A multitude of Melibe drift to the Pearson College dock

Courtney, our seafront coordinator, came upstairs from the dock just before lunch today (Wednesday 12 November) to say there were many hooded sea slugs (Melibe leonina) clustered around the boat lift. It has been extremely windy over the past 24 hours and it seems as though the nudibranchs have been blown into Pedder Bay by the strong wind.

At 3 pm today the slugs were still there, hanging out on the surface tension of the seawater. They’re not dead or floating, but crawling on the thin skin of the water’s surface.

When the surface tension breaks, Melibe must swim which is demonstrated in the video above.

How many Melibe can you find in the photo above?

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.

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!

What a day in Pedder Bay!

Yesterday was the first day of October and there was an incredible amount of animal activity around Pedder Bay.

The first animal of note was a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) on the ramp down to the Pearson College dock.  It was very distracting to Marine Science students…

At the same time the heron was making its way down to the dock, three mink also scrambled down towards the water. Since it was difficult to keep the class focused, we went down to the dock and checked the succession substrates that were suspended over one year ago.

Lots of bryozoans, hydrozoans and several crescent gunnels (Pholis laeta).

While down at the dock, second year marine scientists noticed a hooded nudibranch (Melibe leonina) drifting around at the surface.

Not a great photo or video footage but a very cool little watermelon-smelling organism!  Cool enough to have a song written about it by Hanne and Killaq.

First year marine scientists measured the variation in temperature and salinity off the Pearson College dock after big rainfall during the weekend.

Depth (m)	Temperature (oC)	Salinity (ppt)
0	11.3	11.9
0.5	10.7	30.6
1	10.5	30.8
2	10.5	30.9
3	10.4	30.9
4	10.5	31.0
5	10.5	29.7
6	10.5	29.0

While collecting these data we spotted some further animal activity at the mouth of Pedder Bay:

A submarine being escorted to the Navy dock.  What a day!

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).