By Elspeth with Denny, William and Jonathan

Happy late 4th of July! Today, Salish Sea Sciences took a step back from the science once again to enjoy the holiday. We slept in until 8, and finished eating breakfast and getting ready just in time for the San Juan Island 4th of July Parade. Everyone was excited, and it very much lived up to our expectations. All of the floats were wonderful, but the pirate float was a particular favorite.

After the parade, we had lunch at the fairgrounds. There were pulled pork sandwiches and hotdogs along with chips and coleslaw, and the proceeds went to the Kiwanis club. We spent some time watching the games and hanging out before we headed back to the dorms once again to regroup. Soon after that, we all drove to Roche Harbor to see the log rolling competition and have more time off. There were a lot of people, but we managed to find a good spot to watch the competitions. We also found some time to sneak science in when we observed the organisms living on the Roche Harbor docks and compared them to the ones in Friday Harbor. It seemed that the organisms on the docks in Friday Harbor were bigger compared to the ones in Roche, but we’d have to find more data to actually prove it one way or another. Right before we left, we noticed some old generators and went to take a look. The people in charge of them were very nice. They explained how they worked and let us help to get them running. 

We returned back to the dorms to eat dinner and blog before we left for the fireworks show. It was a very impressive end to a very celebratory day.

Today we took a chill pill and relaxed to the sound of the rain and thunder. Derek came over and we discussed the data collecting we’ve done in the field over the past week, from False Bay to Mount Grant. In addition, he also helped us understand the process by which one should conduct an experiment. As lunch arrived, we worked on writing up our observations, questions, and hypotheses for our upcoming projects. Alex helped us organize our thoughts and gave us helpful examples of how to write them. The rest of the afternoon was spent playing chess, walking into town, attempting to figure out how to play battleship, and discussing the means of actually carrying out our various projects. It was a much needed rest day after a busy week post kayaking trip, and we were all better off for taking it.

By Henry, Samuel and, Eliza

Today the Salish Sea Science crew took a boat trip on the Regina to Yellow Island. In order to help reduce the boat’s weight we voyaged to the island in two separate groups with the second group also getting the chance to explore the incredible biodiversity of life on Friday Harbor’s docks including towering tube worms and dazzling decorator crabs . When we arrived we were greeted by the Steward of the island Matt. He guided us to the tidepools we would later explore. Then after a brief break for lunch and a talk from Matt about the Coast-Salish people’s relationship with Yellow island, our group gathered and went to the tide pools. We spent time bounding across the stones in search of starfish. We found individuals of multiple species including Pisaster Ochraceus stars in both their juvenile and adult forms with almost all of them being of the purple color morph, and Dermasterias Imbricata stars. However, we only found about ten sea stars in the intertidal area we were tasked with searching, although the adventure was still fun. The trip back to San Juan Island was done with everyone in one group on the boat. Some of us were a little anxious about the boat’s stability with all of us on it at the same time. Luckly, it all turned out A-okay and we made it safely back to shore. We then ended the day with music from a rolling stones cover band and a pizza dinner.

By Denny Bromley, with Elspeth, William, and Jonathan

Today, on the first day of July, the students of Salish Sea Sciences practiced their inner poet and tested their endurance on two hikes.

After the usual breakfast (no more birthdays) students practiced writing poetry outside. The poems could be about anything and had no required structure. Many students wrote about nature, but many students also wrote deep reflections on power and the ease of abusing it. Ian’s poem, “Grassy”, was highly intellectual and incredibly sophisticated prose about “that stupid thing that won’t go away”. Later, some of these poems were shared in a circle.

After poetry, students embarked on a hike to climb Mt. Grant, a local biopreserve. As far as mountains go, this was a bit close to a steep hill, but it still had a lovely view at the summit. Many islands and the ocean were visible over a beautiful canopy of evergreens covering the mountain’s slopes. The hike up took a journey through gorgeous old-growth forests, and Shauna (our guide at the time) showed us how to read the landscape and to see how environmental sustainment had impacted the forests. Later, students went on another hike around Lake Zylstra, a manmade lake in the center of the island. We counted birds and enjoyed the scenic views as we did a full loop of the lake.

Our day started off with a leisurely sleep in and then breakfast before our taxonomy lesson with Alex McIntire, who is completing his major in marine biology with a minor in chemistry at Oregon State University, in the science room on campus. After learning a bit about taxonomy, we then set out to look at the eelgrass beds on Fourth of July Beach. There, we took measurements using transects and quadrants to determine both the number of plants in one square meter as well as the amount of epiphytes growing along the blades of the grasses. We found a number of Hooded Nudibranchs and some juvenile Dungeness crabs as we wandered. Alex provided us with a wealth of information about the importance of eelgrass in the ecosystem, acting as both a nursery for fishes and a filter for toxins that have been introduced to the ecosystem. They are a welcome home for epiphytes which grow on the blades, blocking out sunlight are a nuisance to the plants. Recently eelgrass has come under threat by diseases that blacken the leaves and kill the plants. After wandering the mud flats, we loaded back into our van and drove to the local fairgrounds where a small competition was being held. We each tried to build our best edible coral reef out of candy. Congratulations to Henry who got the prize for worst reef.

by Eliza and Henry and Samuel

Is this the krusty krab? No, this is Patrick! Today, Salish Sea students were guided today by Alex McIntire, a college senior working his marine biology major degree along with a minor in chemistry at Oregon State University, who also happens to be a San Juan local. We loaded up in the van after a delicious pancake breakfast made for Sarah’s birthday courtesy of Henry. made our way to the rocky tidepools at Reuben Tarte. There, we searched for a variety of different sea star species. Their stleather, purple ochre, and blood sea stars scattered around the multiple tidepools. We then proceeded to tally up the sea stars we found and take photos of them, cataloging the species for future ID. Once we had a good l on the number of sea stars in the area, we tested the pH of the ocean and tidepools. We learned from Alex that the open ocean has an average pH of around 8.1 but here in the Salish sea our waters are more acidic with a pH of 7.8 since the Salish sea is more enclosed and thus experinces less water exchange which leads to higher pH. However, our pH test showed the water as extremely acidic with a pH of around 6.4 in the ocean and 6.2 in the tide pools! Luckly it was our pH test strips that were damaged not our ocean which just goes to show the importance of having the right tools for the job when it comes to science. Monitoring the sea star population is an important task as many star populations have been dramatically reduced by Sea star wasting disease has managed to drastically decrease our sea star population over the years, causing their tissue to decay until they eventually die. Currently, we know little about how sea stars contract, carry, and spread this disease so students had to be very vigilant about not touching any of the stars as to not transfer the illness from sick stars to healthy ones.

After the tidepools we headed back to the dorms and pooled our data on water temperatures along with starfish populations. That evening Samuel and Elsbeth finished the Birthday cake and cupcakes which we had after our tostada diner.