Had meetings today with Brent, Steven, and Ryan to game plan for the rest of my field season (only 23 more days!). Highlights:

• Wind down animal husbandry
  • Clean out the “New” tanks
  • Stop collecting new larvae
  • Clean out “160” tanks ASAP
  • Transition cultch set care to hatchery staff
• Take tissue samples from all broodstock for DNA extractions
  • Store half of samples
  • Try to do as many extractions as possible
• Make a test 2b-RAD library to run on a MiSeq
  • Order reagents for 2b-RAD libraries, decided on 1/4 reduction
• Prepare tiles to be placed out in Manchester
  • Once they are all set, randomize among tanks
  • Cull to 20-30 per tile to avoid density impacts on growth
  • Zip-tie tiles to trays with cover
• Data collection from salinity experiment
  • Talk to Ryann about going through salinity samples for a 2nd live/dead count and to take pictures for size measurement

Very productive chat, but made the rest of the day kind of rushed. Did not get around to cleaning the broodstock or collecting new larvae (although I got rid of the “New” tanks so had nowhere to put them). Decided to max out the SetBs after reaching 60,000 or after 1 week.

Larval Tanks

• NF_Tank2_160 (224) -> 7,931 total: 500 for DNA, rest to NF_SetB
• NF_Tank2_160 (100) -> swimmers only added back
• NF_Tank1_new (100) -> DNA taken, rest dumped out
• NF_Tank1_new (160) -> NF_Tank2_160
• HC_Tank2_160 (224) -> 14,525 total: 500 for DNA, rest added to HC_SetB
• HC_Tank2_160 (100) -> swimmers only
• HC_Tank1_new (100) -> dumped
• HC_Tank1_new (160) -> HC_Tank2_160
• SS_Tank2_160 (224) -> 27,300 total, 500 to DNA, rest added to SS_SetB
• SS_Tank2_160 (100) -> swimmers only
• SS_Tank1_new (100) -> dumped
• SS_Tank1_new (160) -> SS_Tank2_160

Tile Sets

• SS: 47,500
• HC: 45,925
• NF: 21,337

Cultch Set

• Alice showed me how to screen out larger oysters growing on cultch. Very similiar to screening out larvae tanks, except instead of emptying a tank over a screen you dump the silo out over a screen into a filled sink. The oysters that hold on the screen go into a new silo while those that go through are rinsed onto a smaller screen and then put back in the original silo. Sizes go from 450, 1000, 1600…