Stressful times

Sattler R, Bishop AM, Polasek L. 2020. Cortisol Levels for Pregnant and Non-Pregnant Steller Sea Lions (Eumetopias jubatus) in Human Care. Aquatic Mammals, 46: 146-151. Open Access Feeling stressed? Repeating the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy advice “Don’t Panic” to yourself? You’re not alone…in more ways than you may know! All animals experience ‘stress’. We’ve […]

A Steller Menu

Often, when I was out on the floor monitoring the touch tank and pointing out California sea cucumbers to curious guests, people would strike up a conversation, asking how long I’d been working here. I would tell them that I was here for a 3 month internship doing research, and that this had been a […]

Feeling Hormonal

A few months ago, we shared an initial update about our project funded by SeaWorld Busch Gardens Conservation Fund looking into Steller sea lion pregnancy hormones. In that blog (read it here), we showed the multi-step process of taking a donated fecal sample and preparing it for hormone quantification. In short, this process involved removing […]

The power of poop

Poop is underrated in conservation biology. These smelly samples can tell you what animals are eating, their levels of stress, or whether they are infected by a disease. In a study led by ASLC Research Associate Renae Sattler, funded by the SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund, we’re hoping to learn if poop can also […]

Mighty Mussels Vs Oil

Paper in a nutshell based on the recent publication: Counihan, K (2018) The physiological effects of oil, dispersant and dispersed oil on the bay mussel, Mytilus trossulus, in Arctic/Subarctic conditions. Aquatic Toxicology 199:220-231. Oil spills have a major impact on coastal environments, and dispersants are used to help speed up oil degradation. The combination […]

Changing Tides: Update

The “Changing Tides” project is being conducted by researchers with the Alaska SeaLife Center, National Park Service and US Geological Survey to examine the connections between bears, marine bivalves such as clams and mussels, and human-caused change along the coastlines of Katmai and Lake Clark National Parks. In November 2017, we posted a video about […]

AMSS 2018 : New Directions

I have been attending AMSS for the past 6 years to learn about current research and present my latest research, but this year I had another exciting reason for going to the conference. I announced and promoted the COHO Lab, a new fee-for-service lab at ASLC that was developed by Dr. Hollmen and myself. The […]