Hello again we are back in Kristineberg to see how are Cod Broodstock are fairing and  Gwen and I have brought reinforcements Daniel our “Ace Fisherman”.  Martina, Flemming and Micha have been keeping a watchful eye on them and we hope they have enjoyed the warmer water and are ready to spawn. The plan was to equilibrtae broodstock with and without CO2 to look at transgeneration effects on eggs and larvae. The larvae then being placed in the mesocosm. All looked well on the first day as the sun shone on our circus tent below:

However after a few days it became clear that very little progress had been made towards gonad maturity due to the low temperatures and to the small size of the fish many less than 40  cm. So we decided that it was time to sacrifice them and see if maturity was compromised  by CO2 by analysing steroid levels and gonad histology.  Luckily Micha and Catriona has been busy with Plan B, the herring eggs and a trip out to the mesocosm brough the good news the first larvae hatched in the Mesocosm on Friday the 10th of May.

Silke, Gwen, Micha and Martina inspecting herring larvae

We slowly returned to the lab and packed our samples up and equipment and released our surviving Cod back into the Fjord where they came from. Its been a great time working with the Station and the people from KOSMOS 2013. May we wish you success with the mesocosm and hopefully we will have better luck next year.

Take Care and be well,

Gwen, Daniel and Chris

Ciao!!

By Christopher R Bridges