Where in the World is Katie Hausmann?: AQUAVET for Life

What a busy two weeks it has been at AQUAVET! We are in class 6 days a week from 8m- to at least 8:30pm at night. This is why I haven’t been updating the blog as much since we got rolling in our lectures and labs. I also had to finish up my seminar presentation. Here are some of the photos from our labs and adventures. We have been able to perform various necropsies and exams on all sorts of aquatic animals.

Hanging out with the founder of AQUAVET, of course after a very important lecture

The Hope Bridge and learning dock at night

Just some histopathology...

gill filaments and lamelle

Pyloric Ceca

Eye

Head

Dr. Roy Yanong

Dr. Ilze Berzins

Being coral polyps

Clam Blood

Flounder Blood

Stingray Blood

Horseshoe crab hemolymph

Squid radula

Squid tentacle

Crystalized horseshoe crab hemolymph

Operculum of the stingray eye

Horseshoe crab eye under the microscope

Squid!

Horseshoe crab blood turns blue because of copper in its hemolymph

sea star madreporite

We have had two Sundays off! Our first Sunday off, most of the class went to Cape Cod to go whale watching with Hyannis Whale Watching Cruise. It was a very foggy morning and we didn’t see any whales until the end of the trip. And then we saw two humpbacks!! I have never seen humpbacks in the wild before and I was so excited. The marine biologist on board was able to tell their stories. Pele, the male humpback, comes back to this area of the Stellwagen bank to feed and “flirt” with the lady whales so maybe they will remember him when they return to the Gulf of Mexico to breed. Echo, the female whale, was even bigger than Pele and leading the way. She also returns every year to feed. Usually she would have a calf with her, but she has not bred since her entanglement a couple years ago. It was a heroic feat of marine mammal experts, veterinarians, marine biologists, the Coast guard and volunteers that freed her from the fishing gear. They weren’t sure that she would survive, but she has and hopefully she will be able to breed again soon.

Echo

Pele

We have had some fun during our “scant free time” in the evenings. Thursday nights have been karaoke nights at a local pub, Karl’s Park Ave., in Portsmouth, RI. I don’t think this bar has seen as many 20 somethings and 30 somethings in their bar in the long time. The bar staff always come up and thank us for coming and being such a great group. We have some AMAZING singers in our AQUAVET group. We even got our professors up on stage singing and dancing with us. It is nice to be able to let loose and have some fun as a big group. We have also had a picnic and “coffee get togethers” outside of our dorm rooms. Bob brought fresh oysters from his oyster farm for us to eat!! YUMMM!!! Wayyy better than the ones we have in Wisconsin (go figure... it helps when you are on the coast).

This past Sunday, we also had off. In the morning, a bunch of us worked on finishing up our presentations. Then in the afternoon, a group of us went on the Cliff Walk in Newport. It didn’t seem like much when we started out but as we got further down the trail we were walking on all sorts of terrains. It was absolutely beautiful! It was a bright sunny day with a bright blue sky and a fairly calm sea. There were roses growing along the trail. On one side of the trail was the ocean and the other side are huge mansions. Along our way, Tara found a horseshoe crab stuck in the rocks, so as budding aquatic vets we moved her in to a calmer rock pool to recover away from other tourists that might bug her. After a few hours of hiking we were ready for some refreshments at a local vineyard. It was a winery and brewery combined. We had a wonderful “linner” (lunch+dinner) with fantastic drinks.