CHESAPEAKE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY | SOLOMONS, MDJANUARY 2023ISSUE 77Lab Lines1IN THIS ISSUE:DIRECTOR’S VIEW23The future is brightI had a version of this section of the Newsletter all ready to go on January 20th. Then President Goodwin announced his resignation. What I had intended for you to be reading didn’t really deal with the elephant in the room. What happens next? What is the future of UMCES? All reasonable questions.The Chancellor’s message to the community on January 20th spoke of a leadership transition. I am condent that this will mean the search for a new President. The Chancellor is honor bound to undertake consultations within the University System and with key stakeholders in the state over any leadership change. But, I believe that these consultations will point to the fact that the State of Maryland and the University System itself remains best served by a vibrant and independent UMCES. I expect the Chancellor and his key advisors will reach that same conclusion. I would anticipate that the search for the next UMCES President will follow the model of the search that resulted in President Goodwin’s appointment. The Chancellor will establish a broad, condential search committee that will involve faculty, sta and students from across the Center and representatives of our Board of Visitors, and key stakeholders from the state and private sectors. This committee will work condentiality to provide the Chancellor a list of potential candidates. It is important this committee’s work is condential because the people who hold posts at the level we are seeking to attract often work with advisory boards such as Boards of Regents and Board of Visitors, so that we want to protect the trust that exists between potential candidates and those boards until a new President is appointed. I think this is reasonable, and is done to attract and ensure the institution gets to consider the very best candidates.In all of this CBL and UMCES remain strong. We do have some signicant current challenges surrounding business operations, but the underlying research, application and education mission remain strong. We continue to generate signicant activity in grants and contracts, we continue to provide wise counsel to international, federal, state and local agencies and we continue to train outstanding students. This will not change. So I look at the opportunity to attract and work with a new President to be an exciting opportunity that will permit UMCES and CBL to grow stronger, to undertake ever more important and impactful work and to train the next generation of environmental leaders.SAFETY CORNER/ PUBLICATIONSIN CASE YOU MISSED IT54CBL CODING CLUB 1OUTREACH6
In Case You Missed ItDrs. Jackie Grebmeier, Lee Cooper and Christina Goethel traveled to Anchorage, AK from 21-28 January for the Alaska Marine Science Symposium, including a meeting of the Arctic Marine Biodiversity Observing Network. Jackie also participated in a meeting of team leads for the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee. Dr. Christina Goethel participated in the Within-Species Diversity Workshop being held in Hólar, Iceland, from the 16th to the 19th of January 2023.On January 23-24th Carys Mitchelmore was one of the committee organizers for the 'Workshop to Advance Research on Understanding Environmental Eects of UV Filters from Sunscreens'. This workshop will be based on the ndings and knowledge gaps from the recent National Academies report, Review of Fate, Exposure, and Eects of Sunscreens in Aquatic Environments and Implications for Sunscreen Usage and Human Health. Partic-ipants from the public, private, and academic sectors are invited to share progress on addressing priority knowl-edge gaps and identify areas of opportunity for further eorts. For further details please see;https://www.nationalacademies.org/event/01-23-2023/workshop-to-advance-research-on-understanding-envi-ronmental-eects-of-uv-lters-from-sunscreens.The Woodland and Testa labs completed their 3rd cruise in the Chesapeake Bay plume aboard the R/V Sharp the week of January 9-13. Calm winds and reasonably warm air made for a surprisingly pleasant winter sampling.2
In Case You Missed It3The US Wind group at UMCES has been rebranded, and we’ll be providing quarterly updates to the CBL commu-nity starting right now! Check out our new project website: https://tailwinds.umces.edu/Who are we?The TailWinds group, Team for Assessing Impacts to Living resources from oshore WIND turbineS, is led by Drs. Dave Secor and Slava Lyubchich with support by student Robert Bell and FRAs Mike O’Brien, Kirsten Silva, and Jamie Testa. Dr. Helen Bailey continues to be involved from the UK through a subcontract. We expect Lauren Rodriguez to join the team as an FRA once she defends her MS thesis later this spring.What are we?US Wind, Inc. is developing a wind farm in waters oshore of Ocean City, MD. In tandem with this development, UMCES TailWinds is undertaking a coordinated program of shery resource and marine mammal monitoring. The program includes monitoring of (1) commercial and recreational shery resources, with a focus on black sea bass; (2) marine mammals (cetaceans: whales, dolphins and porpoises), using a passive acoustic monitoring array and emphasizing large whales and dolphins; and (3) near real-time detections of baleen whales. Fishery Resource Monitoring• The TailWinds team completed a pilot year last summer, comprising four monthly pot shing trips and two bimonthly hook-and-line recreational trips between June and September 2022.Real time whale monitoring• Jamie Testa and Kirsten Silva review daily acoustic transmissions from the near-real time whale buoy east of Ocean City, MD where ‘whale season’ has ocially started! Over the past month they have detected critically endangered North Atlantic right whales, humpback whales, and n whales. • The real time whale buoy is listening for four baleen whales: n, sei, humpback and North Atlantic right whales. Each species has specic sounds that can be identied through the use of pitch tracks (visual representations of sound from an audio spectrogram) that are transmitted via Iridium satellite from the buoy which is located within the US Wind lease area.• Anyone can visit the Robots4Whale website and view acoustic detections which have been processed through a low-frequency detection and classica-tion system (LFDCS) and displayed as colored lines (pitchtracks) for rapid, daily analysis.
CBL Coding Club Corner4The CBL Coding Club met for the rst time in two years on Tuesday, January 10, where we chatted about getting started with version control using git and collaborative coding with GitHub. A recording is available in our shared Google Drive.All are welcome to future meetings of the club, which are included in the CBLwide calendar. Version control using GitHub allows you to interact with others’ code in a “track changes” mode: anything from anal-ysis walkthroughs, to connectivity of UMCES’ faculty authorship, to building your own website. The UMCES TailWinds website (https://tailwinds.umces.edu/), noted elsewhere in this month’s newsletter, was built entirely using R and GitHub.Here are a few easy steps to get you started without the hassle downloading anything:1. Sign up for a free account on GitHub.2. Join us on Slack and let us know your user name; we’ll add you the CBL Coding Club’ GitHub page: https://github.com/umces-cbl3. Practice creating and editing projects (“repositories”) on our GitHub page. Think of this as your sandbox – you can do no wrong! We already have ground-breaking project titles, such as “mike-is-confused” and “123”.4. Ask questions on Slack and then join us at our next meeting!
1. When moving a gas cylinder - remember to avoid dragging, sliding or rolling them even for short distances. Never lift a cylinder by the cap and always use an approved cylinder cart for moving.2. Never drop cylinders or let them strike each other. This can damage valves, safety devices or the cylinder itself. Do not attempt to catch a falling cylinder.3. The valve protection cap should be kept in place until cylinder is secured in the laboratory.4. Do not tamper with safety devices on the cylinder. Do not remove identication label or change the cylinder color.5. When returning empty cylinders, make sure the valve is closed and the valve protection cap is on the tank. Be sure tank is labelled as “empty”.6. Keep cylinders away from heat sources and extreme cold. Make sure the storage area is dry to prevent any rusting on the bottom of the cylinders.7. Oxygen cylinders must be separated from ammable gas storage or combustible materials by at least 20 feet or a non-combustible wall.8. Gas cylinders should only be lled by qualied producers of compressed gases.9. Use only regulators approved for the gas in use. Once regulator is attached, be sure to open the valve slowly and stand clear of the regulator and valve outlet. Check for leaks. When removing the regulator, be sure to close the valve rst and allow the regulator to drain before disconnecting.10. Be sure to read the Safety Data Sheets for the gas you are using and wear the appropriate PPE.Laboratory Safety Institute. Laboratory Health and Safety Notebook. 2014 (www.LaboratorySafetyInstitute.org)Here is a video to help you:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ord53RaoPWk – Compressed Gas Cylinder SafetySafety Corner: Compessed Gas Safety5PublicationsBarbour, N., Robillard, A. J., Shillinger, G. L., Lyubchich, V., Secor, D. H., Fagan, W. F., and Bailey, H. 2022, Clustering and classication of vertical movement proles for ecological inference of behavior. Ecosphere (Cont. No. 6242) https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4384Wainger, L.A., Murray, E.O., Theiling, C.H., McMurray, A.M., Cushing, J.A., Komlos, S.B., Cofrancesco, A.F., 2023. Broadening Benets and Anticipating Tradeos with a Proposed Ecosystem Service Analysis Framework for the US Army Corps of Engineers. Environmental Management. (Cont. No. 6244) PDF link: https://rdcu.be/c3kuu
DocentsPlanning for Docent Engagement Opportunities and Appreciation Events is underway. In 2022, 437 hours were volunteered by 32 community docents and CBL faculty, sta and students.Visitor Center: Closed for the Winter SeasonThe Chesapeake Biological Laboratory Visitor Center is now closed for the winter season. We look forward to reopening in spring 2023. If you know anyone who might be interested in volunteering as a Visitor Center docent in 2023, please have them contact Outreach Coordinator Sarah Brzezinski at brzezins@umces.edu. Volunteers must be 18 years of age or older. Solomons Island Bay Grasses SignA new outdoor display about the decline of bay grasses in the waters surrounding Solomons Island is coming the CBL Campus. The sign has been fabricated and the installation process is underway. Be sure to walk by Parish House sometime in the near future to check it out! This new display is the culmination of a wonderful team eort. Thank you to Drs. Tom Miller, Lora Harris and Jeremy Testa for their expert input. Thank you, as well, to Brian Duke and CBL’s wonderful facilities team, who managed sign installation. Outreach: Thank You!www.umces.edu/cbl | 410-326-4281P.O. Box 38 | 146 Williams Street | Solomons, MD 20688-00386