Crab trap recovery from Pedder Bay

As part of their CAS week project, divers Benoit, Isaac, Hiro and Sabrina attempted to recover some of the crab traps that have been abandoned in Pedder Bay. They did two dives on Tuesday, the first of which was successful only in that they “recovered” our anchor!

On the second dive, however, Benoit and Isaac did locate a crab trap then used a red lift bag to bring it to the surface.  In the photo above Isaac is swimming at the surface and Benoit just below the surface to bring the trap to the boat.

The photos below show the crab trap on the boat Hyaku and two proud divers!

On the trap there were a few species of red algae and yellow encrusting sponge with a few decorator crabs crawling around.  Well done team!

Majestic male deer

Thanks to Yoana for pointing out this deer that was resting just across from the floating building before class yesterday. We invited him to join the Marine Science class, but he seemed to be enjoying his peaceful perch.

Pedder Bay sunrise – 20 October 2015

Orcas, Octopus and Urchins, oh my!

On our way to the kelp forest this afternoon, G block marine scientists were distracted by three orcas making their way from the mouth of Pedder Bay towards Victoria. It was a magical experience to follow the whales as they travelled past William Head. There were two males and one female in the group.

We pulled ourselves away from the whales and headed back to Fossil Point where three divers and five snorkelers entered the water to explore the kelp forest. This time, Courtney brought us a giant red sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus franciscanus) and it was Jasper that found the octopus (an already-dissected octopus!).

Giant Pacific Octopus!!

During our first of three kelp forest excursions today, Courtney found a dead Giant Pacific Octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini) while diving and she brought it to the surface in a collection bag.

We put in on the deck of Second Nature and had a closer look.

We did a quick dissection with a Swiss army knife and saw gills, guts and gonads (we think!). Kohtaro has more photos of the dissection which I will post later…