Under the sea: Mystery shrimp and footy mollusks

Alice Dai | Sat, Feb 20, 2016, 9:57 PM

I went on a mini-vacation to Carmel this week (we’re on break), and insisted to my parents that we go to the beaches so I could finally have an excuse to get my feet wet…for science!

A selfie I took while scouring for samples in the water. The water was freezing cold and stones were poking my feet, but this is the face of excitement.

Here’s some of the scenery from Pebble Beach. I saw a bounty of marine life in the water; sea snail, hermit crabs, fish, sea anemones. It was all very colorful and very lively:

I scooped some sea water in a small water bottle and used my Foldscope kit (tweezers, tape, hole punch, paper slides, coverslips, imaging station) to take some shots on site. Here’s me sitting on a ledge trying to make a wet mount on my knee. I used the slide design I thought of last time, with the coverslips sandwiching a paper slide taped with double-stick tape on both sides (it creates a tiny well that won’t squish the organisms).

My dad took this while I was preparing slides.

I found a krill/shrimp, but unfortunately killed it in death-by-squish while transferring it onto my slide:

Taken in the field. I had a harder time getting a good image because I didn't have as many tools as I would have had back at school or home. — Taken in the field. I had a harder time getting a good image because I didn’t have as many tools as I would have had back at school or home.

I have to say, it’s really hard making slides in the field (especially since I forgot to bring scissors and a pipette). I decided to take my sample 80 miles back home and spent the next day at my table imaging.

My sample from the beach is in the cut-up water bottle on the top-left of the picture. There’s a broken glass on the right with another bag of sea-water and marine plant samples (I was desperate because there was a hole in the bag, so I cracked a sake bottle on the sidewalk…) All of my traveling Foldscope materials go in the revamped iPad box on the right (it’s surprisingly a perfect size). The imaging station is on the bottom left, and finally, I found some scissors. I didn’t have a pipette at home, so I improvised and used a coffee straw for suction (it’s sitting on the water bottle).

These are what my slides looked like:

I found some amazing organisms that I can’t specifically identify. In laymen’s terms, here’s some moss growth with a developing shrimp/krill/prawn zooming about.

Here’s a video of this organism swimming around the slide. Any advice on how to suspend samples in order to slow down movements? Scroll to 1:45 to see a good image of the organism.

After, I looked into my magical water bottle of microorganisms.

I found another shrimp/krill/prawn that looked slightly different. It had a longer and more pink/coral body. I didn’t see the forked tail that I saw on the first shrimp/krill prawn and its swimming form was different (more lateral/sideways).

Scroll to 1:45 in the next video to see a good shot of this organism:

Lastly, I found a snail and filmed its contractions! I saw a shell in one of the marine plants and decided to image it for fun. Only when I looked at the shell under the Foldscope did I realize that there was a living sea snail inside the shell. It was awesome getting to see the foot move, and there may be a parasite-like organism attached to the foot (I’m not sure. What do you think?).

Needless to say, I found a lot of amazing organisms on my trip. Any thoughts?

Alice

Under the sea: Mystery shrimp and footy mollusks

Alice Dai | Sat, Feb 20, 2016, 9:57 PM

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