Week 6 of seed hardening at Point Whitney
I did not use AI to conduct the work detailed here and did not use AI to write this notebook post.
Overview
Today I went out to Point Whitney to continue thermal hardening treatments on our new batch of seed.
I am tracking treatments on this spreadsheet here.
The oysters are being held in silos outsidee. Since the weather has warmed the oysters are exposed to ~20-22°C in the hatchery, which has led us to increase the treatment for hardening to 36°C to maintain a +10°C differential. The control oysters are now staying in the silos while the high treatment are brought into a treatment bucket. Both groups of oysters have temperature loggers attached.
Thermal hardening
I used the following approach to conduct the stress:
- Filled one 5-gallon buckets with seawater (high treatment, control left in silo)
- Added a small recirculating pump and a small titanium heater connected to a thermostat
- I set the thermostat at 36°C and waited until the bucket read at 36°C to add the oysters
- Added oysters to the bucket
- I recorded the temperature and then started a timer for 30 min
- After 30 minutes I removed the oysters and rinsed all the equipment
All of the equipment is stored together on top of a yellow lid box in the attic. Oysters were returned to their ambient temperature upweller tanks outside.
Hardening was conducted from 13:10-13:40 today.