3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JULY 9, 2018
‘Singing fish’ study may improve human hearing
“One of the questions we
want to look at is how do the
females find the studs and
avoid the duds, right?” he said.
“These females are probably
not assessing males based on
vision. They can’t see them at
night. We think they’re actu-
ally assessing the quality of
the song.”
Learning how is the focus
of this research.
Research in
Hood Canal
By CASSANDRA
PROFITA
Oregon Public Broadcasting
You know that expression,
“Leave no stone unturned?”
That’s how Washington
State University neuroscien-
tist Allison Coffin goes about
catching midshipman fish —
at least during mating season.
Standing on the rocky, oys-
ter-covered shoreline of Hood
Canal, Washington, she rolled
over a beach-ball sized rock
to reveal a small pool of water
just barely covering two fish.
“Oh
yeah!
Another
female,” she said. “And then
there’s the male right there.”
Because it’s low tide, some
of the fish she and her research
partner, Joe Sisneros, uncov-
ered aren’t in any water at all.
That makes this area
prime fishing grounds for the
researchers, who say the ears of
these fish could teach us how to
improve our own hearing.
Sisneros, a University of
Washington
neuroscientist,
picked up a male fish to point
out the pattern of white spots
on its belly. Its spots glow in
the dark, and they look a bit
like the buttons on a midship-
man’s naval uniform — hence,
the name.
As the fish struggled to free
itself from his grasp, it made a
can continue to make new
ones,” she said.
In the midshipman fish,
Coffin thinks estrogen may be
helping the females to generate
— or protect — more hearing
cells than they’re losing.
But she needs to know
which genes are making that
happen and whether those
genes could do something sim-
ilar in our own ears.
‘When it gets dark, they
start to sing. It’s a hum.…
They only know one note. ’
Allison Coffin
Washington State University neuroscientist
Cassandra Profita/Oregon Public Broadcasting
Neuroscientists Joe Sisneros and Allison Coffin search for midshipman fish, also known
as ‘singing fish,’ underneath large rocks on the rocky shores of Hood Canal.
noticeable buzzing sound.
“Hear him? That was a
series of grunts,” Sisneros
said. “He’s mad.”
And grunting is just the
beginning of the sounds this
fish can make.
“When it gets dark, they
start to sing,” Coffin said. “It’s
a hum. There isn’t a lot of vari-
ety to it. They only know one
note. I guess it could be more
like monks chanting in a way.”
As the males are sing-
ing, the females pick a nest
to release their eggs into. The
bright orange eggs stick to the
undersides of the rocks. So if
a female has visited a male’s
nest, you can see the eggs by
simply lifting the rock off the
shore at low tide.
On their recent trip, the
researchers were looking for
females in particular because
they wanted to know more
about what’s going on inside
their ears as they’re picking
their mates. At one point, Cof-
fin found two females in one
male’s nest.
“So, this guy right here is
apparently a stud,” she said.
Cisneros
said
scien-
tists have discovered that the
females’ hearing improves
dramatically during the mat-
ing season, and they think they
know why.
“We want to take the ear
from the fish, keep the ear
alive in a culture dish and then
manipulate the genes,” Coffin
said.
If they can identify which
genes are changing to boost
the females’ hearing, they
might be able to mimic that
process in human ears.
At her lab in Vancouver,
Washington, Coffin dissects
the ears of the female fish for
a closer look at the genes that
control hearing cells.
Fish are constantly making
new hearing cells as they lose
old ones.
“Unlike us, where we lose
them and that’s it, these fish
Ultimately, she’s looking
for ways to turn those genes
on in people using drugs or
gene therapy. The first step is
to compare the ears of the fish
she finds in the winter with the
ones mating under rocks right
now.
Somewhere under the rocks
in Hood Canal, she may find
the secret to protecting people’s
hearing cells or even regenerat-
ing the ones we’ve lost.
“Nature is doing something
really interesting in changing
these fishes’ hearing season-
ally,” Coffin said. “We’re learn-
ing about nature, but we’re also
learning something we can
apply to our own hearing.”
Sanctuary law repeal initiative Attorney general targets IP 31
likely to be on November ballot with criminal investigation
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
By CLAIRE
WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
An initiative to repeal
Oregon’s sanctuary law
appears likely to go before
voters in November.
Backers of Initiative
Petition 22 have submitted
110,445 signatures to the
Oregon Secretary of State’s
Office, said Cynthia Kendoll,
president of Oregonians for
Immigration Reform, who
led the signature-gathering
effort.
Only 88,184 of those need
to be verified to land the mea-
sure on the ballot.
The state’s sanctuary
law, passed in 1987, prohib-
its the use of state and local
resources to enforce federal
immigration law when a per-
son’s only crime is being in
the country illegally.
The campaign for IP 22
asserts that unauthorized
immigrants cannot live in
the country without breaking
other laws, such as acquiring
a fraudulent identity or driv-
ing without insurance. They
argue too many of the state’s
resources are used to support
unauthorized immigrants at
the expense of Oregonians.
“They have to continue
breaking laws to perpetrate
the law they broke by coming
here,” Kendoll said. “They
have gone on to commit other
crimes to shield the fact that
they came here illegally.”
Opponents of the initiative
on Friday launched their offi-
cial “no” campaign — Orego-
nians United Against Profil-
ing — and plan to hold news
conferences around the state
to publicize it, said Andrea
Williams, executive director
of Causa, a statewide immi-
grants rights organization.
“Republicans and Demo-
crats came together in 1987
to pass this law for a really
important reason — unfair
racial profiling in our state
Paris Achen/Capital Bureau
A pro-immigrant rally at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem
in January.
— and to ensure local police
are focused on local com-
munities and not focused on
the job of the federal govern-
ment,” Williams said.
The official opposition
campaign includes a coali-
tion of about 80 businesses,
including Nike and Columbia
Sportswear, and other organi-
zations, she said.
“We believe Oregon’s
existing sanctuary law has
been working as intended for
over three decades in giv-
ing clear guidance to law
enforcement officials on
complicated
immigration
issues,” she said.
State Sen. Michael Dem-
brow, D-Portland, said the
state’s sanctuary law is essen-
tial until the federal govern-
ment passes comprehensive
immigration reform.
Dembrow serves on the
National Conference of State
Legislatures’ bipartisan Task
Force on Immigration and the
States. The 30-member task
force unanimously supports
comprehensive federal immi-
gration reform, he said.
“We all believe there
needs to be a federal solu-
tion,” Dembrow said. “Until
WANTED
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
SUB-BIDS
REQUESTED
Seaside School
District-New
Middle/High
Schools
Seaside, Oregon
Bid Package: #2
Concrete Foundation,
Underslab Utilities,
Waterproofing and Elevators
(Includes Structural Concrete
Foundation, Underslab Elec/
Tele/AV, Underslab Plumbing,
Waterproofing & Elevators)
Bids Due:
www.hoffmancorp.com/subcontractors
Jeff Hale Painting
•
•
•
•
Residential
Commercial
Cedar Roof Treatments
Exterior Repaint Specialist
Over 25 years local experience
503-440-2169
Jeff Hale,
Contractor
LICENSED
BONDED
INSURED
CCB#179131
violations.
It’s unlikely that the
investigation could prevent
IP 31 from going before vot-
ers in November, though,
Trout says.
If the attorney general
finds criminal wrongdo-
ing, and if someone believes
that means the measure
shouldn’t be on the bal-
lot, they could challenge it
in Marion County Circuit
Court.
Trout said that while alle-
gations are common in the
initiative petition process,
he has not seen a court inter-
vene in an initiative petition
getting to the ballot.
“I’ve never seen a court
step in and change things,”
Trout said.
Additionally, the elec-
tion is in just four months.
The state and counties must
move swiftly to prepare vot-
ing materials.
The petition would still
have sufficient signatures
to make it to the ballot even
if the signatures questioned
by the complaint were taken
out, Trout said.
er
Und
New nt!
e
gem
a
n
Ma
JOB FAIR!
At Tillamook Bay Community College
431 Third Street, Tillamook, Or 97141
Thursday, July 12th, 2018
Come In Anytime During Either Session
8:00 am - 12:00pm & 2:00pm - 6:00pm
Interviews and Hiring On The Spot
Over 60 Positions Available Now!
July 18 th 2:00pm
Bid Documents:
Fre
e
Est Fast
ima
tes
Call me
ti
Any
there is one, we need to make
do with the current reality,
and we need people who are
here as documented immi-
grants or undocumented
immigrants to feel confident
that their neighbors are sup-
porting them: If they have
to call the police or have to
go to court for whatever rea-
son, they don’t have to worry
about state law enforcement
turning them in.”
The ability to report
crimes without repercussions
because of their immigra-
tion status makes everyone in
Oregon safer, he argued.
SALEM — Oregon
Attorney General Ellen
Rosenblum has opened a
criminal investigation into
signature-gathering prac-
tices for Initiative Petition
31.
The investigation is
unlikely to interfere with
that measure going before
voters in November, how-
ever, according to the state
elections division.
IP 31 would amend the
state’s constitution to man-
date stricter voting require-
ments for the Legislature to
pass certain tax measures.
Our Oregon, a progres-
sive political coalition,
and Connea Derber, a for-
mer paid circulator for Bal-
lot Access LLC, allege that
while she was working for
the company she was paid
below minimum wage, that
another circulator improp-
erly attested signature sheets
that Derber collected and
that Derber was allowed to
circulate a petition without
being properly registered.
Ballot Access’ owner,
Lee Vasche, denies those
allegations and says they are
politically motivated.
Our Oregon and Der-
ber filed its complaint July
2 with the Oregon Secre-
tary of State’s Office and
the Bureau of Labor and
Industries.
The next day, the Sec-
retary of State’s Elec-
tions Division Director
Steve Trout asked the attor-
ney general to investigate
whether elections law vio-
lations occurred by “circu-
lators, and/or others, includ-
ing the circulating company
employing certain of the
subjects,” according to a
Tuesday letter provided by
the Department of Justice.
It’s not clear when
the investigation will be
complete.
Once the Department
of Justice investigates and
reaches a conclusion on the
criminal investigation, the
secretary of state’s office
will look into possible civil
805 SW Broadway, Suite 2100
Portland, OR 97205
Phone (503) 221-8811
Bid Fax (503) 221-8888
BIDS@hoffmancorp.com
Hoffman is an equal opportunity employer
and requests sub-bids from all interested
firms including disadvantaged, minority,
women, disabled veterans and emerging
small-business enterprises
OR CCB#28417/LIC HOFFMCC164NC
Now Hiring:
Warehouse, Maintenance Mechanics, Machine
Operators, Production Workers & Quality Positions.
All Shifts. Limited Part Time/Job Share Available
We Offer Competitive Wages, Medical, Dental, Vision,
401k + Match and Paid Time Off!