On 5 and 6 October 2020, first year Marine Science students (those who are currently on campus) set out to collect plankton. We went out in a boat called ‘Second Nature’ and dragged both plankton nets (50 and 500 micron mesh size) through the water.
We collected some amazing drifting organisms…
“Plankton soup, plankton soup
Aye! You really ought to try some
The ocean is alive with plankton soup”
In memory of little Laura…
I know it has been a long time since my last post, but Theo has inspired me to fire up the blog engine again! And the biggest thing that has happened lately that I need to report is something I have never seen before. While on block week field trips to East Sooke Park with first year marine scientists, we found so-newly settled barnacles that they still looked like cyprids!
We also found a few rare species and a few not-so-rare but really cool species!
And here are the three classes:
Inspiring Girls Expeditions is accepting applications through January 31, 2017 for free summer science and wilderness expeditions in Alaska and Washington for girls ages 16 to 17.
Three teams of up to nine teenage girls and three instructors will spend 12 days exploring and learning about mountain glaciers or fjords with tidewater glaciers. They’ll conduct scientific field studies with professional glaciologists, oceanographers, artists and mountaineers.
View original post 226 more words
We have almost made it through two weeks of Marine Science and students have already explored a great variety of ecosystems:
On their first day of class first year marine scientists watched barnacles feed, limpets crawl around and seaweed wave around in the water off the Pearson College dock.
Second year marine scientists have braved (and all survived!) the mudflats. More details to follow on those two trips…
First years have been to Weir’s beach,
Albert Head Lagoon,
and the Director’s intertidal.
I have been immensely impressed with the level of enthusiasm shown by all of these students.
From the photos above, you can see a few of them really sinking their feet in to the various ecosystems!
Over the past week, several creatures, usually only seen in the deep sea, made appearances in the floating lab and on the Pearson College dock.
For more detail on individual organisms see the Flickr album Deep Sea costumes 2016.
We’ll miss you very much in both Marine Science and Diving and we thank you for all of your wonderful and enthusiastic contributions!
That’s Courtney on the right in the unicorn onesie (along with Aia Pikachu and Malou the seal).
This one is for little Laura…
It is rare that we see whitecaps in Pedder Bay, but they were plentiful today.
Big gusts too! (see upper right of the photo above). No wonder really why the power went out at about 11 am. Fortunately it was restored around 8 pm.
Students in one of today’s Marine Science classes were certain that the leaning tree above was going to fall in to the water – it hasn’t happened yet, but it is still quite windy tonight, so stay tuned…
On Monday 14 September, first year marine scientists in B block were fortunate to be able to make contact with Dave Riddell of Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) while he was aboard the R/V Thompson. Dave was part of the recent ‘Wiring the Abyss 2015’ expedition and did a wonderful job explaining what ONC does and what the expedition was all about.
The photo above shows JASON, the ROV that was used during the expedition as well as small images of Dave Riddell and students in the floating lab (lower right corner).
Thanks Dave!!
Pearson College Marine Science 