Yokogawa Fluid Imaging Technologies

10/29/2026

This fall, our team visited Moss Landing Marine Laboratories in California to explore FlowCam imaging of sponge spicules. These spicules were imaged at 10X using FlowCam 8000 and sorted by length using VisualSpreadsheet.

Because the morphology of sponge spicules can be used to identify sponge taxa, building image libraries like this can support the development of machine learning and AI tools for sponge identification. This approach could be especially valuable for studying sponges in deep-sea, hard-bottom, and coral environments.

09/28/2026

Heading to the Bay-Delta Science Conference this week?

Stop by and visit our table to see FlowCam in action.
Leah will be analyzing samples collected from Monterey Bay and San Luis Reservoir, including harmful algae, zooplankton, and coral samples, and will be happy to discuss how flow imaging microscopy is being used in aquatic research and monitoring.

While you’re there, sign up for our mailing list for a chance to win some FlowCam swag! We’ll draw a raffle winner during Wednesday’s lunch break.

The prize package includes:

☕ A FlowCam coffee mug and bag of locally roasted coffee
🎨 Fun stickers designed by local artists
🎁 And a few extra surprises

We look forward to meeting fellow researchers, resource managers, and scientists from across the region. See you there!

09/25/2026

Next week, the FlowCam team is heading to two California conferences, connecting with researchers and water quality professionals working across both marine and freshwater ecosystems. Whether you're studying estuaries, reservoirs, lakes, or harmful algal blooms, we'd love to talk about how flow imaging microscopy is helping advance aquatic monitoring and research.

🌊 Bay-Delta Science Conference
We'll be in Sacramento for the Bay-Delta Science Conference, a premier forum that brings together scientists, engineers, resource managers, and policymakers focused on the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. It's a great opportunity to discuss applications for plankton analysis, HAB monitoring, and aquatic ecosystem research in one of California's most important estuarine systems. https://www.baydeltascienceconference.com/

💧 CALMS Conference
We're also attending the annual California Lake Management Society (CALMS) Conference, where lake managers, researchers, regulators, and water resource professionals come together to share knowledge and solutions for California's lakes and reservoirs. We're looking forward to conversations about freshwater monitoring, cyanobacteria and HAB management, and how FlowCam can support lake and reservoir management programs. https://www.california-lakes.org/calms-conference

If you're attending either event, stop by and say hello. We'd love to learn about your monitoring challenges and share how high-speed imaging can help generate faster, more detailed insights into aquatic communities.

Register for Bay-Delta Science Conference 2026 at SAFE Credit Union Convention Center in Sacramento

09/22/2026

How are imaging and AI changing the way we study plankton communities?

Join Dr. Stella A. Berger and Dr. Gülce Yalçın from the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) for a webinar on how FlowCam supports plankton research, from large-scale mesocosm experiments to long-term lake and river monitoring.

📅 October 21, 2026
🕑 2:00-3:00 PM CEST | 8:00-9:00 AM EDT

Learn how the IGB team is using high-throughput imaging, open-source workflows, and AI-assisted classification to study phytoplankton dynamics, environmental change, and aquatic ecosystem connectivity.

🔗 Learn More and Register: https://info.fluidimaging.com/webinar-igb-flowcam

09/11/2026

Something unusual is happening in Casco Bay right now. 🌊

A bloom of the dinoflagellate 𝘒𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘢 𝘮𝘪𝘬𝘪𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘪 has been turning the water brown and drawing attention from local news outlets and state monitoring programs. Maine officials are tracking the bloom because this species can impact fish and shellfish, although it is not considered harmful to humans.

🔗 Learn more about the bloom: https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/local/fisheries/dead-dying-clams-reported-along-harpswell-coast-as-officials-investigate/97-d15171e6-38b6-4d87-a435-0982093d54dc

Earlier this week, our retired colleague, Harry Nelson, stopped by Fogg's Water Taxi on Portland's waterfront, collected a net tow sample, and brought it back to the FlowCam office so we could take a closer look.

At 10X magnification, we immediately found 𝘒𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘢 𝘮𝘪𝘬𝘪𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘪. Watching it swim through the sample was a reminder that harmful algal blooms are more than just a discoloration of the water. They're complex biological communities. Alongside 𝘒𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘢, we observed other dinoflagellates including 𝘋𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘴, 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘮, and 𝘛𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘰𝘴.

When we examined the same sample at 4X, an even broader community came into view: appendicularians, copepods, larger 𝘛𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘰𝘴 species, and actively feeding shellfish larvae.

One of the most fascinating parts of this exercise was seeing how much ecological context a single sample can provide. While satellite imagery can show where a bloom is occurring, plankton imaging helps reveal what is actually there. NOAA's HAB Forecasting Team noted this week that the densest bloom patches appear to be along the Maine and New Hampshire coast, but determining exactly which organisms are contributing to those signals requires observations in the water. That's where plankton imaging provides valuable ground-truth information about what types of organisms contribute to blooms like this one.

🔗 See NOAA's forecasts:
https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/science-areas/habs/hab-forecasts/

09/02/2026

If you use FlowCam with EcoTaxa, finding the right training materials, guides, and support resources just got a lot easier. 🔬

We've launched a new EcoTaxa Resource Center that brings our EcoTaxa-related content together in one place. Previously, these resources were spread across multiple locations. Now they're organized and easier to access when you need them.

Whether you're getting started or looking for answers to a specific workflow question, this should save you some time.

🔗 Explore the resource center: https://www.fluidimaging.com/flowcam-ecotaxa-resource-center

Discover resources for using EcoTaxa with FlowCam, including webinars, technical notes, and support to enhance your plankton image analysis.

08/31/2026

08/11/2026

⛴️ It’s BLOOM Time! 🔬 Last week we brought FlowCam onboard the R/V Bowditch for the BLOOM Educators program at Bigelow Laboratory! ☀️ This amazing professional development program, led by Dr. Nicole Poulton and Dr. David Fields, introduces middle & high school teachers from Maine and New Hampshire to the fundamentals of oceanography - including field work! 🌊By having FlowCam onboard for the day, teachers were able to see live images of phytoplankton they collected at different stations up and down the Damariscotta River without having to preserve or wait to view their samples onshore. 🌲 Teachers will have access to their FlowCam data this fall via EcoTaxa, providing a quantitative, digital version of their samples for students to explore plankton diversity. ✏️

07/31/2026

💡REU Student Spotlight: Exploring Zooplankton Size & Carbon Distribution in the Gulf of Maine ⭐️ We caught up with Ella Weinmann, an undergraduate student at Suffolk University who used FlowCam Macro for her REU project in the Fields Lab at Bigelow Laboratory this summer! Ella worked with Mason Pomroy on a method to quickly image zooplankton in different size fractions and relate image-based size measurements to physical, dry weight biomass and carbon content. ⚖️ According to Ella, FlowCam Macro “really revolutionized our ability to assess the community structure of zooplankton on a large scale.” 🌎 Congratulations on a job well done, Ella!

07/30/2026

It’s the Intersection of the Interns 2026! 👏Congratulations to all of the amazing undergraduate students wrapping up their 10-week summer of science at Bigelow Laboratory! FlowCam interns Kate, Kaitlin and Jeremy visited Bigelow to hear REU students present their posters. It was fantastic connecting with students, their mentors, and other FlowCam users around the building. Tune in tomorrow to hear one student, Ella, summarize the important role FlowCam Macro played in her zooplankton research this summer! ☀️🎤