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.
Bea adding to the score board after an intense round of guess that fish
After that, we went to Eagle Cove for a dip in the ocean.
The crew at Eagle cove scaling the rocks
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!
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.
Emma dissecting a green urchin. Pictured by TommyFinlee dissecting. a green urchin and Maddie happily watching. Pictured by Emma.The urchin squad ! (Hannah snuck in after spending the day working with Dr. Swalla) (taken by Bea !!)
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.
Getting hyped for bowling, absolutely slaying bowling, and some cute bowling shoes in fantastic lighting (taken by Hannah)
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.
The hike at the land bank!
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.
Us playing volleyball at Jackson’s beach
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.
Today most of us got to sleep in till 9, with a select few getting an early morning at the Friday Harbor Labs. We quickly ate breakfast, excited to make our way to the farmers market and feast our eyes on the array of hand made crafts, sweet smelling pastries, and locally grown berries. After a few hours of shopping and enjoying the local island life we made our way back to Spring Street for lunch before heading out to the secret lake spot with an awesome rope swing. Everyone chose a unique way to enter the water, some with a better form with others, luckily there were no concussions. While we were enjoying our time out in nature, Hannah and Phillip were having a blast in lab 10 where they got to inject embryos with B. J. Swalla. We are soon going to be having dinner with Dr. Daniel Geldof.
The lake where we swam today
Philip, at Friday Harbor Labs
An embryo I guess?, Hannah said to add it
(Hannah here, it’s an ascidian embryo Philip and I fertilized today with Dr. B.J Swalla !!)
Day 1 (part 1): It was a long journey for most of us today. I had previously come to Seattle on a 15-hour flight, but despite this, it was an amazing car drive to the ferry. It was so interesting to meet everyone and learn more about their interests and backgrounds (even though it was a bit cramped). We made it to the dorms at around 8:00 p.m. and had a lovely dinner. The pizza was delicious.
– Vedha
Day 1 (part 2): On the other end, I had a quite peaceful day today. Arriving on the Island early and getting lunch at a sandwich shop before dropping my things off at Spring Street School and decorating my room that would be my new home for the next 4 weeks. I was excited to meet everyone and enjoyed our first dinner together as the Salish Sea School family.
– Olivia
Day 2: Today we woke up early to start our day, had a fantastic breakfast, and completed a quick town photo safari to get familiar with the island. The Americans (us) won! the other teams were T.M.I, Sharks, Patriots and CCP. We then quickly packed our lunches and visited the tidal zones! It was so interesting; we were particularly fascinated by the egg yolk jellyfish (it was poisonous). We saw numerous anemones, shrimps, sponges, starfish, sea cucumbers, crabs, limpets, and algae gracefully swaying in the tide pools. We all learned about the littoral zone, cnidarian species, sessile animals, and bivalve species. We learned all this through a fun game of Intertidal Bingo!
Creatures in the tide pool – Shrimp shown in the rightmost picture
Scenic trail and stunning Egg yolk jelly gracefully dancing in the waves
We are now going to enjoy delicious baked potatoes with our guest speaker, Dr. Cassandra Donatelli, who is a very talented Ichthyologist who completed her Ph.D. at Tufts University and is currently an assistant professor at the Fowler School of Engineering. Her research focuses on biomechanics and bioinspired design using fish as a model group.
