The crew had plenty of time to sleep in today before we came together in the science room to embark on a call with Tim Dwyer, video engineer, and Megan Cook, communications lead and co-expedition lead and both Friday Harbor natives. They are currently working on the E/V Nautilus in the Johnston Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, about nine hundred nautical miles west southwest of Hawaii. The crew’s mission is to map and explore previously uncharted sections of the sea floor, and to take samples along the way. They spoke to us about the crew shifts, the marine life they are encountering on the seafloor, and we had the exciting experience of getting to watch the recovery of their two ROVs, Atalanta and Hercules. We had the opportunity to ask questions about their life at sea, what led them to the Nautilus, and how samples are collected remotely. After our meeting, we headed down to the Port of Friday Harbor where we completed a taxonomy activity and viewed the giant plumose anemones growing on the docks. We enjoyed poking our heads under the docks and pointing out decorator crabs, sculpins, and green sea urchins.

By Oscar and Samuel

This morning we created our project proposals based on the hypotheses each of us devised on Sunday.  In addition to our original hypothesis and question we also added a materials list, a list of the locations each of us needed to visit for our projects, a procedure (how we’re doing our projects), an explanation of why our project mattered and how our project could be scaled and continued. After we each got our proposals checked off we ate lunch and figured out where we’d be going in the afternoon. After lunch, we packed our bags and ourselves into the van and headed off to Cattle Point on the south side of the island with Alex and Ayla. As we journeyed to the water’s edge we were amazed to see that it was crystal clear, this allowed us to see the shallows of the subtidal zone in addition to the intertidal which is generally what we see when tidepooling. We spent time scrambling the rocks and searching through the shallows for creatures. We found an abundance of animals including purple shore crabs crawling through cracks in the cliff side, aggregating anemones overflowing the tidepools and goose necked barnacles with their necks stretched up high. Some of us also saw people seining (running a small trawl along the seafloor for the purpose of research) and asked them about it. We also saw some spectacular bald eagles in addition to hearing the steller sea lion’s incredible call from a small island in  the distance. When we got back to the dorms we were given some time to unwind and relax before evening chores began.