The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, MA has developed an ecosystem-based website, stripedbassmagic.org, as part of its outreach activities. The striped bass initiative, geared for middle and high school students, has involved 218 individuals since 2015 with a progressive increase in the number of students conducting research projects. Many of these projects have resulted in the development of lesson plans that have been placed on the striped bass website (stripedbassmagic.org). Join us in the striped bass adventure! The website provides gives viewers the opportunity to explore the interrelatedness of organisms by focusing on the ecosystem, migration, and life cycles of the striped bass and their predators and prey. Classroom material developed by students and teachers as well as lesson plan links are available on stripedbassmagic.org under “Curriculum.“ A number of examples of student and teacher involvement in the striped bass initiative are listed below. More information can be found at stripedbassmagic.org.
- School Visits
A number of schools have visited the MBL for the day during the spring and summer months to learn about the striped bass ecosystem. For example, the Marine Biology class from Buxton School, Williamstown, MA, the Ichthyology course from the Children’s School of Science, Woods Hole, MA and the 8th grade from Lincoln School, Providence, R.I., came to the MBL and participated in striped bass outreach. Buxton School plans to incorporate striped bass ecosystem material into their future courses.
- Student Participation in Research at the Marine Biological Laboratory during the School Year
One major goal of the striped bass initiative is to provide a forum for students to ask questions, to develop hypotheses and to devise ways to test the hypotheses. More information about research projects conducted at the MBL can be found at stripedbassmagic.org, “Surprising Science.”
- Lincoln School, Providence, R.I.
For the second year, students in the Field Ecology course have chosen topics from stripedbassmagic.org and then visited MBL to obtain data which allows students to write lesson plans to be used in their 8th grade curriculum. In 2018, 5 students, their teacher and an administrator visited. The students collected water quality data, took GoPro videos of the striped bass for later analysis and met with fishers to discuss controversies of whether striped bass should be a game fish with no commercial fishery.
- Sandwich Public High School
Beth Simmons, teacher at Sandwich High School, and three seniors, Morgan Howes, Michael Stack and Steve Tanguilig received stipends to conduct research at the MBL during the summer of 2018. Morgan was able to condition striped bass to sound. Mike demonstrated that the striped bass had a food preference for squid and Steve obtained data that suggests that striped bass use magnetoreception.
Sandwich High School Participants
- University of Chicago Lab School
Five students visited the MBL for a week in the spring of 2018. As part of a week-long course, students participated in an ongoing research project on identification of striped bass by aberrations in their stripe pattern. This study provides a non-invasive technique to study whether the same fish are resident in Eel Pond, MA from year-to-year. Once proper controls are established, this data is publishable.
- Science Fair Project
Ian Hinkle at the Falmouth Academy Science Fair
During the 2017-2018 academic year, Ian Hinkle, Falmouth Academy, Falmouth, MA, conducted a Science Fair project on striped bass at the MBL. Ian’s question was: Do the same striped bass return to a study site from year to year? Prior studies indicated that aberrations in stripes might be a way to identify individual fish. Ian took videos of the striped bass in the fall and compared them to videos taken the year before (fall, 2016). Ian was able to identify 5 fish that appeared in the fall of 2016 and the fall of 2017. Although these results are encouraging, he and others need to develop a set of control experiments to ensure by independent means that the stripe aberrations are unique to an individual fish and to test whether the line aberrations change over time In order to obtain better pictures of moving fishes, Ian used an underwater ROV he built and mounted a GoPro camera to digitally capture images of the fish. He tested the ROV in a tank at the Marine Resources Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory during the winter months. He acclimated a striped bass to the ROV over the course of 5 days and then shot videos of the fish. This technique will be important for future videos of striped bass.
- Summer Research Projects at the MBL
Andrea Sofia Diaz, foreground, and Laurel Barnett using sonar to study striped bass
A number of students worked with Steve Zottoli on research projects during the summer of 2018. –Laurel Barnett, a student at Westwood High School, Westwood, MA, tested the hypothesis that striped bass recognize the sound signature of the MBL collecting boat and that they follow it from Vineyard Sound into Eel Pond. Her results are encouraging but need to be confirmed with underwater videos and more controls. –Andrea Sofia Diaz, Colegio Marista, San Juan, Puerto Rico continued the study on a non-invasive method to identify striped bass. Andrea has catalogued GoPro images of aberrations in stripe patterns to show that some resident striped bass return to Eel Pond, MA each year. –Jolie Ganzell, Great Mills High School, MD studied factors that affect the position of striped bass behind the Marine Resources building in Eel Pond, Woods Hole, MA. As the tide went out, the fish moved to deeper water. This correlation suggests that the fish may avoid shallow water and move to deeper water on a cyclical basis. — Darya Khodahkak, Harrison High School, NY, now a first year student at Middlebury College, provided the groundwork for acoustic tagging. She activated and tested a receiver which was than used to look for “blind spots” where fish might not be recognized by the receiver in Eel Pond. –Mikaere Todd, Tamalpais High School, CA investigated whether other resident populations of striped bass can be located in the Falmouth area and on Martha’s Vineyard. By interviewing local fishers she was able to identify at least two such populations. Her work will help us establish new study sites in 2019.
- Development of Technology used in Research
–Hayward Melton, University of Chicago Laboratory School and now a first year student at Cal Tech developed a joystick controller for an underwater ROV (remote operated vehicle) using an Arduino and H-bridges. –Tae Rugh, Menlo-Atherton High School, CA, built a robust underwater ROV utilizing bilge pump motors. His design will allow GoPro photography at greater depths.
Tae Rugh, Menlo-Atherton High School, CA
- Development of Lesson Plans
–Jolie Ganzell, Great Mills High School, MD studied factors that affect the position of striped bass behind the Marine Resources building in Eel Pond, Woods Hole, MA. As the tide went out, the fish moved to deeper water. This correlation suggests that the fish may avoid shallow water and move to deeper water on a cyclical basis. –Darya Khodahkak, Harrison High School, NY, now a first year student at Middlebury College, provided the groundwork for acoustic tagging. She activated and tested a receiver which was than used to look for “blind spots” where fish might not be recognized by the receiver in Eel Pond. –Hayward Melton developed a lesson plan on how to design a joy stick controller for underwater ROVs.
Howard Melton, University of Chicago Laboratory School
–Mikaere Todd, Tamalpais High School, CA investigated whether other resident populations of striped bass can be located in the Falmouth area and on Martha’s Vineyard. By interviewing local fishers she was able to identify at least two such populations. Her work will help us establish new study sites in 2019. –Beth Simmons, teacher at Sandwich High School, developed a lesson plan on magnetoreception, a possible sense for striped bass during their migration along the Atlantic coast.
- Acoustic Tagging Initiative
Acoustic VEMCO tags were placed in 5 striped bass at the end of August and beginning of September, 2018. A receiver in Eel Pond, Woods Hole monitored the presence of the fish and their departure on migration south. All fish left in October but each left at a different date and time. The presumption is that the fish are now heading south on their 500+ mile migration towards the Carolinas. In fact, receivers in New York have received signals from two of our fish and receivers in New Jersey have received a signal from a third fish. Hopefully we will receive more information from receiver arrays along the coast that will help us map their migratory path. A description of the acoustic tagging technique can be found at stripedbassmagic.org, “Surprising Science, Tagging Techniques.”
- Website Development
The website has been reorganized to facilitate navigation to help teachers find curricular material. In addition, a number of new videos have been added to attract and excite students in the study of the striped bass ecosystem. Skeletons of fish in the striped bass ecosystem have been prepared and are being photographed as a teaching tool for stripedbassmagic.org.
Acknowledgments
The Mary E. Groff Charitable Trust has been the main financial contributor to this initiative.