Sponge Sampling 2016
It is summer 2016 and I am in Blanes (Spain) to sample sponges. More precisely, the mediterranean sponge Crambe crambe. At the moment I am guest of Maria J. Uriz Lespe and Carla Huete Stauffer at the Centre d'estudis avancats de Blanes. And my trip is, of course, part of the BluePharmTrain Project.
Monday, 07.18.2016 - We arrived yesterday in Blanes. Carla picked us up from Girona airport. Thank you so much! She also went shopping with us and was the translator for the old lady-landlord. Our apartment is a bit far away from the centre, but this is fine, because the centre seems to be a tourist hot-spot.
Carla picked me up Monday morning again and drove with me to the institute. She showed me the whole institute (below), planned the sampling dives and prepared the aquarium for the sponges (also below). We also met Maria, and she gave me some advice concerning the Crambe larvae I am looking for. Tomorrow will be the first dive!
![CSIC](blanes/CSIC.jpg)
Arriving at the institute...
![CSIC](blanes/Institute_view.jpg)
...which is placed on a mountain with a really nice view at it's front.
![CSIC](blanes/Institute_entry.jpg)
The building is very open and sunny...
![CSIC](blanes/Institute_center.jpg)
...with a green patio.
![CSIC](blanes/Carlas_office.jpg)
Carla's office door. Still in progress.
![CSIC](blanes/aquarium.jpg)
The aquarium setup for the sponges tomorrow.
Tuesday, 07.19.2016 - Punta Santa Anna, first sampling day. Carla, Xavier, and I, went out to collect the first sponges. The site was right behind the harbor and fish-market in Blanes, hence very close to the institute. Since I am lacking a diving licence I just followed by snorkelling and documented the diving. Carla and Xavier took care of the sample collection. All went smooth, I only lost the signal buoy :(
![Dive Blanes](blanes/tuesday_diving_1.jpg)
Carla and Xavier are collecting the first Crambe sponges.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/tuesday_diving_2.jpg)
Even without the diving gear I was still able to follow them.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/tuesday_diving_crambe_1.jpg)
Crambe crambe is everywhere at this spot. A great place for the first dive.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/tuesday_diving_3.jpg)
Crambe crambe close up.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/tuesday_diving_rna.jpg)
Right after sampling I took care of the first RNAlater samples. But everything else happened in the lab afterwards.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/tuesday_lab.jpg)
One cryostock tube looks small and easy, but it's a lot of work to finally take a picture of it.
Wednesday, 07.20.2016 - A very long lab day. Finishing all the samples from yesterday, before we collect more tomorrow. Not much to tell, since I couldn't do anything else except grinding and pipetting. Also thanks to Carla again, she is helping me so much.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/lab.jpg)
My Wednesday.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/larvae.jpg)
The larvae we were looking for.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/cultures.jpg)
120 liquid cultures later.
Thursday, 07.21.2016 - Punta Santa Anna, second sampling day. We tried to collect more sponges, but also tested some larvae sampling methods.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/0_team.jpg)
Carla and Xavier at the Crambe beach.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/1_float.jpg)
A free floating Crambe larvae (left corner).
![Dive Blanes](blanes/2_net_income.jpg)
Maybe the best way to get those floating larvae.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/3_fat_crambe.jpg)
Fat Crambe sponges everywhere.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/4_syringe.jpg)
Another way to collect environmental larvae.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/5_net_closed.jpg)
Closing the net to store our catch.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/6_unidentified.jpg)
I found another sponge in the bay. Yet to be classified.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/Sampling_me.jpg)
This is how I look like for the real divers.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/7_sexy_blanes.jpg)
There was a sexy surprise for all of us when we came back to the beach.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/8_aquarium.jpg)
All collected sponges were stored in the aquaria.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/9_settle.jpg)
Since some of the larvae already started to settle....
![Dive Blanes](blanes/10_larvae.jpg)
...I immediately started to process them.
Friday, 07.22.2016 - Today we continued to work on the remaining samples from yesterday
![Dive Blanes](blanes/1_separation.jpg)
Carla started to separate the larvae from the sponges in the microscopy lab.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/2_sponge.jpg)
Some of the sponges had still plenty of larvae inside.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/3_larvae.jpg)
A closer look at a single larvae.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/9_working.jpg)
The kind of lab work we all know from the news media.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/10_cultures.jpg)
A small fraction of the processed samples as cultures. Feierabend.
Saturday till Sunday, 07.23. - 07.24.2016 - Weekend. We went to a CSIC rooftop Paella afternoon dinner and to Barcelona.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/Clara.jpg)
Some cold Claras for the dinner.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/Blanes_Hill.jpg)
The view from the rooftop above Blanes was awesome.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/PokemonGo.jpg)
I witnessed a Pokemon gathering in Barcelona.
![Dive Blanes](blanes/ok_cola.jpg)
And I had no idea what I am drinking.
Tuesday, 07.26.2016 - L'Escala Cala Montgo, third sampling day. Carla and I used the last Monday to work on an abstract for sponge biotechnology book chapter. Today we drove to L'Escala and the Cala Montgo bay, a town about one hour from Blanes. The plan was to focus on the Crambe and collect other sponge for side projects.
![Dive Cala Montgo](blanes/Cala_Montgo.jpg)
Our sampling site.
![Dive Cala Montgo](blanes/Sampling_team.jpg)
This time Rudi was part of the diving team.
![Dive Cala Montgo](blanes/Sampling_Rudi.jpg)
Rudi right before his sampling dive.
![Dive Cala Montgo](blanes/Sampling_twolarvae.jpg)
Immediately under the surface I spotted the first larvae floating around.
![Dive Cala Montgo](blanes/Sampling_swarm.jpg)
A swarm of fishes close to the surface.
![Dive Cala Montgo](blanes/Sampling_net.jpg)
While Rudi tried to catch larvae with the net...
![Dive Cala Montgo](blanes/Sampling_syringe.jpg)
...Carla tried the syringe method.
![Dive Cala Montgo](blanes/Sampling_aplysina.jpg)
Aplysina aerophoba was also part of our sampling-list.
![Dive Cala Montgo](blanes/Sampling_octopus.jpg)
I spotted an octopus at the end of our dive.
Wednesday till Saturday, 07.27. till 07.30.2016 - We used the last days to proceed with the work on the book chapter abstract and, of course, processing the last samples from Cala Montgo.
![Lab](blanes/Aplysina_samples.jpg)
Aplysina samples for Johanna, Indra, and the practical.
![Lab](blanes/Johanna_samples.jpg)
Johanna's cultivation experiment.
![Lab](blanes/Larvae_samples.jpg)
Plenty of larvae.
![Lab](blanes/Cryostock_samples.jpg)
Now, I have larvae and sponge tissue as cryostocks...
![Lab](blanes/Cultivation_samples.jpg)
...in liquid culture...
![Lab](blanes/Paraformaldehye_samples.jpg)
...Paraformaldehyde...
![Lab](blanes/RNAlater_samples.jpg)
...and RNAlater. The RNAlater samples are either fresh from the beach or later processed in the lab. In addition, and not shown, are the freeze dried samples.
![Lab](blanes/Salamander_samples.jpg)
One of my lab-mates passed by to say goodbye.
![Lab](blanes/Stay_Blanes.jpg)
A final look at my stay in Blanes. Far away from the centre and just 30 minutes down the hill from the institute.
![Lab](blanes/Bremen_sky.jpg)
Back in Germany and everything was cloudy and rainy again. At least the evening clouds tried to look cute.