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Oh, The Places Theyโ€™ll Go

Catherine Carrion

Mentor: Wilmelie Cruz-Marrero

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About Me

  • Rising Senior

Major: Fish Conservation

Minor:Biological Science

  • What drew me to this Internship?

Changing conditions of the Chesapeake Bay and increasing diversity in STEM

  • Post-Graduation Goal

Grad School and Volunteer Work

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Where was I?

  • NOAA Habitat Science Intern
  • Cooperative Oxford Laboratory (COL)
    • Oxford, MD
  • NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office (NCBO)

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  1. Acoustic Telemetry

2) Poplar Island Surveys

  1. Collaboration with fish taggers in the Chesapeake Bay
  2. Fish tagging in Back Creek

Monitoring fish biodiversity and abundance

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Acoustic Telemetry

1A

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Acoustic Telemetry

Underwater technology that is used to track fish movement using transmitter and receivers

  • How can it be used?
    • It is used to track movement, migration patterns, home range, etc.
  • Ocean Tracking Network (OTN) & Mid-Atlantic Acoustic Tracking Observation System (MATOS)
  • Collaboration in Acoustic Telemetry

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Collaboration with Fish Taggers

Methods

  • Mike Oโ€™Brien- University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
  • R code created to help synthesize data
  • Used code to test/examine data without the risk of human error

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Results

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Results

North

Mid-Bay

South

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Conclusions

  • Seeing if the movement of different species changed in the Mid-Atlantic
  • Looking at the value and services provided by the NCBO-sponsored Chesapeake Bay telemetry arrays to researchers

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Fish Tagging in Back Creek

1B

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Goals

  • Fish movement between a restored habitat and a natural marsh

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  • Receivers to be collected in December for preliminary results

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Poplar Island Surveys

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Collection Methods

Gillnets

Fyke Nets

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Goals

  • Looking at the abundance of fish and the species composition of fish in a restored habitat vs a natural habitat

https://usfwsnortheast.wordpress.com/2017/03/20/an-island-rises-from-the-bay/

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Competencies

  • Systems Thinking
    • How the Chesapeake Bay interacts with different factors
    • Developed different projects to find out what was going on
    • Projects build upon previous knowledge

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Acknowledgements

  • Wilmelie Cruz-Marrero
  • David Bruce
  • Mike Oโ€™Brien
  • Emma Venarde
  • Mandy Bromilow
  • NCBO Staff
  • University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
  • 2023 C-StREAM Cohort
  • Everyone that helped me along the way!

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Thank You!

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Do you have any questions?

catherine.carrion@noaa.gov

catherinec20@vt.edu

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