Hey Blog! 

Welcome back to the S(l)a(y)lish Sea Sciences blog written by the amazing group of two: Una and Millie! This morning, a few of us stopped in town for coffee. We went to The Crow’s Nest! I ordered a pistachio rose latte, which I thought would be more floral-y and nutty but it wasn’t, and ended up just tasting like a latte. Props to the barista: she worked like a pro, making 4 different drinks all at once.

After working on our projects for 30 minutes, we went to a local high school to finish up what we did yesterday: PCR for the Invasive Mussel Project! After working carefully to measure out PCR cocktails with micropipettes, letting our PCR tubes run through the thermocycler, and setting up our gel electrophoresis, we waited excitedly to see the results. We expected some cute glowing lines demonstrating gene sequence length that would allow us to determine the mussels’ species when compared to the DNA marker. Instead, we got nothing at all! Other than the important life lesson that science can be frustrating and disappointing, I guess. Sam Garson, who was directing us, guessed that the issue was something that unfortunately we do not remember.

Our guest speakers, Sofia Denkovski and Erin Casellas from Soundwatch, came in at 3 o’clock and talked about Orcas! Specifically near the Salish Seas. They first talked about the different marine mammals in the Salish Seas, then went on to the scientific names of different whales, then talked about Orca identification. We did a fun game of Orca ID, identifying different orcas based on their saddle patches and dorsal fins. We learned that each saddle patch on an orca is like a fingerprint to a human–none of them share the same one.

After the informative presentation, Adam drove all of us down to South Beach. We watched the sunset, ate pie (the rhubarb pie was so good omg??), and climbed the cliffs and logs all while the wind blew in our faces, making us chilly. We took a lot of photos and watched the sky turn indigo. It was the perfect time to reminisce about our trip and all the memories we made, since this was our second to last day.

See you all tomorrow! I can’t believe this is almost over, time flies!

By Una and Millie

Hey Blog! Did you miss us?

Since the last time we chatted, we have acquired the names of many seaweed species. Cattle Point, where we traveled today with Dr. Katie Dobkowski, is home to various species, and the Salish Sea Scientists are now fit to identify them all! After an 8:30 wakeup (more of these please!), we armed ourselves with quadrats, measuring tape, chalk, and ID cards, and set out to survey the seaweeds.

After some tripping and slipping we located the transect D marker. Our brave soldier Caleb ran out the measuring tape, staying impressively upright the whole journey. Shocking! He fell later though. We laid out the quadrats and poked around in each square, determining the approximate percent coverage of each species on the rocks. We saw lots of sea lettuce (ulva!) and rockweed (fucus distichus!).

We also found some more exciting specimens such as tasty sea grapes and petrocelis, which, while looking like spots of tar (or, in my opinion, old sidewalk gum), is actually the encrusting stage of mastocarpus. The data we collected would be used to further a 10-year-long study investigating the changing populations of seaweed on Cattle Point. 

When we returned home, we were met with a cruel reality: PROJECTS! Just kidding, they don’t sound too bad. After a bit of research on those, we rewarded ourselves with a cold swim at Jackson Beach, which feels really good after the initial blast of agonizing, aching, tingling, stabbing, crippling, paralyzing pain. We warmed back up really quickly on our barefoot run back though! We were still 10 minutes late. 

That’s all for now! See ya tomorrow. <3

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!