What’s in the Water?
25 March 2021
Youth Reference Group members, Maddie and Jack P, waded out with Wayne Walters to collect water samples at three coastal sites.
YRG Member Jack Pember collecting a Water Sample
Ten water samples were collected from each of the three sites in preparation for the eDNA workshops that will be happening on Day 1 of the CSBP Coastal Connection Challenge. During the workshop, participants will be working with Curtin University’s eDNA Frontiers team to filter the samples in preparation for lab analysis to determine the variety of fish species at the three sites:
• Challenger Beach (Noot Boat Ramp/Sutton Rd)
• Bulk handling Jetty carpark/Kwinana horse beach (off Riseley Rd)
• Point Peron (beach access adjacent to Point Peron lookout)
YRG Member Jack Pember
The animals living in the sea water release some of their DNA in faeces, mucus and shed skin. We are trying to collect microscopic amounts of these things in our sea water samples. Our samplers needed to label the sample jars, wear gloves to minimise DNA contamination and collect samples without soil or beach sand.
We are looking forward to finding out which fish have left their DNA fingerprints behind at out three test site!