Meet Our Researchers Blog Posts

“Are we gonna catch some fish today?”

“We’re gonna catch some goood fish!”

Jordan Colby and Francine De Castro are Master’s Students in the Toxicology, Physiology, Ecology and Conservation (ToPEC) Lab run by Assistant Professor Christina Pasparakis. They refer to the strong winds and rough weather of Bodega Bay as “Blow-dega Bay.” Leaving at six o’clock in the morning for a two-and-a-half hour mission, Colby and De Castro embark on a trip not only for research with other scientists, but for companionship with local anglers.

With funding from California Sea Grant, the California Collaborative Fisheries Research Program (CCFRP) provides an insightful volunteering experience with rockfish. The program operates along the California Coast with six institutions ranging from UC San Diego up to the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory (BML).

“Everyone is inherently valuable,” states Dr. Claire McKinley, Assistant Professor of Environmental Science at Bellevue College, “there has to be room for students coming from different places with different perspectives.” Paired with Dr. Alyssa Griffin, Assistant Professor of Biogeochemistry at UC Davis, the two foster a welcoming environment at the Bodega Marine Laboratory.

When we think of the impacts of climate change, the words global warming, sea-level rise, and extreme weather will often come to mind. But another lesser-known, though equally serious, consequence of our anthropogenic footprint is the global acidification of our oceans.

What does it take to study the ocean? It’s a lot harder than you might think, considering most marine research happens in a lab instead of the ocean itself. Imagine you are starting a project at Bodega Marine Laboratory (BML) and given only two weeks with limited funding to set up your study and collect all of the data you need to answer your research question. Data collection is an enormous task, but have you ever thought about the time it takes to replicate ocean environments on land? Researchers need access to a huge supply of seawater –often under very controlled conditions– and may also need access to marine life from intertidal or coastal waters that would have to be captured and brought back to the lab.