Agency helping fight invaders from the sea
With a push of a laboratory button, Rusty Rodriguez sets in motion a shiny robotic arm, which silently dabs samples from a dish onto a microscope slide, possibly the world's most complicated and expensive eyedropper.
Fans of crime dramas would immediately identify the fancy gizmo as the first step in state-of-the-art DNA testing. But Rodriguez, a fisheries biologist for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Seattle, is trying to catch a different kind of crook.
It is hoped that by cataloging the DNA of aquatic organisms big and small, from Puget Sound and some day the rest of the world, he may be able to develop a system to catch invasive species in ship ballast water before they are unleashed into the Sound to choke out native species and disrupt delicate ecosystems.
It's only one of dozens of ground-breaking research projects under way at the USGS laboratory at Sand Point.
All focus on protecting and restoring the ecosystems of Puget Sound.
This weekend, the scientists are throwing their lab doors open to the public to show off some of their methods and perhaps educate people on the ways government technology is being used to help things as simple but important as eelgrass and herring.
"We think there are a lot of new tools and technology that can make a lot of contributions," said Anne Kinsinger, a USGS biologist. "And we want to give the public a chance to see what we're all about."
The open house is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. The public can tour the labs, check out artificial streams and tanks full of growing salmon, and watch demonstrations of how biologists use acoustics and radio waves to track fish schools.
The lab, perched behind a fence on a knoll near Magnuson Park, is a maze of research spanning virtually all stages of Puget Sound ecology.
In one room, a scientist analyzes video of eelgrass dancing in the tides of the San Juan Islands, hoping to discover how the underwater plants help prevent erosion.
Down a short corridor, another scientist is searching for parasites that might be adding to the troubles of Northwest salmon.
In still another alcove, a technician dissects a young salmon, looking for a tiny organ behind its brain to slice up and study under a microscope for signs of ill health.
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Agency helping fight invaders from the sea
