Four trips to Race Rocks in three days

All three first year Marine Science classes made it out to Race Rocks on Wednesday 10 October. We saw many, many, many California and Northern sea lions.

And most students were also fortunate enough to see humpback whales feeding off the south and west sides of Great Race Rock. (Terrible photos of humpbacks below followed by a decent photo of whale watching students!)

The newly minted Coastal Biodiversity CAS also had the opportunity to visit Race Rocks with Garry Fletcher on Friday afternoon.

During that visit we saw a necklaced sea lion and we came across a dead Northern sea lion.

We also had a reunion of two Year 38 students, Laas, the current Ecoguardian at Race Rocks, and Helen, who is back at Pearson College for a two week visit. Incidentally these were the two artists who painted my VW van!!

Wonderfully impressive experience overall!!

Updates from year 38 marine scientists

Good news from Laas about the leader of the iron enrichment project off Haida Gwaii last year: Haida terminate ocean fertilization proponent Russ George

A very exciting website for an NGO, one of the very, very few, which attempts to conserve the coral reefs in the Red Sea from Mohamed.  http://www.hepca.org/

And a fun video from Jon dating back to our sea lion necropsy:

 

Passing the tooth

Ivan (far left) and Steph (far right), both year 39, each received a sea lion canine tooth from Chris and Sammy (year 38) on the PC dock this afternoon to recognize their outstanding enthusiasm for Marine Science.

IB exam 2013

Year 38 Marine Science students are currently all in the dining hall, writing paper 2 of their IB exam.  They were confident before and happy after completing paper 1 and I suspect they will also be quite happy when it is all over and we are celebrating with ice cream!

Great job Karam, Helen, Ben, Christopher, Jon, Mohamed, Eliott, Suizhi; Jessica, Ariana, Vuochly, Gabbie, Sammy, Ela, Laas, Théa, Lucas, Susanna; Angela, Amanda, Felicia, José, Mariana, Miguel, Rikka, Sergio!!

Ocean Science Symposium 2013

Miguel, Suizhi and I attended the 2nd annual Ocean Science Symposium at the University of Victoria on Friday & Saturday 26 and 27 April.

We had the chance to learn alongside and interact with students and educators from around southern Vancouver Island & the Gulf Islands and to learn from undergraduate and graduate students from UVic. We also heard an inspiring plenary talk on Friday morning by Dr. Kate Moran, president & CEO of Ocean Networks Canada.

There were many hands on activities as part of workshops in six different disciplines of marine science (engineering, physics, biology, chemistry, geography and geology).

A great experience overall and I have to say that I was very proud of Suizhi and Miguel – they added many valuable contributions and asked very perceptive questions.

Witty’s Beach with A block

On Tuesday 9 April, second year Marine Science students travelled to Witty’s Beach as an example of a sandy beach ecosystem. We did a beach seine in which we found young flatfish (still mostly transparent), staghorn sculpins and crangonid shrimp.

Goldstream estuary – April 2013

On Wednesday 10 April (F block) and on Friday 12 April (A block), second year Marine Science students visited the Goldstream estuary.  Closed to the public since 1994, the estuary is an incredible place to explore.

There are many Canada geese in the estuary these days and they do a great job of mowing down the vegetation.

Although we didn’t see any living salmon, the juveniles should have been in the Goldstream River (pictured above) and we saw lots of evidence of adult salmon:

On both days we were accompanied by a naturalist from the Park – Tracy is holding the salmon jaws and vertebra in the photo above and Bree is pictured below.

On Wednesday there was sunshine and blue sky – students were invited to take off their boots and walk barefoot through the mud.  Chris and Susanna accepted enthusiastically.

 Since Chris probably would have lost at least one boot in the mud any way it made good sense for him to remove his boots.

 Eliott has lost his flip-flops since our trip to East Sooke Park, so he came in boots but decided to keep them on!

 Chris managed to leave the estuary with both boots!!

 Susanna also walked barefoot through the mud and sincerely enjoyed it!

 And then she cleaned her feet in the river.

 We had to jump across a channel in the estuary – Karam does it with panache above.

 And Thea too!

 Jon, however, looks like he is going to fall backwards on his bum – he didn’t though!

Two last images to include from our trip to Goldstream – salmonberry blossoms:

And skunk cabbage: 

Marine debris – Project Week in Tofino

While it is not officially a Marine Science project, the week that Kenta has planned and he and his team are carrying out is very applicable to topics we cover in the course (and there are two Marine Science students participating!).

Very soon after arriving in Tofino on Sunday afternoon, we (Kenta, Helen, Amalia, Cassandra, Shuli & Laura) went to Chesterman Beach in the rain and wind. Despite the weather, we did collect some marine debris.

Kenta’s focus is on Japanese debris – he has high hopes of finding debris from the tsunami of 11 March 2011. His intention is to collect marine debris and make artwork that he will exhibit both in Canada and Japan.

Monday morning we went to Ucluelet and met with Karla Robison, Manager of Environmental & Emergency Services for the District of Ucluelet. She presented a lot of what she knows about Japanese tsunami debris then took us to the Public Works Yard where marine debris from many beach clean-ups is being stored.

Karla gave the students permission to sort through the debris and take anything that they could use in their artwork.

 Karla & Amalia

 Cassandra & Helen

 Kenta & Karla

Kenta sorted through all the plastic bottles and based on the writing was able to identify several Japanese bottles and many Chinese bottles.

Kenta was also interviewed by Andrew Bailey, a reporter from the ‘Westerly News’.

After loading the back of the van with debris we drove and hiked to Florencia Bay where we collected more debris, a lot more debris…

 This is the result of an afternoon at the south end of Florencia Bay.

More to come…

Mariana’s photos from Albert Head Lagoon

On Friday 8 February, F block marine scientists went on a field trip to Albert Head Lagoon.  We played ‘orca and salmon’ and did a beach scavenger hunt.

Mariana took these amazing photos and was willing to share them:

Mammalian diving reflex 2013

If you feel your heart rate decreasing just by looking at these photos of Marine Science students with their faces immersed in icy cold water, then maybe you too would exhibit a mammalian diving reflex. Or perhaps you would actually need to feel the cold water on your temples to cause bradycardia. Why not try it?!

Once again this year, there were many willing participants in a short experiment we did in class today and many who did show a significant decrease in heart rate (bradycardia), one aspect of the mammalian diving reflex.