What a fantastic summer of marine field and lab research! The scientists of Cohort 2019 spent the day supporting each other as everyone put their final touches on their pilot project posters. While the posters went off to the printer, the students tidied up the residence, finished their laundry, and packed. Before scientist mentors, family members, and program supporters arrived, students put on their new Salish t-shirts illustrated, designed, and voted on by the group and gave a last practice for presenting their posters to guests. At 5:00pm the doors opened! Deeply engaging their guests, Cohort 2019 led the charge for a new generation of investigators and science communicators! Speeches were made, food was shared, games were played… and guests went off, leaving the group one last night to enjoy each other’s company and see the sun rise over San Juan Island one last time.

By: Ben Logel and Ella Leeson

Today we had another slightly early morning (7:30) because we had to catch the necropsy happening at the Friday Harbor Labs. For the week leading up to this event, Derek wouldn’t tell us what animal it was, except for that it was a marine mammal. However, when we arrived, we soon saw that it was a porpoise. Members of the Seadoc Society and the Whale Museum participated in this autopsy of the mammal, which they found floating in the water this past Sunday. The whole process took about an hour, and the scientists inspected every part of the animal and speculated the cause of death to be anything from cancer to a boating incident. However, upon further inspection, they concluded that what most likely happened was that this porpoise was hit by a killer whale, which caused internal bleeding, causing the animal to die. It was an incredible experience to see how much scientists can learn from these animals, even after they’re dead. That part was cool, but I think it’s safe to see on behalf of the group that we won’t be missing the smell at all…

When we arrived back at the dorms, it was eminently time to work. With the project deadline drawing ever nearer, we found ourselves scrambling to put the finishing touches on. Some of us had not started the poster (I included) due to the fact that our experiments took longer than expected. Still, even those who had had ample amount of time to do their projects still felt ill prepared. Lucky by the end of the day, after hours of work, most of us had finished our projects. Many of us wear now the glazed expression of someone who has stared at a spread sheet for far too long. Those who have not finished their projects will either be staying up late into the night or else wakening up early tomorrow. After all of this work, I hope that the presentations go well, and that people fully understand how much time and energy went into making them happen (even if it does not appear so).

By: Leighna, Ayla, and Camden

Today, we had all day to work on our projects.

It was pretty relaxed, as we did nothing else. Anna and Derek stayed around for the whole morning and afternoon to drop students off of at the Friday Harbor Labs, the Friday Harbor library, or to tide pools. They also helped us grind through our research projects and taught us how to make our posters for the big presentation day on the 18th.

After hours of hard work, we drove to the English (or British) camp to attend a small dance. We had a whole hour to roam around and explore the forest trails, the dock at the beach, and dance together in the camp. Accompanied by mostly clear skies and a beautiful sunset, we were able to enjoy a relaxed hour to ourselves.

After we got back to the dorms, many of us raided the refrigerator for some well-deserved ice cream before going to sleep at 10:30.

By Grace Davis, Jeremy Davis, Faith Jayaram, and Tony Yuan To

For most people, collecting, researching, and scanning eelgrass isn’t the first career path that comes to mind. But this is not the case for Morgan Eisenlord, who spends her life working with sea stars and eelgrass. Today she taught us about the latter. Dodging giant red rock crabs and clams that were spraying water everywhere, we collected eelgrass samples and took them back to the Spring Street International School campus to clean them and create scans.

The process began with laying out measuring tapes across the beach. We were split into three groups, each one working on a separate transect. Two people collected samples of the slimy but interesting eelgrass every 5 meters. Another person counted the eelgrass plants at 5, 10, and 15 meters along the transect in order to document the density. The final person recorded everything in their notebook.

After our successful morning of eelgrass research, we returned to the dorms to shower and eat lunch. Many of us then joined Morgan in the classroom to finish organizing the eelgrass. We ended three hours early! This extra time was spent on research projects and other activities.

This sunny, beautiful day ended with an exciting performance of the Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare. Even though we were cold, it was definitely worth it. Goodnight!

By Ezra Bergson-Michelson, Orly Lindner

At 6:00 AM, the tap-tap on every door aroused us and alerted us to the start of our busy day. After dragging ourselves out of bed, we soon embarked on our journey. While a few people journeyed with our always electrifying leader, Dr. Derek Smith, to the tidepools, the bulk of us drove to Cattle Point to begin our kelp and algae identifying quest.

We worked with Dr. Katie Dobkowski, a specialist in bull kelp and professor at Bates College, to identify algae along transects that graduate students have been analyzing for over 40 years. We split into two groups, each group taking two transects, and began the long process of identifying algae along it. Each group worked on identifying algae in different quadrats along the transect, moving down the beach, identifying every scrap of algae in the square. Every two meters, the pairs would photograph their quadrat, count percent cover of each species of algae, and log the data to be added to the database.

While we counted algae at four sites, each corresponding to a different substrate, we also collected kelp and decorator crabs. We mainly found kelp crabs, eventually finding a total of 19 crabs through the two groups. The crabs, lurking among the eelgrass, pinched and prodded before being collected for Dr. Katie Dobkowski’s future projects.

Afterward, we followed up on our earlier learning from the renowned musician, Alex Shapiro, by attending an exhibition of her music in an Orca-awareness event. Her nature music paired with her breathtaking photos were filled with the true spirit of the event.

Throughout the rest of the day, we all worked on our projects, from spreadsheets to nudibranchs, at the dorm or Friday Harbor Laboratories. We ended the night with a wonderful bonfire on the beach, after a hearty burrito dinner.

Today, a few peers started their day at 0700 and headed to Deadman’s Bay, as well as Reuben Tarte (differing intertidal zones) to collect data for their differing science projects. While out at Deadman’s Bay, Miles found a piece of what seems to be a very old metal piece, possibly from a ship. Derek mentioned sending it to the museum to see how old the piece of metal is.

While some people were in the intertidal zones this morning, others were with Morgan Eisenlord, a PhD candidate at Cornell university in the Harvell lab, talking about strategies for how we will collect eel grass on Sunday (7/14) with Morgan to do further research on the pathogen that is harming eel grass.

After lunch, almost everyone went back up to the classroom with Morgan Eisenlord to do more planning and preparing for the mission on Sunday. I, Zoey, decided to go to the Friday Harbor Marina docks after lunch to work on my science project where I saw 21 Aequorea jellyfish, 2 Beroe and 1 fairly large jellyfish that is called Aurelia Aurita, a moon jelly. When I got back to the dorms I learned that everyone else had gone swimming in what I know as very cold waters.

When getting back from swimming and other activities everyone enjoyed a little free time and then headed to dinner where we met our guest for the night, Katie Dobkowski, a professor at Bates College in Maine, who specializes in many things but mainly the biotic and abiotic factors of organisms and also specializes in bull kelp.

By Kalena, Devika, Nick and Miles

Today was a laid-back day. We lazily rolled out of bed at eight, starting our morning with a few hours of individual research. After days of emailing and planning with Derek and Anna, most of us had began or were ready to begin our projects. Leighna, Ella, Jeremy, Ezra and Orly headed to FHL around nine. The group of five met with researchers that specialized in fields related to their projects and even began setting up their experiments.

In the afternoon, we met with Sasha Seroy, a UW PhD candidate studying snails at the lab. She explained scientific communication, methods of sharing information with the public in a way that’s engaging and easy to understand. This can be through writing, art, social media, photography, outreach and games. Scientific communication is not only important because you need to get your point out to the public, it’s also a way that you can bring in sponsors and funding. With Sasha, we focused on communicating through art and drew cartoons about our projects. Our ideas included puns, interesting facts or pressing issues. Some of us went up and presented are comics to the whole group while others were reluctant to share their ideas. Sasha’s talk helped us better prepare for how to present our posters next Sunday.

While the most of the group did scientific cartooning, Devika, Nick, and Ella worked on their research projects at Friday Harbor Labs. Devika and Nick spent a couple hours in the octopus lab to observe and record the behavior of the octopuses. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to to observe since one of the octopus was hidden under a towel and the other was camouflaged in a corner. Still, it was entertaining to see one of the crabs wander into the tentacles of the octopus.

Ella worked in a nearby lab on her project about sea slugs and currents. She had been working hard for many hours to get her tank ready and when she was finally finished, her GoPro stopped working. Still she has persevered with a happy attitude and is hoping to start testing with the slugs tomorrow!

By Leighna, Ayla, and Camden

This morning, there were two groups of people: students who woke up early to hit three low-tide beaches and those who elected to sleep in until breakfast. The early risers went to Dead Man’s Bay, Reuben Tarte, and another beach on the north end of the island to collect data. Little did they know that they would see the rare and glorious Fin Whale off of Dead Man’s Bay that day, an elusive mammal that has not been sighted around the area since 2015.

On the other hand, those of us who stayed at the dorms woke up to a rude, loud fire alarm (there was no fire, fortunately). Although no one knows who or what or why the fire alarm went off, but nothing was on fire and nobody was hurt. Some students took that as a sign to wake up and get started on the day, while others fell right back to sleep. We had a lazy breakfast and had until noon to work on our research projects. Derek came back with a tired but happy group of the explorer students, and we immediately went to the classroom to learn about scanning eelgrass with Morgan Eisenlord.

With the guide of the eelgrass specialist, we learned how to properly dispose of and rinse eelgrass scans, as well as how to create new slides and labels for the next scans. These scans are used to measure the prevalence and severity of eelgrass wasting disease. After around an hour, we left for Friday Harbor Labs to watch Tim Dwyer and our very own Derek Smith dive under the docks.

The divers began their presentations by walking us through the gear and how to properly prepare for a cold water dive. They have to wear many layers and weights as well as air tanks to prep for the cold waters and crushing water pressure. When the time for the divers to jump into the water came, all of the students crowded around the one and only diver elevator at FHL. Derek and Tim then began their dive, starting a beautiful underwater show for the rest of us on land watch through the lens of an underwater camera. The duo found many anemones, barnacles, a disregarded iPhone 6, two clown nudibranch, two sea lemons, two blood stars, and even a sunflower sea star! They dove under the FHL research vessel Centennial, showed us around the large sea anemone garden, and taught us about the organisms that thrive under the docks.

After the dive was over, we looked at the organisms the divers caught (the nudibranch, sea lemons, blood stars, sunflower star, and a couple anemones) closer. We learned about where nudibranch’s gills are, the sensitivity and surprising power of sea stars, and the evolution of the number of sea star arms. Those 2-3 hours flew by in the blink of an eye, and we unfortunately had to leave to get back to the dorms for a break and an early dinner at 5:30. (We are writing this blog in this break time.)

The accreditor readiness review team from AdvancEd, Joanne and Nancy, are joining us for the dinner of Israeli salad and barbecue chicken. After the meal, we will head toward to the San Juan Island Library presentation at 7:00 by Thor Hanson, lecturing us about berries for 2 hours.

By Grace Davis, Jeremy Davis, Faith Jayaram, and Tony Yuan To

Today we had the oppurtunity to work with composer Alex Shapiro in bioacoustics. While traveling around San Juan Island, we took field recordings and wrote about the myriad of noises that were present. The roar of a ferry, the soothing crash of waves, the sweet melody of birdsong–we were surrounded by the sound of our environment, slowing down from our usual routine. During our travels, we stopped in Friday Harbor, South Beach, and the San Juan National Forest. In each location, we made a point to individually spend some time with just the sounds of our surroundings.

When we visited a prairie, we heard crickets singing and birds chirping. However, there was one significant noise that kept appearing: planes. Derek told us that planes were constantly creating noise over the field, so the island was never left in complete silence.

By Olivia, Orly, Kalena, and Miles

“What are we doing today?”

“Is there a plan for after lunch?”

The morning began in a blur of uncertainty as no one had yet put the schedule on the board. In fact, it wasn’t until after breakfast when wake up time was written out. No matter, most students went up to bed for a quick nap before our first activity: Scientific sketching.

The classroom was filled with self deprecating jokes and uncomfortable laughter as our inner critics came at us full force. Task one: Look at the animal in the picture and draw what you see without looking at what your pencil is doing. The exercise was intended to improve the way we look at detail, not hone our artistic talents. Nevertheless, it was the state of quality that made its way into side conversations. Task two: vectors. In order to draw scientifically, the measurements need to be correct enough in order to classify the organism. Artistic skill is unimportant as long as details and measurements are as exact as they can be. Our wonderful teacher Anna taught us about that.

Our morning sketch sesh eventually deteriorated a half hour before lunch, giving us time to work on personal research. Many students used their time wisely; studying in the common room or in their dorms. Others used this opportunity for self care: a quick nap, taking time to read their favorite book, and catch up with friends and family back home.

After weeks of go go go, many students here at Salish Seas needed a day to themselves. Therefore, after much confusion over plans, we broke up into groups: students who wanted to stay in the dorms/around town were permitted to, while others who wished to explore, experiment and/or record data for personal projects went with Derek to Deadman’s bay. (look up the meaning of the name if you dare, I personally don’t recommend it)

The few people the ended up going to Deadman’s bay did all kinds of different things. Some of us ran our experiments for our projects and others explored the tidepools. For their projects, Jeremy looked for oyster catchers and Camden and Ayla attempted to begin taking water samples. Sadly, the birds were nowhere to be found and the batteries to a YSI (a machine used to find dissolved oxygen, pH, etc.) didn’t work. Though our group faced a few shortcomings, we were still able to find interesting organisms. Harris caught a small sculpin on his fishing rod and while hiking, Leighna and Jeremy found a seal (it was sadly dead, but still interesting). We also found a sea lemon, which is a yellow nudibranch with spots. The eight of us were glad we could get out of Spring Street and enjoy the nice weather.

Everyone who stayed ‘home’ (in the dorms) got free range of the town if they chose to, and hours of time to relax however they needed to. I know of a few who took naps during this time (we’re all obviously very tired) and others who decided to go into town mostly gravitated to a coffee shop for a fresh studying environment.

Everyone regrouped before dinner to welcome our guest, Morgan Eisenlord, and her research helpers Maya and Liv. Eisenlord is currently focusing on wasting disease in eelgrass, and gave us a fascinating lecture afterwords on it. She explained that the Wasting Disease pathogen had an average of 80% prevalence between all 16 sites sampled. This particular pathogen eats the chloroplasts in eelgrass, making it hard for the eelgrass to photosynthesize properly. We are all very excited for our upcoming work in the field with Eisenlord!

It felt wonderful to crawl into our comfy beds after the first sunny day, all dreaming of our exciting research projects to come.