By Millie and Una

Hello Blog! What’s your favorite Cnidarian species? Ours may just be the stubby sea anemone we saw at Deadman’s Bay. In order to reach the fantastically biodiverse tide pools of Deadman’s Bay, we all hopped into the van after an 8 am wake-up. Then, we had to traverse the pebble beach, which proved treacherous for our Keene-wearing comrades. FOOLS! But the tidepools were worth every pebble-in-shoe situation. Highlights include a massive sea cucumber and a gumboot chiton (“surprisingly fleshy!” remarked Isabella. Indeed it was.). We learned some important new vocab via Intertidal Bingo. Did you know that segmented worms are Annelid Species? Caleb didn’t. I didn’t either, actually.

We then indulged in our packed lunches. My bagel was vastly improved by the sea cucumber residue lingering on my fingers. Yummy! Then we killed some time: those experiencing Ultimate Frisbee withdrawal tossed around sandwich containers, and others searched for excellent rocks (pictured below). After a discussion about the biotic and abiotic factors (spoiler alert: everything is a factor and everything affects everything!), we headed home because our disoriented minds needed orienting!! 

After orientation followed by 15 minutes of rest, our counselors Adam and Bea called us down for a scavenger hunt. We would have an hour and a half to explore the entire town! We were paired up in our assigned groups and off we went! There were crazy tasks. Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a room, a rubber room. A rubber room with rats. And rats make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once.

Some of the tasks included taking photos next to an ATM, a photo of us petting a dog, and even attempting a handstand. They were worth different amounts of points, and points would be counted up at the end. The team with the most points would win a prize!!! Unfortunately, my team, “Team Won”, did not in fact win. But team “Popeye” won with an all-time record of 480 points.

We will see you soon! Hopefully tomorrow we will not get the insides of our boots wet when we go find eelgrass seeds. Bye!

Hello everyone, Leo here. I have directed this for the eyes of my fellow Salish Sea Sailors, but it should work just fine for anyone reading.

I do not think words can describe the new experiences that this camp has given me. To say you all are amazing is the understatement of the year, because you are all truly unique and unforgettabel individuals, and I love every single one of you, and miss you guys already.

Being able to laugh, bond, and eventually cry with you all, has made me feel more like you are family than friends. I will try my best to keep in touch with al of you, and hang out with those that are near.

It is 6:15 pm, so you know what that means!

My rose for this trip was being with you all. EG: When some of us found a place to sit and relax, talking or in silence, until the sun set and Adam and Bea were questioning what we might have been getting ourselves into. Camping and Kayaking: We had little access to our phones, some more than others ;), and it really forced us to bond together, and really demonstrated Philip’s philosophical prowess at the dinner table. Cards against humanity, and realizing that a 14 year old knows a few more terms than some of us could have imagined, while others read the cards confused while we all cackled. Our science directors, and getting to know them more like friends and other siblings than like people who made our amazing schedule. Thanksgiving dinner: We all shuttled out in our most dapper, spiffy fits to show our appreciation for eachother, and how we were nothing but absolutely busting with excitement. Night lighting with all of you: Seeing the defense mechanism for a segmented worm first hand, at the hands of James The Mountain himself. I loved how much I laughed, talked, smiled, explored, wondered, and discovered with all of you at my side, and my side at yours.

Hypothetically I would stay up for hours with you, talking about the most random ideas that comes across my mind. This trip was a first time for many things. I saw the milky way, and many shooting stars, in which I would wish for more time with us together. If there was any hopoe that a dream could work out like that, it is all I would ever wish for.

I will be posting the soundtrack on Spotify soon! I just need to polish a few thhings, but the video will stay as it is. I hope you remember these memories along to the sweet sway of the guitar. What I like to do is usually listen to one, or a few songs with every new lasting experience in my life, so that if I listen to it enough, it will become the feeling of those memories. Feel free to try it with that as you repeat the video.

My thorn, was this morning. It seems I can’t get a certain weight out of my chest, as if with each hug you all gave me a piece of yourself that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. Seeing you all go made me very emotional, as is this writing. With so little thorns over the course of the trip, I feel like this was the biggest.

My bud, is keeping in touch with you all. I cannot wait to keep in touch with you guys, telling you all abuot my roses, thorns, and buds in the future when I feel down, or reflective.

Below I have attached photos, chronological to the best of my ability. Scroll through! Take yourself back to the beginning of July 2nd.

Hey yall, thank you again. Is there much more to be said? You all know the drill. We got wet for science.

Signing off, Leo Wall (AKA California Gurl, AKA The Wall, AKA Ryan G)

Love you all <3

Hey Blog! Welcome back to another post. We started off the day with a 7 am wake up followed by project work. As we finish up our projects, I can’t help but feel like it’s the end of a journey. We’ve all learned so much in this camp and have made so many good friends along the way. As Philip likes to say, “Perhaps the real journey is the friends we made along the way”. Anyways, after a period of work time we decided to go out on this fine afternoon for lunch to enjoy our last few days as a group. Soon after we ate lunch it was time to head to the Friday Harbor Labs to go dock jumping. A couple of jumps and dives later we were all tired and ready to head back. As we were walking back to the van we decided to head to the stock room on last time to buy some apparel. When we got back, we had a chill and relaxed couple of hours before we headed out to south beach for dessert. Instead of the dessert, people were more interested in exploring and watching the sunset go down. Collectively, lots of us thought that this was the best part of the program due to it being one of the last times we would all be together.

After the sunset we all decided it was time to head back to go night lighting at the FHL docks. We saw a lot of jellyfish, polychaetes, and other fish swimming around in the night. Something else that a lot of people got to see was the bioluminescence in the water due to the plankton.

Finally it was time go back to the dorms and head to bed for a late wake up.

Signing off for now! the Salish Sailors

By: Vedha, Olivia and Max

Today we woke up early at 7 to get a productive start on the day and our projects; as Bea said, today was our Project Marathon Day. We quickly ate breakfast before getting started on our projects. We started to feel the pressure, but we had help and suggestions from Bea and Adam, which greatly helped reduce our worries. After Tom Grauman, one of the founders of Salish Sea Sciences and an acclaimed photographer, gave us a talk on fish, art, and technology, we began a fierce fish quiz, which ended with all three teams tying.

After that, we went to Eagle Cove for a dip in the ocean.

We will soon have an oyster and spaghetti dinner, followed by more work devoted to projects with the goal of getting them done by tomorrow. Wish us luck and we hope to see some of you at our pilot presentations!

Today was a pretty chill day for the students of Salish Sea Sciences. The day began with a leisurely wakeup after an action-packed weekend. The only exception to this being Hannah and Olivia who both woke up at 6:30 to head to Friday Harbor Laboratories. Those of us who slept in went to depart for a tour of the oyster farm over in Westcott Bay.

The tour proved to be very informative as we learned about the methods of growing oysters up in the Salish Sea. Two main varieties are grown in the Salish Sea, the native Olympia Oyster, and the Pacific Oyster (introduced from Japan). A fascinating aspect of oyster growing is the number of ecological factors which must be monitored and considered for the best growth. Oyster harvests can easily be ruined by heat waves, chemicals in the water, and bacterial outbreaks. Since oysters filter the water, it’s very easy for them to accumulate toxins and bacteria from the water within their bodies. While it may not harm them, it can be very bad for human consumption. As such the Westcott Bay company works hard to communicate with scientists and conservationists as they grow their oysters. As a special bonus one Max Mittleman managed to bargain for 2 dozen free oysters which we enjoyed tonight.

Apart from the oyster dock, the day was more or less just more project grinding as most of us finished our data collection. A bunch of us went on a fun walk along the marina despite the drizzly weather, no doubt annoying countless locals as we hung over the side of the docks and yelled about all the cool critters that were everywhere. Tommy’s jellyfish refused to bioluminescence, most of my sand dollar larvae died, and Ethan’s bubble snails died by the dozen. Algae are rotting, and the science room on the property is becoming more like a morgue than a lab. It’s crunch time here at Salish Sea Sciences as we all ready ourselves for some excellent presentations. Perhaps the real work was not the projects we are making, but the friends we made along the way.

Signing off for now,

The Supremely Scientific Students of Salish Sea Sciences

This morning, we started off the day slow and steady with a cheeky 9:00 AM wakeup, followed by lots of time to work on our rapidly approaching projects. Most people made solid progress on their projects, and by the time our project time was over, we had to pack our lunch as we were off to Mount Grant. Mount Grant is a beautiful mountain owned by the Land Bank Trust, filled with stunning scenery looking over San Juan Island and Vancouver Island. We had around an hour at Mount Grant, before we decided to split up. Some of us decided to head down to various spots across the island for more data collection, while the rest of us headed on down to Jackson’s Beach for a quick dip and a joyous round of beach volleyball. Today’s round of volleyball was chock full of ups and downs; incredible rallies, missed serves, and crazy hits from our star player Philip Yohan “6’2” Miller. Nonetheless, it was a fun time for all who attended. We decided to have an early and casual dinner, consisting of no name tags, brilliant pizza cooked by our very own Barrie, and Tommy being judged by Emma for eating ranch with his pizza. Because we finished dinner early, we were able to make it 30 minutes early to an outdoor viewing of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.” Since we were so early, we decided to frolic in the nearby garden for a little while. While the garden was beautiful, the main attraction was truly the play itself. The play was filled with laughs, fun, tragedy, romance, and even deep wisdom. Though we will depart back to our homes soon, we will leave you all with this insight. As Malvolio once said, “some are born with greatness, some achieve it, and others have greatness thrust upon them.”

Signing off for now,
The Salish Sailors

The holidays have arrived! Today the Salish Sea Sailors embarked on a scenic adventure to the San Juan Island lavendar farm. At location, there was quite a bit of frolicking, jaunting, and strolling about the flowers and the bees. Many sights were to be had. Finlee got stung by a bee.

Aside from the farm, the Sailors also visited Community Treasures, a second hand store near Roche Harbor. At said thrift, many interesting pieces of clothing, accesorries, and undergarments were found, and some bought! (not the underwear though, that’s gross). The thrifting was in preparation for our own joy and tonight’s dinner theme: Barbie. With the new Barbie movie out, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, we decided that the best way to show our appreciation was to have the selected dinner theme. This is the second best option to watching the movie because, as it turns out, the local movie theatre is under construction.

A lot of project time was put to good use today. Many went to Friday Harbor labs, local beaches, or stayed home. Emma patch tested her Fucus (Rockweed) gel samples on various “volunteers” and also used aloe vera as a comparison.

To add on, tonight we had our second presentation night! Some highlights included: The migratory patterns and living habitat of bagels native to North America, our campers as clash royale characters, soaps, fish, and why uncle Iroh from Avatar: The Last Airbender, is the best anime character to exist.

Another great day with the gang. – Salish Sea Sailors OUT (peace)

(plus photos by Hannah !!)

Hey blog, welcome back to another post. Starting off today we had SoundWatch come in and talk about their goal of the program. The goal that they have in mind is to protect and conserve the marine mammal population around the Salish Sea. After some project work time we all headed to the Friday Harbor Labs to watch and perform a urchin dissection. After Rachel, a undergrad working at the FHL gave us a quick demonstration we started the dissection process.

Following a messy and long process we collected the lantern (mouth) and the spines for further research. Next we headed back to the dorms for lots of free time. With Christmas coming early everyone did their secret Santa shopping through out the town of Friday Harbor. Later in the evening the whole group collectively decided that we wanted to spend the rest of the night bowling.With Leo coming in first overall and Tommy’s crazy trick shot we all had a delightful bowling experience. With the bowling alley so close to us, we all walked back to the dorms to indulge in ice cream and some TV. That’s all for now! Till next time. Signing off for now Salish Sailors.

Vedha,Olivia and Max

Today was our first day in a while not focused solely on projects. We got to sleep in a bit (very refreshing) after which we had a discussion on colleges with Caroline, who has taught at Columbia and Princeton and got her graduate degree at London School of Economics (We had a certified college counselor working alongside us all along and we had no clue!), before being taught about scientific statistics by Dr. Lundquist, a scientist who recieved her PHD from SIO and studies the patterns of weather and fog as well as how they affect organisms in the intertidal. She is currently an associate professor at University of Washington. We learned about the application of the Normal Distribution with some helpful graphs to clarify. She taught us about the importance of understanding statistics for yourself, and not relying solely on programs like R to help analyse your data.

After that we went on a fun (and highly educational) hike at the Land Bank with Shauna Barrows, who is a field assistant who works on conservation and ecology with the Land Bank. We learned about the origin of the Zylstra lake as well as its important characteristics such as toxic algae, being a home for eagles as well for the marble butterflies.

After all that we took a refreshing dip in the ocean, and played volleyball at the beach. Adam even joined in!

Tonight, Dr. Crofts (who received her PHD at University of Washington, and is at FHL studying biomechanics as well as the evolution and function of specialized morphologies for the summer, but is an associate professor at Holy Cross College) gave a talk on Comparative Biomechanics, and we will be doing urchin dissection with her and Rachel Haughton to determine the effects of an incredibly acidic seaweed on the internal structures of green urchins.

Warning !! The harbor seal photos are, as the last necropsy was, relatively gory, and not for the fainthearted !!

Hello again everyone, It’s the Students of Salish Sea Sciences returning with a brand new blog post! Today we once again partook in a wide variety of somewhat random activities. As usual, our day began with waking up (recommended at least once a day). After waking up and munching on a nice breakfast, we all departed for Friday Harbor Labs to watch a necropsy. As some of our faithful readers may recall we already observed a harbor porpoise necropsy. Today we watched another marine mammal get cut open. Instead of observing a harbor porpoise this time, we watched a harbor seal. While it was undoubtedly cool, most of us concluded that it was kind of underwhelming compared to the porpoise.

Most of our day thereafter was devoted to collecting project samples and developing our own research. Cassandra from the fish lab came by for an hour to try (and mostly fail) to teach us how to use data software, which left most of us exhausted, close to tears, and overwhelmingly confident we weren’t going to major in computer sciences. Hannah spent her day fertilizing and observing more Ascidian embryos, Maddie collected water samples, Ethan set up snail habitats and Emma cooked seaweed into a delectable concoction. Many other project activities occurred as everyone was hard at work.

Nothing terribly noteworthy happened (other than a brief thrifting expedition) until dinner time rolled around. We were joined by Ms. Shauna Barrows, a field assistant for San Juan County Land Bank, an organization devoted to protecting vast swaths of land for conservation and various ecological purposes. It was a very interesting talk that took a more political perspective and diverged from our usual scientific talks.

In summary, today was another stellar day in which we engaged in very fun activities and greatly furthered our projects. Moreover, we had a fantastic speaker and even got to thrift some clothes to wear to the Barbie movie. Welp, signing off for now,

The Students of Salish Sea Sciences