Comma Shrimp Sampling Day!

Our first day of sampling with the epibenthic sled (EBS) is officially in the books! Around 11:30 pm, the EBS was deployed with 750 m of wire, and after towing the sled for around 15 minutes with the ship’s speed at 0.5 kt, it was brought on deck around 12:45 am. The first haul brought in 101 cumaceans from seven different species! In addition, we collected hundred of amphipods, many isopods, tanaids, gastropods, to name a few. We feel so lucky to have collected such a rich sample for our first deployment.

Since cumaceans are sensitive to light and temperature, our workflow focused on keeping them in the best possible condition for downstream analysis. We kept samples cold on a chilling stage fill we sorted the sample, minimized their light exposure, and worked quickly to document them. Each specimen was photographed before being preserved for DNA extraction, which we’ll prepare for sequencing once we're back at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

It’s always exciting to see the first real data come in, and this was an amazing start!

Victoria Vandersommen
University of Alaska Anchorage