Lab rotation: Marine Protection and Fisheries
June 13-14 2022
Lab leaders: Tiff Raetzel & Becky Scott
Peer counselors: Kylie McSorely
Marine Protection and Fisheries Lab
By Tiff Raetzel, OCG Fellow
Campers tried their hands at managing sustainable fisheries in the Marine Protection lab facilitated by myself and my fellow lab-mate in the Fisheries and Ecosystems Ecology Lab, Becky Scott and peer counselor Kylie McSorely. The lab taught campers the importance of protecting marine ecosystems, and how we can promote sustainable fishing using ecosystem modelling and Marine Protected Areas (MPA’s).
The first portion of the lab focused on fisheries, management, basic modeling principals, and population dynamics. The girls created their own catch curve using pennies, and they learned how to derive an equation to predict population growth using Swedish Fish as sample fish population. We also managed our own sustainable fishery by building a Schaefer Surplus Model using MS Excel. The campers presented their model and findings on the final day of camp at their poster and oral presentation.
The second portion of the lab introduced the campers to MPA’s and how scientists can use these tools to study and manage marine ecosystems. The girls spent time familiarizing themselves with ArcGIS, a geographic information system that is used in many STEM professions for managing and analyzing map data. GIS uses layers to create these maps, so to get the campers comfortable, they used transparency sheets to create a city- each sheet containing things like buildings, roads, parks, etc., and when put together they create a city. We then went through an ArcGIS tutorial before the girls used GIS to create their own MPA to address a prompted scenario of their choice. These maps were exported and used for their final presentation on the final day of camp.
Campers Emily, Smithi, and Katie present their MPA on the final day of camp in the FWRI auditorium.