Orcas, Octopus and Urchins, oh my!

On our way to the kelp forest this afternoon, G block marine scientists were distracted by three orcas making their way from the mouth of Pedder Bay towards Victoria. It was a magical experience to follow the whales as they travelled past William Head. There were two males and one female in the group.

We pulled ourselves away from the whales and headed back to Fossil Point where three divers and five snorkelers entered the water to explore the kelp forest. This time, Courtney brought us a giant red sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus franciscanus) and it was Jasper that found the octopus (an already-dissected octopus!).

Giant Pacific Octopus!!

During our first of three kelp forest excursions today, Courtney found a dead Giant Pacific Octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini) while diving and she brought it to the surface in a collection bag.

We put in on the deck of Second Nature and had a closer look.

We did a quick dissection with a Swiss army knife and saw gills, guts and gonads (we think!). Kohtaro has more photos of the dissection which I will post later…

Block week first year field trips

First year marine scientists travelled to Sidney (BC, not Australia as some of them thought when the trip was announced in class!) on 10 and 12 December to visit the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre, a small aquarium full of local fishes, invertebrates and seaweeds.

We saw many beautiful and amazing creatures including:

Sea nettle (Chrysaora fuscescens)

Grunt sculpin (Rhamphocottus richardsonii) in empty giant acorn barnacle

Grunt sculpin (Rhamphocottus richardsonii)

Hooded nudibranch (Melibe leonina)

Anemones (Urticina sp. and Anthopleura xanthogrammica) & ochre sea stars (Pisaster ochraceus)

Juvenile wolf eel (Anarrhichthys ocellatus) in empty scallop shell

Giant Pacific Octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini)

This particular individual is known as Steve and was very active on Monday 10 Dec.

A few students played the salmon survival game.

And most got their hands wet in the touch tank.

 

Thanks to the Oceaneers at the Ocean Discovery Centre for all of their information & enthusiasm and to Sophie for several photos & for driving us to the aquarium!

T-shirts & octopuses

Here is what the latest Marine Science t-shirt will look like:

Lucas drew the octopus (that will be slightly larger than shown above) and combined various designs submitted by students to produce this work of art.

And speaking of octopuses, the link below is to an article about an octopus catching and consuming a gull at the breakwater in Victoria.  Wow!

A gull-eating octopus in Victoria, BC