My Thesis: A love and hate relationship between fish and parasite.

Anyone else a fish parasite enthusiast? Recently, I've been wracking my brain trying to put a proposal together so I can start applying for grants for my thesis.  The great thing about doing parasitology work in the Philippines is that not much as been done and that means, there's a plethora of things I can explore.   Maybe someone will see the value of my work and give me some funding!  All I need is one thorough, sound, straight-forward problem that doesn't require a long sampling period.  Thank you God for Paul Sikkel who agreed to be my external advisor.  He happens to be one out of the few scientists spearheading this fresh field. 

Underside of an Argulus sp. (*google images*)

My first encounter with parasites was during my two year internship as a fisheries technician for Mirant, now called Genon.  I worked in a aquaculture facility that was in collaboration with Department of Natural Resources' Restoration program for anadromous species, specifically Atlantic sturgeon  (Acipenser oxyrhynchus).   Every summer, our poor sturgeon was heavily infested with irritating, persistent sea lice (Argulus sp.).

After my two years as a technician, I went back to school for my masters degree in Silliman University.   Come to find out that no one has done any parasitology work in the lab before (for a master's thesis or dissertation).  I was nervous about choosing the topic considering none of the faculty is even specialized in that field.  But God answered my prayers when Renclar (a researcher at the marine lab) informed me about a scientist coming to Silliman conducting some parasite work.  That fateful day, I met Paul Sikkel.  He gave me the motivation, with a renewed enthusiasm, to pursue my topic. 

Lionfish taken at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas

Paul has done plenty of work with lionfish and gnathid isopods.  There's a chance my thesis will be based on his work and be used to compare Caribbean and Indo-Pacific parasite loads of lionfish.  Now, all I need to do is to get the ball rolling. Finish these old reports, take my comprehensive exam and present my proposal. Oh boy, Jesus give me the strength and wisdom to finish all of this by April! I need to graduate by next March!

Gnathid female (*google images*)

Before and After Bagyong Sendong in Dauin Poblacion I

The Philippines was recently hit with a terrible typhoon named "Bagyong Sendong" this past December 2011. I, along with the marine lab crew, was safe in Davao Oriental conducting our assessments, however many citizens in Cagayan de Oro and Dumaguete City lost their lives and homes to the unmerciful storm. It left behind a whopping 400+ death toll with many more still missing. Thank God my family in Cagayan de Oro was safe with no injuries (as far as I know) although their water supply was cut off for quite some time. My family's home in Duma wasn't even touched although the streets were flooded. 

http://www.philippinecanadianfoundation.com

One month later, my classmate Jean informed us graduate students about possibly doing an assessment of one of our local marine sanctuaries. We were asked by a local businessman and close friend, Harold of Harold's Mansion, to voluntarily do an assessment of Dauin Poblacion I. Dauin is a hotspot for diving/snorkeling enthusiasts attracting many locals and tourists thereby generating revenue for the local barangay. Apparently the coral reef has suffered noticeable damage after Bagyong Sendong. A handful of us from the marine lab (Jean, Ting, Mark, Fanny, Padi, ate Ching, Jared and I) decided to take a look for ourselves.

The "Non-Marine Lab" Dive Crew ;)

Fortunately a few of us grad students went snorkeling in Dauin this past September and saw the reef in its original glory. The reef was healthy, full of color and life with damsels dancing on top of table coral, parrotfish and rabbitfish nibbling on algae covered coral, goatfish rummaging through the sandy bottom, clownfish hiding in their anemone home, while the more larger snappers and groupers roam about. Not too far were the shy garden eels followed by a neighboring reef. 

But sadly, not even our beautiful marine sanctuary could escape Sendong.

Despite the rubble left behind, signs of life along with a hope for recovery are found in the present marine community. This is their home. Where else can they go?

School of jacks

New Species: Marklorurus Depazis

Needless to say, our spirits were down after witnessing the extensive reef damaged left behind by Sendong. There is nothing much we can do but place fallen corals upright and let the reef recover on its own. It comes to show you that nature is an unpredictable force that can't be fought. As residents of this planet, we need to take charge and become good stewards of our ecosystems and resources before they all disappear. Wouldn't you want your children to see all of these beautiful creatures under the sea?

          

The Davao Experience: Seagrass Edition

Being a student of Silliman University in the Philippines sure has its perks.  Not only do I get the benefits of bathing in the sun under the palm trees and swimming in untouched marine sanctuaries, but I have the privilege to travel.  This past December, Silliman University's Institute of Environmental and Marine Sciences was hired to perform baselining studies in Davao Oriental as part of DENR's CRM project.  Alongside our teachers and mentors, I was fortunate enough to come along as a research assistant.

Davao Oriental: Mati Ciy, Bagang-ga and Balete

Yay, my first paid job in the Philippines and all I did was turn in a CV.  God is definitely looking out for me!  Praise God, he knows me so well because this is the best way I can learn.  Im not stuck in a stuffy classroom with facts that hold no real meaning.  Unlike my counterparts who are especially well versed in their biology facts, have never seen it first hand - in the field!   Tangible are the facts when you immerse yourself in them and not just see them on paper.  Hands-on is one of the best tools for teaching any concept, theory, etc.  These opportunities were partly the reason why I moved half across the earth, however, I can't imagine what else God has aligned ahead for me. 

Me and my buddies, Padi and Pers on the way to Cebu.

Most of the marine lab staff and current graduate students were hired for the project.  For some of us, it was our first time in Davao and would be one out of the many memorable experiences we'll make as a student of Silliman.


Day One - Dumaguete to Cebu to Davao

Edsam: "You think we can fit all this crap?"

We arrived in Davao City around lunchtime via Cebu City and the pressure of the trip began to sink in.  First puzzle, how to cram all our personals, gear and equipment into three mini-vans? Logistics is always an issue but we eventually had a game plan. After playing a little tetris, we managed to fill every space and crevice with our things. One van will head to the local DENR office while the other two head to the dive shop to pick up rented tanks. I swear, a little bit of rocket science was applied in fitting all of our gear and the passengers with it.

I ended up joining our fearless leader, Ma'am Nida, and four others (Ate Pabs, Persie, Edsam, and Fanny) in the to-DENR-office van.  Starving, we ordered the typical on-the-field necessity, Jollybee, and headed to our destination.

What to do, what to do...

After going around in circles, we arrived at the office, which was still in construction (seriously, the place looked liked it was falling apart) and waited for Ma'am Nida till her meeting with the DENR officials was over.

Finally, we drove a grueling two hour drive down to Mati City where we'll be stationed for the next few days. At least I had some rest before lugging all of that equipment again - look at those white tubs!

I'm kicking myself for not taking a photo of the name, but we camped at Casa Rosa for the next four days. 

Looks like a dive shop...

Day Two: Tamisan

We were divided into five different teams: Mangrove, Seagrass, Coral (including fish), Chemistry and Siltation. I was part of the mighty Seagrass team with Ma'am Nida and Ma'am Jay as our leaders, me, Iyan, and Persie as the research assistants and four faculty assistants from Davao Oriental State College of Science and Technology. 

Team Seagrass!

My role was to enumerate and identify the macroinverts using the belt transect method.  Am I an invert expert?  Definitely not, but it's a great time to start appreciating them.  I first came in with an aquaculture background particularly with freshwater fish.  My interest has always been fish, but since the beginning of the semester, I've focused all of my time on nothing but seagrass, algae and mangroves.  Now, it's a hands-on macroinvert lesson taught by yours truly.  I'm loving the learning experience!  It's best to have a broad knowledge base right?  Our goal was to assess five sites within our week stay in Davao Oriental assessing one transect inside and outside of the marine sanctuary within each site.

First Site: Tamisan.

Why does nothing ever follow according to plan?  Well, in real life, nothing ever goes according to plan especially with nature.  Lesson one in seagrass assessment: perform an ocular survey.  We spent longer than we liked searching for our seagrass bed and ended up extending our transect as far out as 250 meters searching even for a small patch of Enhalus.  Not much seagrass here. 

From left to right: Lambis lambis, Protoeaster nodosus, Spirobranchus giganteus, Linckia laevigata, Ophiomastix janualis, Diadema setosum

We spent our night (all of our nights, for that matter), processing away. 

From left to right: The Chemistry, Siltation, Seagrass, and Mangroves team.

Day Three: Dahican

Cowabunga dudes!  Our stake out for the day was at a surfers paradise, Amihan sa Dahican!  It was my first time seeing huge waves in the Philippines.  It's hard to tell in the photos, but the waves were too strong for the banca to stay on shore.  With the help of kuya Jun and Team Amihan, we battled the gnarly waves and laid out our transects.  On a side note, you can find a protected turtle nesting site on location, seen below.

Common sense says the boat should not be anchored on shore, especially with those huge waves.  So how can we reach our banca, you ask?... Why, surf boards of course!

Ma'am Nida showing off her paddling skills. 

Pers and I had a difficult time tying down the transect line as wave after wave continued to toss us to and fro.  With the extra help of the locals, we managed to tie down the line and also finish our assessments.  I finally had the chance to dive alongside Ma'am Nida and Pers.  Unfortunately, I have no photos of us but plenty of the critters I found underwater.

From left to right: Echinometra mathaei, Didemnum molle, Diacarnus sp., juvenile lionfish, and Tridacna squamosa.

Ma'am Jay, dubbed the Surfer Chick, shows us how's it done.

Day Four: Maribago and Tobo-Tobo

An early start of the day and apparently there was some miscommunication between our logistics person and the boatmen (not really sure).  We ended up taking two small boats instead of one big banca.  But all is well and we headed off to our next site: Maribago.

Almost there!

 

As we drew closer to our first site, all I saw below the surface was a misty-cloudy bottom with an occasional Enhalus blade.  Curious, I took a quick photo from the banca.  It was like another planet with a vast Enhalus bed surrounded by an eerie mist, with very little visibility.  My amazement was soon replaced with dread as I realized that our transect will be placed straight through this nightmare.

After anchoring, Persie laid out the transect and I waited till I can follow behind to document.  As I said before, visibility was so poor I had a difficult time finding the line.  Every step I took, a cloud of silt and sand automatically made life miserable. 

Thank God, visibility was much much better after 50 meters, however, I couldn't ID any inverts in the first 50 meters.  

Our second site for the day was Tobo-Tobo and it was not any better.  Surprisingly, a mangrove reforestation site was implanted right on top of a mixed seagrass bed.  The muddy substrate added on to the already horrible morning.  Again, every step would pick up a cloud of silt and sand, so in order to make things easier, we decided to have me document ahead of Persie while he laid out the transect behind me.

I snorkeled in one foot shallow waters, through a massive Enhalus bed, and avoiding Diadema setosum and synapta worms.  What an experience (if only I can scream underwater).  Below are some of the critters I found along the way.

From left to right: Stylotella aurantium, Protoeaster nodosus, Elephant's Ear sponge, juvenile cardinal fish, Culcita novaguineae, Didemnum rubeum, Synapta worm, Tectanius coronatus.

   


On a positive note, we ended around 4pm with some daylight to spare!

Our banca was extra slow compared to Ma'am Nida's and Ma'am Jay's, so we took the time to appreciate the extra pause.

Day Five: Rest, ride to Bagang-ga 

No field work equals rest day, yay!  We woke up at around 5AM and packed our three vans for a four hour drive to Bagang-ga.  We had two more sites to go: Banao and Maguso.  Again, I didn't take a photo of the resort's name, but we are very thankful they allowed us to use their really nice resort for our messy work.  It was right on the beach and all to ourselves!  After unloading and settling into our rooms, we stole a van and went downtown to search for our panihapon. 

Day Six: Banao and Maguso

Our final day of sampling, transects and rough waves. Whew! 

First site was Banao, a beautiful beach at low tide.  The water was so clear and shallow, the seagrass bed was visible past 100 meters from shore and before the surf.  Two 100 meter transect lines were read at once by Ma'am Nida and Ma'am Jay, respectively, as poor little ole me tried to catch up with my macroinvert readings.

Sadly, I finished reading only up to 60 meters of the first transect.  To add on to the disappointment, our transect was ripped in half due to the strong undercurrent.  Yes, an undercurrent! I even lost my pencil!


We hired the local children to help carry our samples.  They were already curious, hovering around us, wondering what these crazy people were doing snorkeling in inches deep.  We also interviewed them, asking what kind of shells they frequently find while gleaning.

I found the most inverts, particularly molluscs.  Here are just a sliver of the specimens found that morning.  From left to right: Unidentified sponge, unidentified crustacean, Lambis lambis, and Ophiocoma scolopendrina.

    

Our last and final site for the whole trip was located within a cove surrounded by mangrove forest.  To get there, we first walked what seemed to be like 5 km instead of 50 meters (a wrong estimation of our local boatmen).

Walking to our banca within the beautiful mangrove.

Within the mangrove forest.

In the cove of the mangrove forest.

Here we found coral within the seagrass beds below the mangroves.  What a strange place.  The marine sanctuary within the cove, meters beyond the seagrass bed, was purely corals and no fish.  We had extra time to do a little fun dive and of course my camera's battery died right before I could take any photos.  I saw plenty of different sponges, molluscs, ascidians, and for the first time, jellyfish! Pictured below are the hard coral, a brown sponge colony and Cassiopea medusae.

Our last day of field work called on an intense sample processing session.  Each team had their own table processing seagrass, shells, water, mangroves and silt.  It looked like a freaking palenke.

Day Seven: Davao City

5:30am - The IEMS photography club decided to have their annual Davao photowalk. hehe.  I woke up a little late and missed out on the sunrise so I tried snapping a few shots of the fresh sun rays on the beach.  I refused to bring my SLR on the trip since it would add on to the baggage weight and was content with using my Canon Powershot S95.  It served me well on this trip - highly recommend if you're looking for a point and shoot.

All photos were edited in iPhoto.

After packing up our gear, we climbed into our three vans and headed back down to Davao City.  Along the way, we stopped to take in the gorgeous view of Mayo Bay and the Sleeping Dinosaur. 

Mayo Bay and the Sleeping Dinosaur

We stopped by Davao Oriental State College in Mati to pick up some of our gear as well as drop off some specimens for them to keep.  We said our goodbyes, took a group photo, then got back on the road for Davao City.

    

Day 8: Back to Dumaguete via Cebu

Fanny, Padi and Carl with the souvenirs.

At this point I miss home and miss my big comfy bed.  The long hours under the sun had drained my energy and all I wanted was to buy pasalubong and take a nap.  After reaching Davao City and checking in our hotel room, we went out and spent most of our perdiem on christmas gifts, all bought at the local souvenir shop.

Although very tiring, I'll never forget this adventure as I've acquired new skills and deepened my relationships with my fellow teachers and classmates, all thanks to our fearless leader and wonderful coordinators.  I can now add research assistant to my CV.

We have three more locations for baselining: Cebu, Siquijor and Masbate.  Looking forward to new excursions, challenges and experiences ahead.

Aerial view of Bohol