My name is Emma and I am a first year Marine Biology master student here in Bergen. I moved here in August from Germany but I am originally from Italy where I also did my Bachelors in Bioscience. For my Master thesis I will be studying Anelasma parasites which are Barnacle parasites which have been found to infect Velvet belly lantern sharks (E. spinax). I will be leaving for the IMR “Shrimp survey cruise” on G. O. Sars on the 18th of January where I will have the possibility to gather specimens for my lab work. We will be gathering live egg masses from gravid parasites to use for larval cultures, adult parasites from infected sharks for morphological analysis and flash-frozen shark tissues for experimental and biochemical use.
The aim of this project will firstly be to study the larval culture and their energetic development. We will be doing this by rearing the larvae over their 3-month development period and performing sequential documentation of morphological changes and measurements of their energy content, such as lipids, proteins, etc. Secondly, we want to perform microscopic and histological examination of fixed adults, juveniles and newly settled parasites focusing on their developmental transitions and attachment structures. Finally, we will perform settlement preference experiments. After approximately 3 months in culture the larvae will reach their infective stage and will be tested in a custom-built mini flume to examine the larval attraction of chemical cues from flash-frozen shark tissues and conspecific parasites, simulating natural host-finding and mate-location conditions.
This will be my second research cruise as I have been on one for the BIO325 course in October. As we are going into the North Sea I am very worried about the weather conditions and the waves. The previous cruise was in the fjords, so a very sheltered environment, apart from the last day where we went into the open sea. There I got very seasick. I am hoping that the patches (which I did not have the last time) will help avoid much of the sea sickness. As for the lab work, I am expecting it to be rather similar as the previous cruise so I am hoping that I will be able to bring in my previous knowledge. At the same time I am looking forward to learning new methods and get to know new species!
