Northern elephant seals at Race Rocks

During the first year field exam at Race Rocks on Friday 12 May (post to follow…), there were 11 northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) that provided both entertainment and answers to the students writing the exam.

Tamar making observations

Big guy on the grass

Interacting elephant seals

One of the questions on the field exam involved observing elephant seals and the seals seemed happy to oblige.

Over the course of the morning, many of the elephant seals made their way to the water.

Heading down to the water

Going down…

Going up…

Meeting on the slipway

On the jetty

Parade into the water

Once in the water, one elephant seal was frolicking in the bull kelp and blowing bubbles.

Some students even tried behaving like elephant seals:

Bull kelp pickles

On Friday evening, Yam served and shared the bull kelp pickles that she and Noemi had prepared about 4 weeks earlier using bull kelp that we collected on one of the kelp forest field trips. The recipe they used can be found here.

It was burgers for dinner and the delicious bull kelp pickles really complimented the meal.

Thank you Yam!!

 

Kelp forest trips 2014

Friday 10 October and Tuesday 14 October, second year marine scientists did the annual field trip to the Nereocystis kelp forest at Fossil Point.  This is one of the very best field trips we do in the IB Marine Science course at Pearson College. Divers get into the water with a camera that is tethered to a monitor on our boat ‘Second Nature’ so that non-divers can experience the kelp forest along with the divers.

Yam (below), Riikka and Tyleisha did the dive on Friday.

Stuart (below) and Martin (even further below) did the dive on Tuesday.

 

Martin getting instruction on how to use the camera…

…before rolling off of ‘Second Nature’.

The divers descend with the camera so that everyone on board can see what they see on the monitor in the cabin.

Sometimes we can also see the divers:

Non-divers are invited to snorkel around the surface of the kelp forest and have a wonderful time acting like sea otters.

Back on ‘Second Nature’ other students are doing various measurements…

and making observations…

Thanks to Courtney for making these 2 trips happen and to the divers, snorkelers, measurers, observers and photographers.

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:

Kelp forest trips 2013

On Tuesday 8 October and Thursday 10 October, second year marine scientists journeyed to a small kelp forest near Fossil Point.

Griffin & Ivan did a dive in the kelp on Tuesday, while Lily & Lucas (pictured below) went on Thursday.

Divers took a video camera with them that is connected via a cable to a monitor in the cabin of the boat so that students not in the water could see what the divers see, in real time.

We even saw a diver underwater: Lily in the photo below!

Several students also snorkelled to experience the kelp forest.

Some of the species observed include: bull kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana) of course!, cross jellyfish (Mitrocoma cellularia), blood star (Henricia sp.):

Sunflower star (Pycnopodia helianthoides):

Hooded nudibranch (Melibe leonina):

A brittle star in a kelp holdfast:

And ochre stars (Pisaster ochraceus):

Two wonderful trips!

Kelp forest exploration – A block

Marine scientists in A block traveled to Fossil Point on Friday 5 October to explore the kelp forest. We arrived at Fossil Point and divers Gabbie & Laas got suited up and into the water.

While Gabbie & Laas were diving, five snorkelers got suited up and into the water.

Everyone saw lots of bull kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana)…

Ela found a lion’s mane or hooded nudibranch (Melibe leonina) which we brought back to the Marine Science lab and it has recently laid eggs in a container in our seawater table.

And Laas surfaced with a giant Red sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus franciscanus).

Kelp forest exploration – F block

On Wednesday 3 October second year Marine Science students in F block travelled to Fossil Point to explore the Nereocystis kelp forest.

 

From the surface, various abiotic factors were measured.

 

And organisms were observed, including the Lion’s mane jelly (Cyanea capillata) below.

 

And a kelp crab (Pugettia producta) that was collected by Chris.

 

Seven students submerged themselves in the ecosystem using mask, snorkel & fins.

The hardest part was getting dressed…

 

 

Once in the water they seemed to really enjoy themselves…

 

 

 

Sammy managed to collect a holdfast:

 

 

It was difficult to extract the snorkelers from the kelp forest but we had to return to the College for lunch (we left the kelp there for the grazers – sea urchins, snails, fishes, etc.).

World Oceans Day 2012

Every day should be a day to celebrate and appreciate the ocean, but the 8th of June has officially been designated as World Oceans Day. Sadly, there are no Pearson marine scientists here to celebrate today, so I have posted a few photos from this afternoon at Weir’s Beach.

Great Blue Heron

Laura & Simon collected and observed a few purple shore crabs.

Simon found a young bull kelp in the drift algae.

And we spotted two clusters of fish eggs in the holdfast of a bull kelp.

We investigated the piles of seaweed on the beach.

Tucker plowed through the still suspended drift seaweed.

And finally here are a few links for further information about World Oceans Day:

http://worldoceansday.org/

http://theoceanproject.org/

http://www.worldoceannetwork.org/