. You will be given a password that allows you to go to that server and either view or download the file. We'll post a note to the all_hmsc list when the system is up and running.
New Employees
As HMSC grows, the number of library users does too. Starting in January,
we would like to try something new. Your new employees who really need a
library key will need to go through basic library orientation before we will
check a key out to them. We will show them how to use Oasis and introduce
them to the indexes. We hope that this will enhance their use of the
library and its services. We are willing to do the orientations
individually or in small groups. So, keep it in mind when hiring new
people.
Coming Soon: Everything You Wanted to Know About Electronic Journals
Well, maybe not everything, but Janet will be offering two sessions on
electronic journals - how to find them, how to use them.
Walter G. Jones Fisheries Development Award
DEADLINE APPROACHING
Purpose: To encourage graduate work in subjects which contribute to fisheries development
Amount: $1,500 to be given spring term
Support Area: Fisheries development research
Criteria: The candidate must have completed 12 or more graduate credit hours in any department at OSU prior to application deadline. The candidate must be working toward a graduate degree at OSU and have a GPA equal to or higher than the average GPA for all current graduate students in his or her academic department. The candidate must have demonstrated ability to conduct research which would contribute to fisheries development. Publications, unpublished manuscripts, special projects and professional experience may be used as evidence of research ability and interest. Recipient must make an oral presentation to the annual HMSC Awards and Scholarship Day held in early June.
Application: Application letter plus supportive GPA status note from his or her department.
Deadline: JANUARY 12, 2001
Apply to: Dr. Lavern Weber, DirectorHatfield Marine Science Center
2030 Marine Science Drive
Newport OR 97365