Fishing for Science with CCFRP
An SRJC-BML Internship Story
Hi, my name is Alex and I’m part of SRJC’s Class of 2025! My Associate’s is in Biology. In September I will officially have transferred to UC Santa Cruz, where I will be majoring in Ecology.
As an intern at BML, I was involved with the California Collaborative Fisheries Research Project, which monitors the health of California’s Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) with the help of volunteer anglers. My mentor Fran de Castro and her partner Jordan Colby help to manage the BML’s contributions to the program. There were three stages to my responsibilities: assisting with catch-and-release sampling, dissecting retained fish, and data entry.
Before this experience, my interest was mostly with terrestrial ecosystems, but it didn’t take long for me to start learning a lot about fishing for science! On the sampling boat, my job was to bring fish to the data-taking station at the stern. I began to recognize the species that were commonly pulled up, and I figured out how to unhook and safely hold fish faster than I expected. While this field work was what I was most wanting out of the internship, my involvement didn’t end there. During the dissections, I removed the fish’s liver and gonads, cleaned and packaged otoliths (a small bone in a fish’s head), and helped with data recording. I was slow at first, but with a little practice I could find the organs easily and even start to guess the sex and maturity of the fish from the look of the gonads. I turned the physical data from dissections into Excel spreadsheets and labelled each envelope of otoliths. After that, the otoliths are sent to the NOAA so scientists can age the fish, helping us learn more about trends in local rockfish populations.
It was hard work but certainly satisfying. I now know so much more about our local oceans and I made connections that I will cherish. Thank you again to Fran, Jordan, and the rest of the science crew for your support and encouragement!
About the Program:
The SRJC-BML Internship Program provides summer research opportunities for Santa Rosa Junior College students at the Bodega Marine Laboratory.