Lameshur Polychaetes Survey Draws International Scientists to VIERS

Nancy Prentiss, left, looks on as Charlotte Watson from Australia observes a sample of sediment from Lameshur Bay.

Most people visit St. John for the beautiful beaches, fantastic sailing and amazing snorkeling opportunities. For Charlotte Watson, it was the abundance of miniscule marine worms which put her on a globe-crossing flight.

Watson, from the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin, Australia, will wrap up her 10-day research stay at the V.I. Environmental Research Station this week.

She made plans to travel to the Virgin Islands and study marine worms or “polychaetes” in local waters after meeting Nancy Prentiss at the International Polychaetes Conference in Lecce, Italy, last summer.

Prentiss, a professor at University of Maine Farmington is conducting an on-going study of polychaetes at Lameshur Bay and had a poster display at the Italy conference which piqued Watson’s interest.

“I’m interested in one particular family of polychaetes, Chrysol Petalidae, which means ‘golden petals’ in Latin,” said Watson. “I’ve been studying them for 30 years.”

Polychaetes are segmented, bristled marine worms found in every sea and off every continent except Antarctica. There are more than 80 families of polychaetes, ranging in size from a few millimeters to several inches, and scientists continue to discover new species with some regularity.

Watson noticed that Prentiss had observed her particular polychaete family of interest living in a small amount of sediment at the bottom of a vase sponge in Lameshur Bay and was excited to come and see for herself, she explained.

“Nancy has been surveying the area and recording all of the different polychaetes found here,” said Watson. “The water and rubble here are full of invertebrate life. It’s extraordinary.”

“There is this whole micro world that none of us see,” Watson said. “When you pick up one tiny bowlful of sediment, it’s just full of life. Also in the sediment that Nancy was studying, there were sometimes 12 different families of polychaetes living in one cup of sediment.”

Watson is in the middle of a grant which grew out of the decade long Census of Marine Life, that enabled her to make the trek to St. John.

“I knew I’d love to come here and collect,” said Watson. “I’m on top of most species, but there are a lot of them. I’m particularly interested in the morphology and DNA of this family of polychaetes.”

Watson is studying cryptic species as well, polychaetes that look exactly alike, but are in fact different species entirely, she explained.

The polychaetes expert has already found a few specimens which have more than made her trip worthwhile, she added.
“On my first day, I went snorkeling and took a sample which had a genus that I’ve been looking for years,” said Watson. “I have seen it in museums before but I had never seen one in nature. It was absolutely amazing.”
Watson is also seeing polychaetes in Lameshur Bay which she has observed on the Great Barrier Reef, raising interesting questions.
“It’s important to get the morphology of these species to see where they differentiate,” she said. “There is still so much to learn about these creatures.”
Watson’s work will also be added to Prentiss’ ongoing study of polychaetes, she added.
“Working with Charlotte has been fantastic,” said Prentiss. “I’ve learned so much from her and she’s contributing so much to my general survey.”
While studying the polychaetes for the pure enjoyment of them surely motivates these scientists, the creatures are also an important part of the food web — polychaetes are found in more than half of all reef fish — and a good barometer for the health of oceans in general.
“First of all, we should all care about all living things,” said Watson. “Everything in our world is connected and linked to everything else. The way things are connected is something we rarely understand until, sadly, after something crashes.”
“Polychaetes can tell us a lot of information about the health of reefs and oceans,” she said.
And Watson is just the latest international scientist drawn to VIERS through Prentiss’ polychaetes survey. In May, two scientists from Greece’s Hellenic Center for Marine Research spent two weeks with the University of Maine scientist studying polychaetes in near-shore areas.