The Adventures of Grey : Squid Lab at the Oceanographic Institute

On July 30, 2015 Amanda, my Mom, and I went to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. First we saw a mesocosm, which is a tool used for bringing environmental conditions under control.

These are the mesocosms.

This is a clams experiment.

Then we met with Matt Long, a WHOI scientist, at the squid lab. He showed us all of the lab equipment and experiments there.

We are looking at squids.

These are adult squids.

This is a squid that is dying because it just laid its egg case. After squid lay their eggs, they die. This squid was squirting water because it was trying to get away. Squid move by sucking in water and pushing it out forcefully. If you were holding a squid that was not dying, it would blast right out of your hands.

Matt Long is studying how carbon in the ocean affects squid. Increased carbon in the ocean leads to acidification which has consequences like causing scallop shells to not be able to fully form.

These are scallops. There was also a robin fish in this tank.

To test how CO2 effects squid egg cases, the scientist put sea water in cups and put different amounts of CO2 in them.

They bring in sea water through pumps. These pumps carry different temperatures of water.

The pipes on the ceiling carry sea water to the different experiments.

This is a CO2 tank.

This is how they control the different conditions in each test cup.

These tubes bring the water into the cups.

These cups have squid egg cases which each have different conditions.

Then they put the baby squid egg cases in and study what happens.

These two pictures are squid egg cases. The egg cases are attached to make a clump.

There are lots of eggs in each case.

They are worried that the squid's ear bones will not fully develop when there is too much carbon. The ear bone is important for communication. They were also worried about the squid hatching early.

I looked into a microscope and got to see baby squid moving in their egg cases.