Lab Session (30 Sep 2011)

Thanks to Rene Ong, we have a glimpse of the fascinating work done at the recent laboratory session of the Survey.

Here's the volunteers all ready to do some serious lab work!

One of the animals they worked on were hermit crabs. Before these can be sorted out, the animals have to first be extracted from their shells! As Rene shared, Helen showed how this is done: "making use of the clamp, the shell is slowly, gently, cracked...taking extreme care not to hurt the hermit crab inside".

Here's what the hermit crabs look like after they have been carefully removed.

Another job highlighted by Rene: "The biggest challenge of all - sorting the worms (Polychaetes)!!!
A microscope is needed to help with the sorting as we are not able to see the details of the polychaetes with our naked eyes". Here's Yen Ling and Edna setting up the impressive equipment to get this delicate job done.

The equipment projects the image on a TV so everyone can learn how to sort out the worms. Rene shares: "On TV, we have an idea how the worms really look like. They actually look kinda beautiful under the scope. Each of them were pretty unique, with distinct features that we have to look out for, in order to sort them out."

The theme for this lab session seems to be 'tiny things'. Rene is sorting out teeny tiny crabs!

Also wee little snails.

The volunteers enjoyed a delicious lunch break before continuing again in the afternoon.

See more photos and read more about what went on during the lab session in Rene's facebook page album. Thanks for sharing the photos Rene, and great to see the volunteers having fun while making a difference for our marine biodiversity!

There's lots more lab sessions ahead. And these are so popular with the volunteers that all slots are already filled! More about the lab sessions.

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