By Matthew

We woke up at 7:30 today, and after that, we worked on our project for the last three hours with Adam and Ani’s help. At about 11, we talked with Caroline and Tom about our project, and we showed them our posters.

After we arrived at Eagle’s Cove, everyone had lunch that they made earlier. And then some of us went to play soccer while the other ones went swimming. The water is as cold as usual, but the tide pools are warm, so some of us went to lie in the tide pools after swimming.

After a long time of swimming and soccer, Adam and some others wrote the words Salish Sea Sciences 2026 on the beach, and then we took a group photo at Eagle Cove.

After the swim, we took a quick shower. We left for Friday Harbor Lab right after that. We also went into the Friday Harbor Lab store. After that, we listened to Dr. Will Ballentine’s presentation about barnacle larvae, their spines on their body, and how they swim in the water. The presentation was very interesting, and we all enjoyed it. After the presentation, we took another group photo at the bench close to the lab; the view was beautiful.

After we went back to the dorm, we had a wonderful pizza dinner. And we had a lot of fun hanging out on the second-to-last day. And this is the end of the day.

By Isla, Alice, Cynthia, and Matthew

We started our day with a 7:00 am wake-up call and took a 20-minute van ride over to Cattle Point.

There, we met Dr. Katie Dobkowski, an associate professor at Woodbury University, and two undergraduate students studying with her. We first did a quick survey of the beach, picking up pieces of crabs and their molts.

Our next task was to contribute to a 40-year data set on differences in algae biodiversity based on distance from the water. We laid out a transect and placed quadrats every two meters.

Within the quadrats, we identified the coverage percentage of the different species of algae.

The data we collected offers a better understanding of algae population changes on the Cattle Point shore. After a couple of hours of observing and recording, we ate lunch up by the lighthouse.

Back at the lab, we revisited our fecal coliform test on the marina water. Based on the colonies that grew in our samples, we were able to determine that the water is in excellent condition.

This means that the water treatment facility in Friday Harbor is working well!

Later, we went back to the dorms to continue our individual project brainstorms.

The end!

Blog credits – Cynthia, Alice, Isla, and Addie

We had a slow start to our day, waking up to a hot breakfast at 9:30 am. The bacon and cheesy eggs boosted our morale after a long kayak the afternoon before.

To give our arms a break, we set off for a six-mile round hike. On the way to the lighthouse (our turnaround point), we stopped at the old Stuart Island school house and a museum about the island’s settlers’ history.

As we continued to the lighthouse, we saw beautiful views of the environment around us. We noticed the contrasting biodiversity between Stuart Island and San Juan Island.

At the lighthouse, we ate a fresh quinoa salad with a side of cherries, crackers, and cookies.

On our trek back, we took a different trail, walking along the beach. At the beach, we saw harbour seals hunting and river otters swimming. It was a fascinating sight! After our hike, we had free time to explore. Our guides put together a delicious charcuterie board for us.

After eating, some jumped into the ocean, and others warmed up by the fire.

Ending our day with campfire songs and cake, we went to bed at 10:30 pm for our early morning of paddling the next day.

See you tomorrow!