Otolith laboratory

The otolith laboratory is a working space located in the Biocentre 3 building in Viikki, in the Department of Aquatic Sciences at the University of Helsinki. The otolith laboratory processes about 5000 herring and 2000 whitefish otoliths for dissection each year. Occasionally, other fish species such as perch, pike perch and trout are also cut. The age samples of herring are photographed using EDF and stored in the Suomu database, from which the age is read by an age-determiner from the downloaded images.

The otolith laboratory pre-processes otolith samples for purposes such as fish stock assessments. The protocol for preparing, imaging, and aging can be adjusted according to different fish species and mammal samples. In addition to fish otoliths, the platform can be used to process seal tooth samples (e.g., Saimaa ringed seal and grey seal), and it has been tested for processing moose, reindeer, and deer bone samples.

• Axiocam 305 color microscope camera (2) with ZenCore 3.2 imaging software
• Microscopes (Zeiss Imager, Olympus CX 41), mercury lamp (Zeiss HXP 120 V)
• Positioning camera (Ikegami)
• Precision saw (Struers Accutom 100)
• Fume cupboards for casting molds, setting bone samples, and sawing
• Display cabinet for removal

The otolith laboratory is a part of the EU-funded Research Infrastructure project 'AquaServ - Research services for sustainable aquaculture, fisheries and blue economy', through which Luke's infrastructure is available for international researchers and developers.