Throughout the past couple of weeks, we (and maybe you) have been asking why are we doing this?  Why are we measuring the aperture size on barnacles? Why are we counting the number of lugworm holes we see in the sand?  Why are we collecting 200 whelks from the intertidal zone? What is all of this data collection for?  What does it mean?

Today, we started our day with an explanatory lecture from Tim D introducing us to the structure and methods for our final project.  Throughout our discussion of the project and the scientific method we will display through writing, graphs, and photos, we got the answer to our questions.  Tim(s) explained that with this final project, we are given the freedom to analyze any of the data we have collected or will collect.  It is our job to ask and answer questions about the observations or data we have collected and create a symposium-worthy poster to display our work.  We all felt the gears in our minds start to turn as we thought about the possibilities of questions and hypotheses we could test using the various data we had collected.

Next on the agenda was something we were definitely all looking forward to: a live chat with some of the workers on the E/V Nautilus.  Megan Cook returned to help connect us to two of the communications officers. The Nautilus is currently exploring the backyard of a couple of our students—the Channel Islands—which are located off the coast of Southern California.  We were astounded by the technology as we asked questions and they responded with insightful answers about the work they are doing.  We learned that many of the Channel Islands used to be one large island during the last glaciation due to a large decrease in sea level, so the Nautilus is currently looking for old shorelines and marine biodiversity around the current Channel Islands.

Megan helping us connect with the Nautilus

Two Nautilus workers answering our questions through a live video chat

After our live chat  with the Nautilus, we had lunch as we prepared to leave for the rabbit survey with Beatrice Grauman-Boss. We had to stand 5m from each other, then count how many warrens there were in a certain location and the number of holes in one warren. This helped us to estimate the population of rabbits. We were all pleased to be part of this survey since rabbits have negatively impacted the ecosystem for a long time.

After we finished up the rabbit surveys, we had the pleasure of having our one and only Timothy Dwyer as our dinner guest, even though he is one of the camp directors. We used our dinner together as an opportunity to ask him all kinds of questions about his life and career and ask for his advice for us.  After dinner, Tim gave a fascinating presentation on his two month trip to Antarctica to study Polar Gigantism, more specifically giant sea spiders.  He showed us lots of great pictures he took on his expedition, some of which are currently featured in National Geographic, the New York Times, and several other big name newsletters.

By: Peter, Rosie, Aaron—

Harbor seal pups gain 11 kilograms (24 lbs) in the first 5 weeks of their life, if everything goes according to plan.  However harbor seals in the Salish Sea are at their environmental carrying capacity, meaning that the population is the maximum that can be supported by the ecosystem.  This is, unfortunately, indicated by the number of seal pups that are found stranded or dead each year due to food shortages.

We began our morning at Friday Harbor Laboratories, where the necropsy of a seal pup was being conducted.  Lead by Dr. Joe Gaydos, author of our Salish Sea guidebook, Salish Sea: Jewel of the Pacific Northwest, and director of the SeaDoc Society. We observed the operation outdoors on the dock.  

The pup had been found a few days previous stranded on the beach and they had been forced to euthanize it because its mother was nowhere to be found at it was clearly in poor condition.  In the necropsy, the specialists examined the organs of the pup to determine what had caused its mother to separate from it and why it was so underweight.  They learned, by the inflammation and depressions in its lungs, the presence of pink foam in the trachea and the partial circumvention of the lungs in the circulatory tract that the pup was having difficulty receiving the oxygen that it needed.  They concluded that this was likely caused by a combination of factors stemming from the lack of sufficient food.

Students looking over the necropsy from the FHL pier.

Joe Gaydos answering our questions on marine mammal anatomy.

Next we arrived at Jacksons Beach on Griffin Bay to assist in the netting of fish for upcoming lab research at the Friday Harbor Labs.  We helped by loading the nets on the boat and pulling them in from shore after they were towed out.  Then we sourted through fish to find sand lance, flatfish and sculpin.

Looking through the nets for fish used for research at FHL.

After lunch we received an introduction to SONAR technology from our very own Tim Brogden, a former Navy SONAR technician.  We then followed this up with dinner with Megan Cook, a Community STEM Program Coordinator for the Nautilus, a unique research vessel that travels around the world doing deep sea exploration.  After dinner she presented about the Nautilus and its mission. Here is their website where you can see live footage of deep underwater exploring: http://www.nautiluslive.org. Our eyes were wide as we watched videos of thousand year old ship wrecks and organisms that seemed to be from another planet. Megan reminded us that humans are natural born explorers and that we are made to discover parts of our unknown world.

Signing off from new found Nautilus enthusiast and future leaders in ocean exploration!