Oceanography in Pedder Bay 2013

On Monday 25 November, first year marine scientists set out to “describe and explain the spatial variation in temperature and salinity in Pedder Bay”.

They measured and recorded temperature and salinity, at six locations within Pedder Bay and at each location, every meter from the surface to the sea floor (or to a maximum of 30 m).

 

Martin, however, doesn’t seem to understand how the temperature-salinity probe works:

 

 

Students also measured a variety of abiotic factors including: wind speed,

 

 

water depth, latitude and longititude,

 

air temperature, relative humidity and illumination.

 

After much discussion and some independent contemplation, 

the conclusions include that surface water is warmer and slightly more salty at the mouth of Pedder Bay and there is no variation in water temperature or salinity from the surface to 30 m at the mouth of the bay.

Thanks to Camille RW & Alfredo for photos!

Goldstream salmon run 2013

On Wednesday 6 November (A block) and Thursday 7 November (D block) first year Marine Science students had the opportunity to observe spawning chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) at Goldstream Provincial Park.

We saw many live salmon, swimming & spawning, and many dead & decaying salmon.

There were also many gulls watching this incredible event…

Some gulls were swimming along side the salmon…

and many gulls were diving for salmon eggs.

 A Block

 D Block

Thanks to Alfredo, Camille vG and Tyleisha for photos!

Primary productivity experiment

Second year Marine Science students in C block chose to investigate the effect of colour of light on primary productivity in bull kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana). After wrapping five BOD bottles in each of five colours of cellophane plus five bottles in transparent cellophane and including five black bottles, students filled BOD bottles with seawater and one piece (4 cm x 4 cm) of bull kelp.

They measured dissolved oxygen in each bottle:

then left the bottles on the window sill of the floating lab for 4 to 6 hours:

Then they measured dissolved oxygen again:

The data collected are shown below:

And I have to include this photo of the wall by the stairs in the floating lab taken when students were measuring final oxygen levels:

Pedder Bay sunrise – 19 November 2013

Liquid Layering Lab

Although it may be a bit tricky to see in all the tubes above, there should be four coloured layers of water – each layer with a different density.

Students were challenged to use coloured water of differing temperature and salinity to make the layers.

 

 

If you look closely, you should see a yellow layer between the red and green layers below.

 

Thanks to Alfredo for the photos!

Kelp forest video footage 2013

The first three clips were taken by snorkelling Steph (8 October 2013) and the last two videos are the raw footage from the dive that Lily and Lucas did at Fossil Point (10 October 2013).