Plans For 2009

 

First, we will add light traps at stations where there are enough volunteers to maintain them twice a week. Megalops are highly attracted to light and they are good swimmers; so if they are near a light trap should catch them.

 

Second, we will look for more sites and select those that have favorable characteristics. Steep slopes, seawalls and bulkheads are bad – waves bounce off them pushing megalops away. Gradually sloping beaches are good and megalops (like everything else) are more likely to be deposited on them.

 

Third, we are going to get an earlier start. In May we will start training and distribute gear.

 

Fourth, we will have different levels of volunteer participation. We recognize that although all the volunteers share the same enthusiasm, not all have the same amount of time to commit to collecting megalops or don’t have access to good collection sites, so we are going to create three different levels of participation:

 

Level 1: Everyone should be a General Observer. They will keep an eye out for big megalops events. They can snap a photo or take a sample, jot down a few notes and email them in, or simply call us and describe what they see over the phone.

 

Level 2: Volunteers who can check a passive collector weekly just like last year. Each station will be supplied with at least two collectors so people can swap them out, empty and clean them at home.

 

Level 3: Volunteers and biologists willing to make a larger commitment to check certain strategic collection sites twice a week. At these sites we will have light traps and passive collectors at different depths.

 

Our first year, 2009, was a great success. We brought together a diverse group of volunteers and volunteer coordinators and were able to begin to documenting megalops settlement patterns in North Puget Sound and the absence of them in Hood Canal. We learned valuable lessons which will be applied to an expanded volunteer megalops collection network in 2010. Let’s give each other a pat on the back and get ready to do it a gain. We hope to see you at the trainings this spring.

 

Check out the Crab Larvae Study Presentation for good pictures to help with Dungeness Crab megalops larvae.