By – Nicholas, Kalena, and Devika

Today, Derek taught us about Ecology. Ecology may seem to be a simple word. In reality, it means: the study of the distribution and abundance of organisms and the processes that shape patterns. Whew, that’s a mouthful. Ecology uses measures of Biodiversity to determine how diverse an ecosystem is. Two of theses measures are Species Richness and Species Abundance, or Shannon Diversity. After a few hours explaining how ecologists determined, interpreted and presented their data, we headed over to the Friday Harbor Farmers’ Market.

The market was filled with people. Numerous shops were already open and the small square was packed with shoppers. The shops ranged from hand-made jewelry to baked goods to shaved ice. Camden and Jeremy were very excited about their loaf of bread they had bought after seeing other Salish Sea students chowing down on their own loaves. Although the Farmers’ Market was small, there was still a lot to explore and observe.

Soon, we had to return to the dormitory for lunch and wished Camden happy birthday. We got Camden a cake and a few presents. Soon we started to prepare for our costumes. You might be asking yourself, “why on earth would you need costumes? You are up-and-coming scientists what would a costume do for you?” The answer is: quite a lot. Around this time of year, many graduate students from Friday Harbor Labs will come together for an Invertebrate Ball. They dress up as different invertebrates, ranging from lobsters to jellyfish. This year, Salish Seas had the honer of being invited to this ball, and we spent the entire afternoon preparing our costumes.

To get the materials we needed in our costumes, all the students traveled to two thrift stores allowing us to reuse materials. Our first stop, Community Treasures, was filled with used barbecues, lamps, sports equipment, clothes, toys, books, etc. Most of which was bought by use for our “shells” and as a frame for our costumes. For us, lampshades were a la mode, and the majority of our class ended up purchasing some. Once everyone had chosen their preferred items, we traveled to Friday Harbor Fire Department Thrift House. There, we had a larger selection of clothes. After a fun time attempting to convince Ezra should wear ridiculously colorful clothing to complete his mantis shrimp costume, we left and returned to the dorms to assemble our costumes.

Devika and Kalena both decided to go as anemones and their costumes were very well designed. Miles and I, on the other hand, opted for a more simple, yet reliable approach. Since Derek mentioned how many species of invertebrates are undiscovered, I decided to go as a species that hasn’t been discovered yet. I taped a question mark on a black shirt. Bingo! Costume! Miles decided to be a bacteria, so he taped green paper cutouts on one of his green coat to create the costume. Faith, Olivia, Zoe, Ella, Ayla, and Orly decided to go as jellyfish, while Grace and Leighna dressed up as mossy chitons. Jeremy was coral, while Camden went as a barnacle. Ben and Ezra stuck with a crustacean theme and went as a crab and a mantis shrimp while Anna, Derek and Tony created costumes for nudibranchs. Finally, Harris was an urchin. With our costumes prepared we sat down for dinner.

The Invertebrate Ball was a new and interesting experience for all of us. We played pool and danced to the horrible music. After eating all of the available gummy worms, many of us entered the costume contest. Towards the end of the night we eagerly awaited the results. None. Of. Us. Won. OUTRAGEOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!