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.

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!