Daily Archives: July 17, 2023

Lugworms with Tim Dwyer at False Bay

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Greetings!

Today the Salish Sea Sailors (unofficial official team name (even though we don’t sail)) got up to some worm hunting at False Bay with our previous dinner guest, and renowned scientist Tim Dwyer.

At False Bay, we ran an experiment tofind the preferred habitats of lugworms, a type of polychaete worm. By haphazardly throwing quadrats around the beach, we got a good idea of the average population statistics in the near-shore area and the area closer to the land. We also had a team digging for worms to gain an understanding of the actual number of worms relative to the number of burrows. We discovered that there was a vast difference in the number of worms further inland vs. further out in the tide.

This is a lugworm. Head is to the top left and anus is the lower right. Since these worms clean the sand they ingest of bacteria and nutrients, their “fecal casts” contain cleaner sand then what is around them!

After checking on Adam’s (one of our two science directors) ongoing eelgrass restoration project, we had a little bit of exploring time. Many bubble snails made it to our hands, and under our feet. Don’t worry everyone, there is certainly not a lack of them there.

Tommy effortlessly demonstrating the scientific technique of this delicate process: Scientifically throw quadrat, count amount of fecal casts next to a burrow. Repeat x50.
Birds of feather flock through mudflats together (photo creds to Hannah+Emma)

When we got back to the dorms, we had lunch and a poster workshop for our future presentations. Next was project work time, and we split up, with some students going to Friday Habor labs to further gather information for their studies, and some staying back at the dorms to do more research.

There will be no guest tonight, as it is Thanksgiving. (That is not the actual reason, we just don’t have a guest. However we have still decided that today is Thanksgiving.) We wish you happy holidays! Christmas is only 4 days away. (Can you believe it??)

Thanksgiving:

Our dinner tonight consisted of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, consisting of mached potatoes, beans, salad, stuffing, and of course, turkey. Before we dug in, we had to grab some photos outside of our amazing dinner fits, and giving thanks at the table before we continued the feasting.

All of the Salish Sailors posing for a photo. Someone(Leo) decided it would be a good idea to look straight into the sun, hence the various faces!
We’re actually the coolest people around, and totally not a whole bunch of nerds (photo cred to Barrie !)
Quick flick with the CCCCC (Crazy Cwuirky Cool Crab Club), nothing but dapper for the commencing Thanksgiving feast.

Signing off – Leo (AKA The Wall AKA California gurl AKA Ryan G), Finlee (AKA Finland), and James (AKA The Mountain)

Fish Finding and American Camp

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Welcome back to the blog! Today we started the day off early in an attempt to locate the Rockhead Poacher at Deadmans Bay’s intertidal zone. We assisted ichthyologist, Daniel Geldof in finding his research project about this specific type of Poacher and their oddly shaped head. The first step of this process was emptying the water out of two specific tidal pools. To achieve this, we used numerous buckets by passing up and down the intertidal zone. After this long process we were left with the different types of creatures that inhabited these pools, making it easier to catch them with nets. After many scrapes and falls we finally finished the grueling task with absolutely no poachers, but we did find other species of marine creatures. Even though we didn’t succeed, we still had a great time exploring the intertidal zone.

Pictured is a pacific blood star in one of the tidal pools. Picture taken by Maddie
Pictured are the fish we caught in our nets from the tidal pools. Most were released back while some were kept for furth research back at the labs. Picture taken by Maddie.

After a good lunch it was time to go for a little hike at the well known historical park, American Camp. With the help of multiple signs and our personal tour guide Ms. Bea, we were able to grasp the captivating history. The American Camp was inhabited by US soldiers back in 1850s in order to stake out the land and sea from above. With little interaction from others they ultimately decided to abandon the camp, leaving it’s ruins for curious tourists to observe centuries later.

Pictured here is Tommy, and behind him the gorgeous panoramic view of the mountains across the water. Picture taken by Maddie.

Our first stop of the journey was the town, where only two of the houses remained. After little history talk we ventured more into the settlement being able to view the water from all sides.

Pictured is the view from the ruins of the houses left from the American camp. Picture taken by Maddie

We made our way to the rocky cliffs where we were able to climb and explore the terrain before heading down the the beach. We played in the sand and water along with climbing the near by rocks.

Soon it was time to depart dragging ourselves back up the hill towards the van. Finally we got back to the dorms preparing for the night ahead with our special guest, Mr.Tim Dwyer who was the previous director of Salish Sea Science Program. Tim gave us a an in depth lecture on his experiences in Antarctica specifically on gigantism in marine arthropods. Some of his amazing work has been published in National Geographic. He is also a science teacher at the local high school here. We thoroughly enjoyed his talk due to how interesting the diversity of the marine environment in Antarctica can be. After he left, everyone was convinced that they wanted to live there. Later we all decided to go play volleyball to finish off the day. Signing off for now!

The Salish Sailors (written by Maddie, Ingrid, and Tommy)