Science from the air: NOAA Hollings internship with the Hurricane Hunters

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Last year, we spoke with SAFS undergrad, Michael Han, about receiving the NOAA Hollings Scholarship and where this would take him over the next year. This summer, Michael has split his time between NOAA’s HQ in Silver Spring, Maryland and NOAA’s Aircraft Operations Center (AOC) in Lakeland, Florida. His internship has been focused on NOAA’s Hurricane Hunters, aircraft which fly into the world’s worst weather to collect data which assists forecasters in making accurate predictions during hurricanes, and helps hurricane researchers achieve a better understanding of storm processes. Read about Michael’s summer internship below.

Michael Han sits in a plane wearing a headset, smiling into the camera.
Michael Han
Michael sits in the NOAA Twin Otter.

The main project I was working on with NOAA’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO) was a visualization of Hurricane Hunter aircraft flying through Hurricane Milton. Milton was the strongest Atlantic storm last year in 2024, exceeding Cat 5 speeds and being one of the most intense storms ever found over the Gulf. NOAA OMAO was heavily involved in forecasting and researching it, conducting 10+ research flights from October 6-10, 2024. I retrieved flight track coordinates and plotted them with the help of ArcGIS and Python, then overlaid a sheet of satellite images of liquid and solid precipitation to show the hurricane itself. This was a visualization that was created specifically for the Science on a Sphere, which is a large globe model present in Smithsonians and many other museums across the country.

My time was split between headquarters at Silver Spring, MD and NOAA’s Aircraft Operations Center (AOC) in Lakeland, Florida. Although NOAA’s aircraft can be all over the world at any given time, all 10 are ultimately stationed at AOC. This includes four DHC-6 Twin Otters, three Beechcraft King Airs, two WP-3Ds, and one Gulfstream 4. Being there allowed me to take video footage with a 360 camera of all the different aircraft and splice segments into the visualization for a more complete view of the mission. AOC was definitely the highlight of my internship since I was able to get out of the office and have some hands-on learning with the planes. However, my favorite part was getting to talk to all the NOAA Corps officers and ask them about their career paths, the planes they fly, and how they contribute to the scientific process.

Besides my main Hollings project, I also shadowed my mentors around, attended a whole bunch of meetings, and worked on some fun side tasks such as mapping out NOAA’s flights on the Texas floods or gathering info on the P-3’s scientific instrumentation.

The pictures above show the NOAA Twin Otter in transit from Hagerstown, MD to Lakeland, FL. NOAA operates four DHC-6 Twin Otters which are part of the light aircraft fleet. They stay busy 365 days a year conducting scientific research on missions such as air chemistry, LIDAR, coastal mapping, and marine mammal surveys. When this picture was taken, the aircraft (N46RF) was on its way back to AOC after completing a month long study on ozone concentrations near Baltimore, which involved sampling the atmosphere for certain compounds that contribute to the formation of ozone. The research was done in predetermined grids east of the city as the prevailing winds during the study were westerly.

My main role while flying in the Otter as a student pilot was to get some on-the-job training from the NOAA Corps officers flying the plane up front. I learned about the locations and functions of the various instruments present in the cockpit and how NOAA flights communicate with Air Traffic Control (ATC) when operating research missions.

The two photos above are taken in the heavy plane hangar at AOC! The NOAA fleet currently includes three heavy aircraft and seven light planes. The heavy aircraft visible in these pictures are the Gulfstream 4 (left) and the WP-3D Orion (right). These planes are the backbone of NOAA’s hurricane hunting fleet and provide the data researchers need to accurately forecast storms. The P-3 is a large, turboprop aircraft tasked to fly straight into hurricanes at an altitude of 8-10,000 feet. The cone shaped object mounted on the back end of the plane is a tail-doppler radar (TDR) which is used to vertically scan the storm. This is combined with a horizontally scanning radar mounted on the belly to create a 3D cross section of the hurricane, which is sent to the National Hurricane Center, real time, to be immediately incorporated into forecast models.

The G4, nicknamed Gonzo, is a heavily modified business jet also outfitted with a tail doppler radar (TDR) and various scientific instrumentation. Both planes also have the capability to launch dropsondes and unmanned systems such as drones from launch tubes. Dropsondes are small cylinders released from the underside of the aircraft and record metrics such as temperature and humidity as they fall, and the data is processed by a special dropsonde operator in the back. Unmanned systems provide some similar capabilities but are able to remain in the air for longer periods and return more readings.

The side of a NOAA plane in a hangar, with decals showing different country flags and red hurricane outlines.
Michael Han
Into the eye of the storm: the long list of hurricanes and countries this plane has flown through are marked on its side.

Decals or victory marks can be seen in the photo above, showing all the hurricanes this P-3 has flown through, along with the countries it has operated in! The marks face left (counterclockwise) for Northern Hemisphere missions and vice versa. Hurricane Milton, which I worked on, is visible in the bottom left corner.

A small plane sits on the tarmac while someone stands beneath the wing. A mix of clouds and blue skies are above.
Time for preflight checks!

The preflight process involves a mission brief where the objectives are laid out and roles of everyone on board are made clear. The flight plan is discussed and the pilots go over their physical and emotional wellbeing. Once that’s completed they’re out to the aircraft, and pictured above is the pilots conducting an exterior walkaround of the plane. This entails checking the tire and brake systems, looking for cracks in the structure, and ensuring the flight controls have full freedom of movement.

What have other SAFS undergrads been working on?

Muckin’ around: An undergraduate fieldtrip to explore seagrass ecosystems

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During low tide at Padilla Bay on a bright day in early May, you could find a class of UW undergraduates exploring the largest contiguous seagrass ecosystem in the lower 48. Why? To collect data to assess the habitat value of seagrass.

A group of people walk across mudflats with eelgrass, under blue skies with sparse white clouds.
Mark Stone, UW Photography
Undergraduates exploring the largest contiguous seagrass ecosystem in the lower 48 at Padilla Bay.

An estuary in Puget Sound at the saltwater edge of the Skagit River Delta, Padilla Bay has nearly 8,000 acres of eelgrass (a type of seagrass), which becomes totally exposed during low tide. These eelgrass meadows, nestled in the mudflats of Padilla Bay, were the location for a visit by the FISH 312: Aquatic Ecology class, made up of juniors and seniors at UW SAFS.

Hands hold a small crab, above eelgrass.
Mark Stone, UW Photography
Eelgrass meadows act as nurseries for a multitude of species.

Led by Carter Smith, SAFS Assistant Professor, students chose from different datasets compiled during the class to answer a research question of their own choosing. A few of the students chose to use the data collected during the Padilla Bay fieldtrip for their research questions.

A group of students stand and kneel in muddy eelgrass meadows, with research equipment.
Mark Stone, UW Photography
During the FISH 312: Aquatic Ecology class fieldtrip, undergraduate students collected data to assess the habitat of value of seagrass.

For more than 40 years, Padilla Bay has been designated as a National Estuarine Research Reserve because of its unusually large eelgrass meadows. Eelgrass is a vital part of the fabric of the Pacific Northwest for a multitude of reasons: it acts as a nursery for salmon, crab, perch, and herring. It’s home to a range of invertebrates which are a critical food resource for both animals and humans. It also acts as a carbon sink, by trapping the gas in the mudflats.

Aerial view of Padilla Bay and its eelgrass ecosystem.
Mark Stone, UW Photography
Padilla Bay has nearly 8,000 acres of eelgrass.

Coursework, capstone, and connections: The multi-dimensional nature of the SAFS undergraduate degree

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For many students about to embark on their undergraduate journey at university, they plan to study one thing but end up studying something completely different. This was the case for SAFS undergraduate, Ryan Luvera. “Coming into UW, I, along with many of my peers, thought I would go into medicine. However, my blue-collar fishing family genes had other plans. My love for fisheries has devoted me to protecting Washington and Alaska’s waters, which have fed and clothed my family for three generations,” Ryan said. “The SAFS undergraduate degree was an obvious choice for me. The coursework, capstone, and connections I have gained have been invaluable.”

One of the goals of the SAFS degree is to prepare students through classes, lab work and fieldwork, to undertake and lead their own research project as the final requirement of the major – it’s called a capstone. Ryan, who’s in his junior year, decided to get started on his capstone early, using the skills he’s already learned.

“I’ve always been a fan of practical science. Environmental DNA is a blossoming field which has applications for management of invasive, endangered, and commercially important species. After being accepted to the Alaska Salmon Program for the summer of 2024, I decided to contact Wes Larson from NOAA Fisheries who had done an environmental DNA project already within the Alaska Salmon Program watershed. My capstone focuses on improving the salmon abundance estimation models that he had created,” Ryan shared.

The Alaska Salmon Program hosts UW students each summer to spend a month or more at the field camps to live and work in a diverse ecosystem which supports one of the world’s most important fisheries. For Ryan, he used this time to work on his own capstone research under the guidance of Wes, building on an existing, larger project. Wes happened to be in Alaska at the same time, teaching an eDNA section during the Aquatic Ecological Research in Alaska (AERA) Class for the Alaska Salmon Program, so the timing worked out perfectly for Ryan’s research.

Bright red sockeye salmon swim in a stream, surrounded by green grass on either side.
Ryan Luvera
Sockeye Salmon pooled in Hansen Creek.

“The larger project aims to use environmental DNA samples (collected in water) which are taken from the mouth of streams (where the stream enters the lake) to estimate the abundance of salmon within the stream,” Ryan said. “My project is focused on samples taken at several points while walking approximately 1km up two streams. At these set points going up the streams, we counted all the DNA copies that were present. From this, we want to hopefully see an increase in eDNA as water flows past salmon swimming in the stream. Ultimately, this data will help make our models better for estimating salmon abundance with eDNA samples taken at the mouth of streams as we understand how much eDNA is actually making it there, not just settling on rocks or being eaten by microbes.”

Sampling two streams that feed into Lake Aleknagik—Happy and Eagle Creek—Ryan worked with the AERA 2024 class, carrying roughly 120 pounds of water down Happy Creek “It was a rough day. I stayed up all night filtering water and putting the filters into preservative solution which allowed us to store the eDNA at room temperature. We then run a quantitative PCR to count the abundance of DNA within each sample and use that data to understand how eDNA is flowing within these streams. Preliminary results suggest that eDNA is better at flowing to the mouth of streams when there are lots of salmon and even with a higher flow of water.” Ryan said.

During their time at SAFS, undergrads are encouraged to seek out opportunities to enhance their experience at conducting research. Ryan not only found useful opportunities within UW—such as the Alaska Salmon Program field season and SAFS classes—but he also worked with external agencies to gain valuable research experience.

A group of students stand in a river with a white rope strung across.
Ryan Luvera
AERA Class of 2024 taking flow measurements of the water.

“Doing any sort of field sampling has been very helpful for my capstone. Not just the experience with field sampling, but also the troubles that come with it. It has really shown me that being prepared for anything is key. As for my degree, the writing classes, like FISH 290, have been pivotal as you create a mock capstone project and learn foundational knowledge in scientific writing and presentation. Doing a quantitative science minor has also been very beneficial, and I think the QSCI series really should be required for the fisheries degree,” Ryan said.

One key thing Ryan would share with other undergraduates is to take those opportunities that may seem strange or a bit of a long shot in the moment. “In terms of external experience, I had no degree specific experience before undergrad, unless you count making tuna sandwiches at Subway as fisheries. As an undergraduate, work snowballs fast. My freshman year, I applied to be an intern at King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks (DNRP) which was a long shot, but it worked out,” Ryan shared. “Taking strange opportunities is important. I got a job with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game because of a conversation with my nurse. Applying and working in a variety of positions has also been key for not only figuring out my path, but it also helps with future applications. Once you work in a position and talk to your mentor/advisor, you will start to understand what these positions are looking for. From there you can apply that knowledge to the next position to exceed their expectations. Working for Alaska Department of Fish and Game was hard, but I learned so much about management and fisheries from different stakeholders. Seeing the fishery from many different angles (research, management, family) has allowed me to become more attractive to employers.”

An eDNA filtering station at a field camp in Alaska.
Ryan Luvera
Makeshift eDNA filtering station which couldn’t be in the lab due to contamination concerns.

A frequently asked question for prospective students thinking of applying to university is about scholarships, and it remains an important question even when working your way through an undergraduate degree. Ryan applied for the Washington State Opportunity Scholarship while in high school. “I would recommend anyone in their undergraduate experience who meets the qualifications to apply as the benefits are vast. It’s not only about the money, but the scholarship also allows you to build skills while making connections with potential employers,” Ryan said. “I give credit to the scholarship for giving me a start at King County. They notified me about the opportunity and provided resources, such as peer mentors, who could help with application materials. Now, I am one of their peer mentors for students in their first and second years at UW and Western Washington University. Being able to relay resources that are available specifically through the scholarship, provide support and mentorship, and share information on opportunities such as internships, to other undergrads who were in the same position that I was two short years ago, has been very rewarding.”

So, what’s next for Ryan, once he graduates from SAFS? “I am hoping to go to graduate school here at UW, but we’ll see! Government work is my end goal, probably locally at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) or the Washington Department of Ecology (WDOE). That’s where I see myself making the most impact on my community here in Washington.”

Want to learn more about other undergraduate research? 

Birdsong, insects, and streams: Stevan explores how King County’s riparian habitats are faring

Who’s who? Liam uses identification tools to tell freshwater sculpin apart 

Turning up the heat: Iris reveals lake hotspots using mobile data

Birdsong, insects, and streams: How are King County’s riparian habitats faring?

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It’s not just fish being studied at SAFS. Undergraduates get to learn about a huge range of species, from teeny tiny parasites and insects, to seabirds and the largest mammals on Earth. And it’s not just animals either. It’s all the habitats in which these animals live and depend on. For Stevan Pekich, birds are his thing. “I have always been a huge fan of birds and have done as much as possible to integrate them as much as I could into my SAFS major,” he said. Stevan is an undergraduate in his senior year, double majoring in SAFS and Environmental Science. “This led me to working on Giordano (Gio) Jacuzzi’s project within the Olden Lab last year where I was helping identify bird calls.” Using the skills he picked up while volunteering on Gio’s project, Stevan is now working with Gio as his partner and mentor on his capstone project.

A man wearing a blue tshirt and a hat walks through a dense forest.
Gio Jacuzzi
Out on location: Stevan Pekich in riparian habitat during fieldwork in Summer 2024.

For Stevan’s capstone project, which is the final research step for an undergraduate before majoring in aquatic and fishery sciences, he is exploring how urbanization and insect health are affecting riparian-obligate bird species in our local King County. “Riparian habitat refers to transitional areas between land and water, such as rivers and streams. Riparian habitat typically includes rich soil, lush vegetation, and abundant aquatic insect populations that are important for many species,” Stevan said. “Riparian-obligate species are ones that require riparian habitat at some point in their life history, such as for nesting or foraging, and are often heavily affected by destruction or degradation of riparian areas.”

A small yellow bird with a black head stands on a branch, with greenery in the background.
Rhododendrites, Wikimedia
Wilson’s warbler is one of the bird species featured in Stevan’s research.

Stevan’s research includes species such as Willow Flycatchers and Wilson’s warblers that rely on riparian areas for habitat and insects to eat. He is examining if the health of insects and level of urbanization are affecting whether or not these birds are visiting King County’s riparian habitat. Although only 2% of King County is classed as riparian habitat, over 50% of the wildlife in Western Washington use riparian habitat frequently.

Visiting 30 different sites in the summer of 2024 along streams in King County, Stevan and Gio set up microphones to gather acoustic recordings. These acoustic devices were scheduled to record periodically during the times of the day that birds are most vocal. “The sites represented a gradient of high-low levels of insect health measured by the King County Department of Natural Resources, as well as a gradient of high-low levels of urbanization measured using GIS tools and datasets to identify impervious areas around each site,” Stevan said. The term high-low levels means the sites represent a range of insect health and diversity, ranging from poor levels where there are low levels of insect health to high levels where aquatic insect species are abundant. And the same for urbanization: high urbanization refers to sites with a high percentage of impervious surfaces and low urbanization meaning there is not much impervious surface around the site.

A man attaches an audio recording device to a tree with a green string. The background shows dense forest.
Gio Jacuzzi
Stevan attaches an acoustic recording unit to a tree, which will pick up bird calls during their vocal times of day.

After the summer monitoring period was over, Stevan returned to collect each of the acoustic recording units, with the next step to conduct a deep dive into the audio data. “Using a model that is able to parse through the recordings and pick out and identify bird calls, one of my tasks is to make sure the model is accurately identifying the calls,” Stevan said. “To do this, I will be going in and manually listening to a few of the segments to make sure at least one of each bird species identified is present at each site.” Currently working on this stage of the project, we wondered how Stevan was able to identify which bird made which call. “I am able to identify the birds by their calls by looking at the spectrogram of the call and comparing it to known spectrograms of other recordings. I compare the shape and range of frequency of the spectrogram and can determine from there the species,” he shared. “Many bird species have multiple different calls and sounds that they make, so this can be a bit time consuming if I have to search through all the different types of songs and chirps.”

A colorful graph depicting birdsong.
What does birdsong look like on a graph? Stevan can compare the shape of the lines and what frequency it is, to known recordings of the species, to help narrow down and identify the bird. This graph screenshot is of a Wilson’s Warbler song.

The findings of Stevan’s research—i.e. what birds were present where, and how many—will be important in the conservation and restoration of riparian habitat and riparian-obligate species. “Knowing just how much urbanization and insect health are contributing to habitat usage will be key in gauging success in stream restoration projects and riparian-obligate conservation plans,” Stevan shared. One of the programs Stevan and Gio came across in their background research was the King County Small Habitat Restoration Program, which restores streams by planting native vegetation, removing fish migration barriers, and removing invasive plants.

The capstone projects available to undergraduates completing their majors at SAFS are vast and varied. They also present a wide array of opportunities from working in the field on data collection to working in the lab on data analysis. For Stevan, his favorite part was the fieldwork. “I really enjoyed being able to go out into streams around King County to set up the microphones. Even though it got a bit thorny bushwhacking through blackberries, it was very cool to see the shift from how very urbanized streams look versus more natural and pristine ones, and what sort of vegetation and wildlife was there,” he said. “Also, being a huge birder, I was definitely a fan of listening to the bird recordings we got—it was like bird watching in 30 different places at once over a whole summer.”

A man is pictured in a dense forest with tall green ferns on the ground and towering trees.
Gio Jacuzzi
Bushwhacking among birdsong: Stevan’s favorite part of his project was the fieldwork.

One piece of advice we hear time and time again from students who have studied at SAFS is to make use of the academic and advising resources available, which provide connections and networking opportunities that lead to research. “The advising and academic resources available to me are what led me to find prior research opportunities that have helped me pursue my capstone. Building knowledge in quantitative analyses and ecological processes has been especially helpful throughout my capstone,” Stevan said. “With my double major, I feel that each makes me more specialized and able to pursue research and career opportunities in a variety of different fields in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.”

So, what’s next for Stevan when he graduates in Spring? “I hope to move back home to Anchorage, Alaska where I grew up to pursue a career in natural resource management. I know that my experiences in SAFS have made me uniquely qualified for many of the management projects in Alaska and I’m excited to get started with managing terrestrial and aquatic resources. My capstone has helped me a lot with developing some of the technical skills with GIS and quantitative analyses via R-Studio that will be applicable to a career in natural resources,” he said.

Working with Gio and working on his own capstone project is not the only research experience that Stevan has been involved in while an undergraduate at SAFS. “Last summer I was an intern with Defenders of Wildlife helping on their conceptual plan to reintroduce southern sea otters to northern California and Oregon,” Stevan shared. “ I think that being in SAFS really set me apart from the other applicants, as the role required working with commercial fishery catch and species data. I have found that this internship has set me up for success as I am pursuing career opportunities up in Alaska, and I owe a large part of that to the opportunities and experiences I pursued in SAFS!”

Curious to read what other undergraduates are up to during their studies? Check out their stories:

Who’s who? Liam uses identification tools to tell freshwater sculpin apart 

What inspired Eli to study at SAFS?

Snails and their shells: Capstone research in the Burke Museum’s shell collection with Jasper

Why study at SAFS? Because you absolutely love fish!

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What inspires our undergraduates to pursue a degree all about aquatic and fishery science? We caught up with Eli Nettlebeck—a junior at SAFS, a transfer student from Seattle Central College, and someone who loves fish.

Eli Nettlebeck, an undergraduate student at SAFS, takes a selfie, with a poster displaying different types of fish on the wall behind.
Eli Nettlebeck
Eli Nettlebeck, SAFS undergrad

I absolutely love fish. I had seven fish tanks when I was a kid, and was completely enamored by how funny a lot of them behave and look. Some of my favorite fish I ever kept were Garra Rufa, or “doctor fish.” They had tons of energy; sometimes, when I stuck my hand in my tank, they would nibble on the dead skin. I already spend hours of my day reading and watching videos about fish, so I figured studying them was probably the next best step for me!

I’m originally from Poulsbo, Washington. I did running start through Olympic College when I was in High School, then took a couple of gap years after I graduated to figure out what I wanted to do. Once I realized that fish was the way, I started taking some prerequisites for the AFS (Aquatic and Fishery Sciences) Major at Seattle Central College since I was already living in Seattle at the time! Honestly for me the hardest part of transferring to UW was writing the application essay. I knew that since I had gotten most of the credits out of the way in running start and through Seattle Central, I had a fairly good chance of getting in, but writing the essay was daunting because it was so broad.

A close up shot of a small fish, light blue-ish in color, with delicate fins, swimming over small rocks.
Eli Nettlebeck
A local hermaphroditic goby, Rhinogobiops nicholsii.

Since I’m so into fish, I decided to start planning my capstone when I started my first quarter to maximize the time I have working on it. I’m hoping to identify the status of hermaphroditism within a species or genus of goby that hasn’t been known whether it expresses hermaphroditic tendencies or not. I’ve started this process by evaluating almost all the species within the family Gobiidae to identify any common traits within the hermaphroditic genera of the family. I will most likely be doing this under the guidance of Luke Tornabene and his lab: Fish Systematics and Biodiversity.

I’m so thankful that I’ve had the opportunity to learn as much as I have already through SAFS, especially when taking Fish 311: Biology of Fishes. I am also so thankful for all of the staff that have helped me so far on my academic journey!

Who’s who? Using identification tools to tell freshwater sculpin apart

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Scanning through the rows and rows of preserved fish housed in the UW Fish Collection, it’s easy to get lost trying to figure out what each fish is, especially to the untrained eye. Fish identification is a necessary step when preserving specimens from the wild, which deliver key insights for researchers delving into the untold secrets of fish. What fish is it? Male or female? What age? Where was it collected from? These are just some questions answered before they’re put in jars to preserve for the future. 

For Liam Aston, an undergraduate in his final year at SAFS, his capstone research involves Cottus, a group of freshwater sculpin found throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Although sculpin are found in both marine and freshwater environments, Liam is specifically focusing on the clade of Cottus found in Washington and two freshwater sculpins: Cottus gulosus (inland riffle sculpin) and Cottus perplexus (Reticulate sculpin). “These species are often confused in identification due to the overlap in identifying characters, leaving it to be decided by a coinflip most times,” Liam shared. “Determining which dichotomous keys – also known as identification tools – lack characters will further help identify sculpin in the future.”

A man sits at a table with green gloves on, with a tray in front of him holding 3 fish specimens. Also on the table is a jar with clear liquid, holding more fish specimens.
Niamh Owen-McLaughlin
Liam Aston sits in the UW Fish Collection with freshwater sculpin specimens.

Some of the characters found in keys used to identify sculpin are standard length (snout to the hypural plate), depth of fins, height of the dorsal connection, and mouth width. Part of Liam’s analysis of keys will also help to determine at what step identification error happens and therefore improve the process as a result. “I have been taking measurements of all the sculpins that are on the phylogenetic tree – also known as the family tree – completed by Álvaro Cortés, Vertebrate Collections Manager at Oregon State University. Using these measurements in combination with the tree, I will be able to create models to determine if there are any characters separating the species,” Liam said.

At SAFS, the capstone research project is the culmination of the undergraduate experience, an exciting opportunity to put classroom learning into practice and allow students to make a lasting contribution to aquatic and fishery science. For Liam, he chose to work with the UW Fish Collection’s Curator of Fishes, Luke Tornabene. “I had been interested in the work of the Fish Collection since I took FISH 311 with Luke in sophomore year, so this was a great opportunity to finish off my SAFS degree,” Liam said.

When asked what his favorite part of his capstone research has been so far, Liam had a couple of things to share: “Going up to Friday Harbor Labs to use their modern CT scanner was pretty awesome because, for one, you get to visit the San Juan Islands, and two, using a CT scanner to scan a fish is cool.” A modern CT scanner takes roughly 30 minutes to scan a fish, when in the past, it would take 4-5 hours per fish! “It’s also been fun to learn from Katherine Maslenikov (Collections Manager) and Luke to gain a better understanding of taxonomy and the Fish Collection as a whole,” Liam added. Taxonomy is the scientific study of classifying, describing, and naming organisms.

If you’ve paid close attention to CT images or photos of fish specimens, they’re usually lying on their right sides, with their left sides featured in the image. Ever wondered why? This is because the standard in museum specimens is to cut material or take genetic samples from the right side of a fish, leaving the left side intact. So when you see the photos or scans of fish, they’re usually facing all the same way!

A man stands in a room surrounded on two sides by tall shelves filled with jars. The jars contain various fish specimens. The man is holding a jar of fish specimens and pointing to it with one hand.
Niamh Owen-McLaughlin
Liam browses the UW Fish Collection, which holds over 12 million preserved fish specimens from around the world.

CT scanning is a very important tool when it comes to fish specimens. “One key identifying characteristic of freshwater sculpin is the internal presence of palatine teeth. The standard method to determine the presence of palatine teeth requires the jaw of the fish to be pried open, which can damage the specimen and still leaves uncertainty in the determination of palatine teeth presence,” Liam said. “Using the CT Scanner maintains the fish collection specimens held by the University of Washington and Oregon State University, and allows for the determination of palatine teeth to be certain. For the project I’m working on, many external counts and measurements need to be taken, but existing damage on collection specimens prevents accurate data from being collected. The CT Scanner circumnavigates the issue allowing accurate counts and measurements to be taken, plus these models can also show internal features that wouldn’t have been recognized just visually looking at fish specimens.”

One of the ways in which undergraduates conduct research for their capstone project is by working on research questions posed by faculty members. In Liam’s case, this happened to be freshwater sculpin. “I was most interested in freshwater fish, but I also wanted to do something involving speciation and phylogenetics. I wasn’t expecting to be separating species using morphometrics (for example, shape, form or size), but it has definitely grown my interest in taxonomy as a result,” Liam said. 

As a culminating requirement of the SAFS degree, a key aim of a capstone is to put into practice the teaching and learning occurring over an undergraduate’s journey through SAFS classes. “A number of the classes I’ve taken while at SAFS have helped me with my research. FISH 311 introduced me to taxonomy and gave me a really strong understanding of phylogenetic trees and actually working through taxonomic keys, which has been a big part of this research to understand where the differences in species identification comes from,” Liam said. “FISH 290 helped me learn to read and understand scientific literature which has proved useful when going through literature for this project.”

Interested in other SAFS undergraduate research stories?

Turning up the heat: revealing lake hotspots using mobile data

SAFS undergrad conducts research in Hawai’i during HPP internship

Hurricane hunting with NOAA: Hollings Scholarship internship set for 2025

A return to his roots: SAFS undergrad conducts research in Hawai’i during HPP internship

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Preparing a diverse group of first-year college students for the NOAA Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship is the Hollings Preparation Program (HPP) Internship, which includes a six-week paid research experience with one of NOAA’s many divisions. For Dash Dicksion, a SAFS undergrad now in his sophomore year, he got to return to his home island of Oahu during his HPP internship in the summer of 2024, working with the Ecosystem Sciences Division of NOAA’s Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center. “I was born and raised on Oahu, where I grew up fishing and diving. I left Hawaiʻi for UW to pursue a top-notch education in a field I’ve been passionate about since childhood, but I still have deep ties to the place I call home,” Dash said. “I was excited to take this opportunity to return to my roots over summer and apply some of what I’ve learned on the mainland to real-word research!”

Tiny fish viewed under a microscope.
Dash Dicksion
Acanthuridae (unicornfish/surgeonfish) larvae under microscope.

Learning about the HPP internship through an information session held at SAFS and referrals from previous academic mentors, Dash jumped at the chance to apply: “I saw this as an awesome opportunity to get an early jump into my desired career path and spend a summer learning from the best!” Based in Honolulu, Hawai’i, the State’s capital city, Dash’s internship focused on the biocultural and ecological aspects of fish larvae across Hawai’i Pae ‘Aina (the Hawaiian archipelago). “I worked under the guidance of an awesome team of mentors, and spent a lot of my time looking for, counting, and measuring fish larvae of interest under a microscope from preserved plankton sampled during previous research cruises,” Dash said.

During the lab portion of his internship, Dash also worked with data analysis and species distribution modeling in R, examining possible variable associations. “Interwoven with Western science work was input from native Hawaiian cultural practitioners and research into the traditional significance of fish species I was working with, their names, and the places where they come from”, Dash said. “I got to use that research to assist in developing nomenclature for larval fish in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (the Hawaiian language). It was really awesome to see Hawaiian culture being appreciated and incorporated into modern research and discovery!”

Dash Dicksion
Funny picture of cowfish.

Not only did Dash get to experience what day-to-day lab research consists of, he also spent 30 days at sea on board the Oscar Elton Sette, a 224ft research vessel named after the first director of the Honolulu Laboratory at U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (now the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center). “I was afforded the very rare opportunity to join my mentor as part of a two-person science team sampling the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument,” Dash shared. This World Heritage site encompasses 583,000 square miles of ocean and is the largest marine conservation area in the world. “My mentor and I “piggybacked” with the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) divers to sample for larvae using Isaac-Kidd midwater trawls on the night shift. We aimed for five hour-long tows per night, working from offshore to as close as we could to each island within the monument,” Dash said.

In between the different stations visited for research, Dash and his mentor would do a quick sort of organisms that were visible to the naked eye, preserving the rest in jars of ethanol for sorting later on under the microscope. “Before and after every night of work, we would perform an oli, or chant to ask permission for sampling. Papahanaumokuākea is an especially sacred location in Hawaiian culture, and so it was crucial that we honored tradition when conducting our research.”

Click the photos to enlarge

A plate of food, including steak and lobster, with cutlery on the left side.
Dash Dicksion
Steak and lobster dinner (for breakfast) on the cruise!

During transit days, activities including looking through photos, presenting research, watching preseason college football and fishing when 50 miles offshore of the monument. “I even got to dive at one point during the cruise, and it was amazing to see the range of life in the monument compared with what I was used to seeing in the main islands,” Dash said. As his first research cruise, Dash’s 30-day experience in the middle of the ocean was a unique one. “The constant movement takes a little for your body to get used to, but I was lucky I didn’t get seasick during the cruise,” Dash said. “The food was super good, the ship chefs are super talented and keep everyone well-fed for daily ops.” Compliments to the chef!

Aspiring to be a Fisheries Biologist or Management Specialist in the future, Dash described the internship as one which reaffirmed his desire to work in the world of fisheries sciences and management. “I would hope to eventually continue research on migratory pelagic predators like tuna and billfish, which especially piqued my curiosity during this project,” Dash said. Building on the foundational courses learned at SAFS was also a useful part of the HPP internship experience. “I’m glad for the exposure to a range of disciplines in the field of fisheries and marine science while studying at SAFS, and I intend to apply for more internship programs with NOAA as I continue my education,” he added.

“I would like to extend a huge mahalo to my mentors Justin Suca, Kanoe Morishige, Andrea Schmidt, Don Kobayashi, and Hauʻoli Lorenzo Elarco for their guidance and patience, as well as to everyone onboard the Sette during my first research cruise for making it a truly amazing experience!”