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

Mudflat Monday for Marine Science students

Heading into the mudflats

Today was one of the days that I look forward to every year – Mudflat Monday! Two of the three classes braved the challenging ecosystem that is the mudflats today (the third class went last Thursday, so actually they were the first class!).

Slogging through the mudflats

We found clams, worms and crabs…

Laura’s impression of a bent-nose clam, Macoma nasuta

Lugworm, Abarenicola pacifica

Inaki and a graceful rock crab, Metacarcinus gracilis

We really got our gumboots and hands dirty today! This truly is science you can sink your boots into!

Juan Daniel’s boots

Lara’s interpretive dance?

Biodiversity by snorkel

Every year I issue a challenge to marine scientists to compare the biodiversity of two habitats. I suggest high & low in the intertidal, horizontal & vertical in the rocky intertidal, plankton tows in two locations or two areas on the dock. I always offer the option of snorkelling and a few students, like 3 or 4, usually take me up on it.

This year there were more takers for the snorkelling option than ever – 7 students in the first class and 6 in the second class.

Ivonne and Yorlenis

Becca and Matilda

Annie and Abigail

Becca and Matilda

Abigail

Emilio

A few students even snorkelled across Pedder Bay to compare the two different sides of the bay (see photo above).

D block snorkellers

Gaia emerging

And not all students snorkelled, below are Tomma in the intertidal and Karel sampling plankton at the green buoy. While Karel and I were in Hyaku, we watched a submarine make its way to the navy dock.

Tomma sampling intertidal biodiversity

Karel sampling plankton diversity

Submarine!

For more photos see Flickr album Biodiversity 2017.

And for a reminder of last year’s sampling see Biodiversity in Pedder Bay.

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.

Investigating the properties of seawater 2017

Once again, first year marine scientists carried out individual investigations into the properties of seawater.

Matias watching for boiling

Piero measuring salinity, pH and oxygen

Many students did lab-based investigations:

Juan Diego

Emilio investigates the effect of salinity on adhesion

Emilio’s set up

Tamar

And a few went out into the field… Yeji measured the variation in salinity with location in Pedder Bay by kayaking (she got a bit wet and had her pants dried by Hazuki, who investigated the effect of wind speed on water movement). And Quni was prepared for the wet weather but as you can see below, returned to the lab in the sunshine!

Hazuki measuring the effect of wind on water movement

Hazuki using ‘wind’ to dry Yeji’s pants

Quni returning from sampling with Secchi disk

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!

Orcas!!

This morning my plan for second year marine scientists was to go to Race Rocks to look at marine mammals (sea lions & seals) and birds. My plan went out the window, however, when Kyle spotted orcas as we were underway. We were totally distracted by these magical creatures. We didn’t made it to Race Rocks but we had a wonderful and transformative adventure.

Aurora, Orca, Andras

Orca in the distance

Aurora, Eskil, Andras

Axl, Martin, Aurora

Stefan, Jill, Navo, Zoli

We saw two females with a calf and two bulls. Although I don’t have any good photos of the whales, I did get many photos of the backs of students’ heads!

Sea lions, seals and orcas, oh my!

First year marine scientists had a wonderful experience at Race Rocks on Friday 23 September. We went to explore this amazing ecosystem and to observe marine mammals and birds.

We brought Felix Butschek (yr 36, Austria) along:

More details to follow on his visit later…

We did see (and hear and smell!) many, many sea lions:

Observing a California sea lion

Damage done to sea lion by a cookie cutter shark

We were also lucky to observe five Northern elephant seals:

Northern elephant seal

Elephant seal parade

Elephant seals and the jetty

As an added bonus one group of students also saw orcas:

Spyhopping orca

Orca in the distance

Whale watching

Orcas followed us to the mouth of Pedder Bay

For more photos see Flickr album here. And for Anne’s summary of the day and some better orca photos, see the Race Rocks blog.

Digging into the mudflats

On Wednesday and Thursday mornings last week, second year Marine Science students travelled across Pedder Bay to explore a nearby mudflat.

While it is a challenging ecosystem to navigate around, marine scientists did very well –  not a single student was left behind, nor a single gumboot!

Racing across the mudflat

Getting some water for animals

Extracting a gumboot

Extracting Camila & her gumboots

Students learned that mudflats smell like rotten eggs due to hydrogen sulfide produced by anaerobic bacteria in the mud.

Sadly, there is not a lot of oxygen in the mud…

…but happily, there are several organisms that are well adapted to low oxygen and high hydrogen sulfide.

Axel digging in the mud

Kate and Maya digging deep to find a clam

Predatory ribbon worm ( Paranemertes peregrina)

Mara and Somchit

On Thursday we were fortunate enough to use the yellow voyageur canoe to travel across the bay.

Loaded up and ready to go

Heading home

The mudflat field trip is always one of the messiest in Marine Science, but also one that is great fun! (Right, Stefan?!)

Stefan making his way across the mudflat

Navoneel after his excursion to the mudflats

See Flickr album for more photos of the mudflats.

Field exam 2016

On Monday 9 May, 26 Marine Science students travelled to Race Rocks on Hyaku or the Discovery Shuttle (chartered from Ocean River Sports since ‘Second Nature’ is still in the shop) to write their first year field exam.

Do they look like they are off to write an exam?

Discovery shuttle to Race Rocks

Aurora and Adi on Hyaku

Upon arriving at Race Rocks, students received their exam papers and instructions to travel to six stations around the island of Great Race Rock.

Second group of students arrives

Laura gives instructions for station 3

Getting to work at station 3

Ploypailin

Maya

Somchit

Navoneel

Johnny

Ochuko

Mara

Andras

Camila

Zoli

Jill

Kate

Only two significant challenges on this morning:

1. The flies
   

   Ilana and flies

2. Being charged by an elephant seal while collecting data
   

   Ploypailin, Lauren, Xue Meng and Jill were all frightened from collecting data on the jetty by an elephant seal making its way to the water

All in all though a very successful morning. Thanks to Johannah, Malou and Steph for photos and invigilation! – see this link for more wonderful photos.  Thanks to Chris, Reuben (from Ocean River Sports) and Guy for transport to and from Race Rocks. And thanks to Riley and the elephant seals for their hospitality – see this link for Riley’s post on the Race Rocks log about the Marine Science field exam.