The 10th cohort of marine scientists write their IB exam

I just realized that once this group of 40 students have completed Paper 2 of their IB exam (one hour from now!), there will be 10 year groups of marine scientists educated at Pearson College! All part of my master plan to spread the word far and wide about the importance of understanding and protecting the ocean. Congratulations year 44 Marine Science students and remember that what you have learned will always be in your hearts!

Year 44 marine scientists

Pre-exam yoga (the sea lion pose!)

Lara, Elisabeth, Theo

Lining up to write Paper 1

IB exam 2018 and a plankton swarm

Second year Marine Science students wrote the second of two papers this morning to complete their IB exam. It has been a wonderful two years – thank you!

At the same time the students were writing their exam, there was a swarm of plankton around the Pearson College dock:

I think that the zooplankton were here to wish the students well!

Many Dungeness crab megalopae have been hanging out around the dock for the past few days (helping the students revise?!).

To the Year 43 Marine Science students: I wish you all the best as you drift on out of Pedder Bay and I hope that the winds and currents are favourable so that you can drift back again some time!

IB exam 2017

A new format this year for the Marine Science exam saw students writing paper 1 yesterday afternoon then they reconvened this morning for paper 2.

Congratulations marine scientists of year 42!!  I know marine science will always be in your heart and you all have a special place in my heart.

Link to more photos…

On the water – 20 Feb 2017

While out with divers at Prison Rocks this afternoon, we were treated to various spectacles, including a gull standing on the water (above) and Eskil doing his internal assessment work (below).

We also saw one tugboat, then a second tugboat come around William Head followed by a frigate, the HMCS Ottawa. The frigate was being escorted and assisted by the tugboats as she headed to the Navy dock in Pedder Bay. The Ottawa certainly dwarfed our Pearson College sailboats!

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Sea lion necropsy at Weir’s Beach

After learning from Ivonne yesterday that there was a dead sea lion at Weir’s Beach and after getting permission from DFO, first and second year Biology students participated in a necropsy of a California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) this morning.

Above is how we found it initially yesterday (31 January 2017) – apparently the sea lion washed up on Weir’s Beach, headless, on 20 January.

We began the necropsy by opening up the abdominal cavity.

Opening the abdominal cavity

Diaphragm, liver and small intestine

We excised the liver, stomach and small intestine.

Inside of stomach with rugae

Small intestine

Several students worked on stretching out the small intestine then they measured it to be 51.7 m long!

We then moved into the thoracic cavity, after cutting through the blubber and thick, dark red pectoral muscles.

Measuring blubber thickness

Blubber and dark red pectoral muscle

The heart, right lung and and trachea were removed and examined by students.

Dina and Annie examine the trachea

We were blasted by sand and a bitterly cold wind throughout, but students remained engaged & interested. An amazing opportunity!

Sand blasted

Stalwart students

The photo below is my favourite – Emily is holding the mesentery in the wind.

See Flickr page for many more photos.

Pedder Bay sunrise – 13 January 2017

Thanks to Abbie for the photos!

Cold water, big tides

After a very cold night, there was a layer of ice on Pedder Bay again this morning which allowed for some interesting observations and data collection by marine scientists.

Data below were collected by second year Marine Science students at two different times of the morning.

	8:05	am	11:00	am
Depth (m)	Temp (oC)	Salinity (ppt)	Temp (oC)	Salinity (ppt)
0	3.7	28.4	4.6	25.9
0.5	5.8	29.3	5.8	30.1
1.0	6.4	30.3	6.7	30.6
2.0	6.7	30.6	6.7	30.7
3.0	6.7	30.7	6.8	30.8
4.0	6.8	30.7	6.9	30.8
5.0	6.8	30.7	6.9	30.8

One major conclusion can be drawn:

The water is COLD (right down to 5 m where we usually measure temperatures around 10^oC). It is so cold that students’ tongues are turning blue:

Wait a minute… the cold is not the reason for the blue tongues in these Biology students!

We are also experiencing big tides these days (2.8 m tidal range). High tides in the early afternoon:

D block 13:15 11 Jan 2017

F block 9:45 12 Jan 2017

G block 11:00 12 Jan 2017

Tomma touching the top of the piling

Then low tides at night:

Emilio, Heather & Millie at low tide (20:15 11 Jan 2017)

Interesting times!

PC connections with ONC

Pearson College (PC) students have had the opportunity to connect with Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) in a few ways lately. During block week (12-15 December 2016), second year Marine Science students travelled to the headquarters of ONC at the University of Victoria. Thanks to Natasha, Jessica and Mercedes for all that you taught us. In the photo above, PC students are using aluminum foil to create boats in a competition to hold the most ‘fish’ (actually marbles, metal washers and foam bits) in water of different densities.

Navoneel’s boat

Andras’ boat

Maya and Adi test their boats

Martin testing his boat

Special guest Suman floating his boat

Yesterday, 10 January 2017, Dwight Owens from ONC (and father of PC 41 Tessa Owens!) came to PC to present ‘Hot, Sour and Breathless: Oceans under stress’ to first year marine scientists. It was a wonderful review and preview – thank you Dwight!

And one final connection with ONC that I must mention, Dave Riddell spent almost two hours with me on 23 November 2016 guiding me through Oceans 2.0 which allowed me to assign a data analysis task to first year students. Thank you Dave!!

We are very lucky to be so close to such an incredible organization staffed by wonderful educators and scientists and doing leading edge marine science.

Pedder Bay pancakes

Pancake ICE, that is!

Pancake ice by Second Nature

Pancake ice under ramp

Defined in a sea ice glossary as “Predominantly circular pieces of ice from 30 centimeters to 3 meters in diameter, and up to about 10 centimeters in thickness with raised rims due to pieces striking against one another. It may be formed on a slight swell from grease ice, shuga, or slush or as a result of the breaking of ice rind, nilas, or under severe conditions of swell or waves, of gray ice.”

Pancake ice is not common in Pedder Bay, but due to many days of cold air temperatures, it is abundant around the Pearson College dock and around the Pedder Bay Marina.

I did a quick measurement of surface salinity (ppt) and seawater temperature (oC):

Yikes!! The poor mergansers, their feet must be very cold!

And now a stunning sunset – 6 Dec 2016

See Flickr site for more photos of this stunningly beautiful day!