By Ezra, Olivia, and Orly

From the neuroscience of nudibranchs to inspection of Iceberg Point, we had a day chock-full of learning. We began the day with an early wake-up call, crawling out of bed and out onto the ferry. We traveled from our home-base on San Juan Island, using a ferry to cross Cattle Pass, and deposited our weary but excited bodies on Lopez Island.

Lopez Island is home to Iceberg Point, a maze of tide pools and bluffs, that proved ripe for exploration. Despite our planned repeat of scientific tests, the identification of animals and the lure of the low tide led our entire group, and our head scientist, to continue our exploration. We combed over the countless barnacles, mussels, sea stars, and crabs, occasionally dipping our hands into pools of freezing water to examine a sculpin or a snail. Splashing through kelp and the rising tide, we found rare sponges and the disease-ravaged ochre sea star, we recorded the movement of tide pools, and 3D modeled different species.

Afterwards, we had the good fortune to hear presentations from two renowned scientists who were presenting at Friday Harbor Laboratories, Dr. James Murray and Dr. Andreas Heyland. Dr. Heyland is a specialist in the field of environmental toxicology. He presented ro many scientists at the labs, and us, on the topic of the effects of different metals and pharmaceuticals on the lifecycle and adaption of freshwater plankton.

Dr. Murray, on the other hand, presented on the neurology of nudibranchs. Nudibranchs are mostly blind and deaf sea slugs that roam the seafloor. Nudibranchs are unique as they own neurons so big, they can be seen with the naked eye. In addition, the sensory inputs of the nudibranch are mostly touch and “smell” related. Throughout the presentation, we learned about how open brain surgery on T. diomedia slugs revealed different links between limbs and senses and how each sense functioned. Afterwards, we got the rare and unique opportunity to got into his workspace and look at how he developed the discoveries. He showed us around the nudibranch holding tanks and his Faraday cage. Throughout the fascinating experience, Dr. Murray was very open and eager to answer any and all questions.

Today was an opportunity for Salish Sea Sciences that very few people get. Take advantage of your unique opportunities in life to learn about our wonderful world.

Today was another rainy day in the San Juans, but thanks to our longboat excursion, this rain paled in comparison to the weather we experienced on the water. It was an earlier start than normal today, and this was mainly because of the low tide we wanted to catch at 11:00 am. We traveled about 20 minutes (a long drive by San Juan standards) to the western side of the island, where we arrived at Lime Kiln Point State Park.

We split our group of 18 into 5 smaller groups, where we were each assigned a scientific task involving the intertidal zone. One group was in charge of mapping the state park using an amazing 360 degree camera. We set it up at different points around the park in order to get as complete an image as possible. Another group was in charge of finding a deep tidepool where we could place a GoPro in to capture common tidepool life. Even without the underwater camera, it was easy to see the incredible amount of life living in the tidepools, from fish to plant life to crabs and sea stars.

The other groups were tasked with activities such as barnacle counts and 3D modeling of ocean life. Although the barnacle count was the least favorite activity, it was no less important than the others- all will give us important data that we will analyze and discuss further. We got back to the house at around 2 o’clock today, and it was a nice surprise to find that we had the day off until dinner started. Almost everyone gathered on the couch to watch a Zac Efron movie. Not a personal favorite of mine, but it was nice to spend a relaxing afternoon with everyone after a chilly and wet day on San Juan island.

Despite all of the fun that we had, both the Bear and Townshend groups were ready to get back to San Juan Island.

We began our day bright and early by waking up at 5:30 AM, where a soft-colored sunrise greeted us. Those who slept on the boats greeted the day eagerly and began to ferociously take down the boat covers. Everyone who had slept on land took down tents and packed up their personal gear, which were then fire-lined onto the boats. After much trial and error, everyone safely climbed up onto the boats.

With everyone the boats and everything secured, both boats began rowing to their anchors. After cautiously getting the anchors back on board, the groups embarked on their final journeys to Cap Sante Marina. The cook crews, consisting of Ella, Jeremy, Nicholas, Ezra, and Olivia, started on breakfast bagels. Starting on the forward-most thwart, pairs of rowers took turns to taking breaks to eat their bagels.

June 30th was an eventful (and interesting) day for navigation. The boat crew had to navigate the boats with no wind aiding us and the searing sun on our faces. We had to row through a gnarly current, but we eventually made our way through the obstacles. Bear longboat hit a fat Tokyo drift singing Moana on our way to the docks (vocabulary courtesy of Camden and Ben).

Seeing land that marked the end of our trip sparked excitement and elation as we docked at Cap Sante Marina. A lot of seals popped their heads out of the water to bid us goodbye from the sea. Once docked, we stepped off of the boat just in time for Tony to catch a surprising number of sea jellies. After our short break, we got back on our boats for one last circle time with our individual boat crews. Under the exhausting heat, we briefly went over challenges that we overcame, what we did for each other as a group, and what we would remember the most on the longboats.

The highlight of the day was when Miles fell into the ocean. He walked around the side of the boat to put a bag down and fell into the sea due to faulty footing. Upon touching the surface of the water, he let out a screech saying, “Yay! I fell into the ocean!”.

The Townshend and Bear crews came together to cart all of the gear off the longboats, marking the beginning of a long three hours of cleanup to follow. All 17 of us split up into two groups: one that would clean out the boat, and one that would clean all of the equipment that had been taken on the trip. The boat crew worked diligently to scrub the boat with seawater, hosed off and pumped the bilges, vacuumed the whole boat, and picked up miscellaneous celery. The land crew, on the other hand, worked on cleaning dry bags, dishes, and rain gear. We stuffed sleeping bags into each other and distributed the personal gear. After a fashionably late lunch at 1:00 PM, we did our last duffel shuffle and loaded our gear into the vans. Everyone then wrote evaluations for the trip after everything was packed.

For our final step, the Townshend group helped get the longboat onto the trailer of the manager’s car. The Bear crew walked in the nice weather to the boat lift, where we watched Townshend get raised out of the water. With the longboat secured, we began our goodbyes, thanking all of the instructors for an amazing five days. We then loaded onto the Salish Sea Sciences vans, where we headed to the ferry landing. With time to kill waiting for the ferry, some people enjoyed the view or took walks along the beach. When the ferry finally was ready to board, we got out of the vans and headed upstairs, where many people took well deserved naps or sat around having conversations.

The ferry landed at Friday Harbor, and the vans unloaded, giving everyone in the Salish Seas Sciences program a wave of relief as we pulled into the Spring Street International School parking lot. In a frenzy, everyone grabbed their gear and raced to take showers and do their laundry. The rest of the day was used to rest. Dinner was lasagna with salad and garlic bread; a great way to mark the beginning of our more extravagant dorm life! The lasagna was amazing and had a meat option, causing the non-vegetarians to rejoice.

The rest of the evening was spent lounging around the dorms and getting ready for bed, ending a long and busy day.

Waking up at 6:30 almost felt like sleeping in. After spending our last night on Vendovi, the tow groups got up feeling refreshed and reenergized. The previous night we had been uncertain about the sailing conditions, but that morning the weather was unexpectedly clear.

After delicious breakfast burritos, we collected small jellies and ctenophores at the dock, sang goodbye to the island caretakers and boarded the longboats once again. With our already exhausted muscles, we slowly rowed out to the sea and caught a convenient current. Moving slowly, the instructors took the opportunity to teach us triangulation, a method of locating your position on a navigational chart.

After mastering the art of triangulation (sort of), both crews raised their sails. While Townshend set up two sails, Bear rigged all three and soon the longboats were moving faster than ever before. With the wind’s help, both crews took turns napping in the sun and finding the triangulation along our course.

The only dilemma our groups faced was deciding on our destination: Boat Harbor or Saddlebag. There were pros and cons to both destinations. Boat Harbor was closer, had more space and was new and unexplored for our crews, but had no accessible bathroom and everyone would be forced to sleep on the boat. Saddlebag reminded us of traumatic memories, but there were better sleeping and bathroom conditions. The majority of us had voted for Saddlebag the night before, yet there was still a chance that space availability would force us to change courses and camp at Boat Harbor.

Luckily, Saddlebag appeared to have enough space and we were able to make new, drier memories on the island. That night, the entire camp sat around one last campfire and discussed what we appreciated and who we wanted to share the experience with. Afterwards, Ben, Camden, Nick and Miles spotted Bigfoot (Anna) in the dark. We went to sleep sad that our trip had come to an end, but satisfied with all that we had learned over the past four days.

-by Kalena DeLong and Devika Dwivedi

By Orly, Olivia, and Ezra

Yay! Tiniest crab contest first place winner goes to Miles, second place to Ezra, and third to Faith! Everyone congregated at the beach for some tide pool explorations first thing in the morning, and we all discovered some fascinating creatures, including an eel, sea slugs, and gigantic crabs.

In compensation for our hosts’ hospitality, we continued the day with various service projects around the island. By splitting off into small groups, our team of 18 students and 6 adults we completed 4 various tasks around the island: Pulling thistles, morning glories, and ivy as well as collecting trash as we went. Our hosts, Elaina and Thyatira, welcomed us warmly with their kind personalities, despite the fact they do not usually allow visitors to stay the night on their island.

After our morning of service and fun, we treated ourselves to a quick lunch break before heading out into the water for a team on team race: Bears vs. Townshend. We rowed our hardest from Vendovi all the way to Vidi rocks, calling Power 10s, then Power 15s, then Power 20s. Bear ended up in the lead as we crossed the finish line, but Townshend too tried their hardest. After a pleasant row and many wildlife sightings around Vidi island, both boats headed back to Vendovi for some structured “free time”.

Our options for activities before dinner were: a nature hike with Sockeye and Shay, water coloring with Amanda, Science on the dock with Anna, and the option to chill in the tents. On the nature hike, Shay identified the plants as we went that made the experience both educational and fascinating. Fun fact: the state plant for Washington is the Oregon grape. Isn’t that ironic? Water coloring was very peaceful and included several interpretive painted blobs on postcards, but some people had sweet skills. Science on the dock was not well attended but included the victory of figuring out the faulty Niksen bottles!

The day ended with a lovely fire and faces covered in sticky s’mores, a fond reminder of the ones we had back at Spring Street! Thankfully we all stayed cozy and dry that night, leaving us well rested but sore from our violent battle to the Vidi rocks.

By Grace Davis, Faith Jayaram, Jeremy Davis, and Tony Yuan To

On a regular day, rain may be considered calming. On day two of our longboat trip, it was anything but. Awoken by a cold, downpour of rain, the people who stayed on shore overnight, found their sleeping bags drenched. While this had proven to be inconvenient, our “skip-and-dip” only made our situation soggier. This activity occurred at approximately 6:30 in the morning, when we all jumped into the ocean together. The feeling of the cold water was meant to prepare us for the possibility of falling overboard on our longboat. Personally, this allowed me to connect to the marine environment and the life surrounding Saddlebag Island.

While the rain continued to fall, attempts at getting dry after the skip-and-dip were forgotten. Our bright orange rain suits were quickly outfitted to protect us from becoming even more wet. Though our precipitation problems could have offset the mood of the day, we pushed through with surprising positivity. Hot drinks and a breakfast of yogurt with granola was happily eaten by both the Townshend and Bear boat crews.

Following breakfast, each crew went off to work on preparing to leave for the next island. The morale crew took down tents and helped with bilge diving– a term for putting items back onto the longboat. The cook crew cleaned up after breakfast and ensured that all items were in their proper dry bags. The boat crew, who had created the schedule for the day, watched as all jobs ran smoothly.

With everything ready for the day, an unfortunate twist of events occurred. One of our own, Zoey, became sick and was unable to continue on the trip. The original plan was to row to Lummi Island, roughly seven nautical miles from Saddlebag Island. Since Zoey needed to leave, we instead rowed to Vendovi Island where Caroline and Tom (Salish Sea Sciences Directors) could pick her up.

On the water, each boat rowed through the rain. Along the way, we spotted several seals pop their heads out to watch us. Additionally harbor porpoises were spotted off the starboard side of the longboats.

As we rowed towards Vendovi Island, the weather conditions improved, and the rain let up. Just a few hours after miserably rowing in the rain, we were able to sail, for the first time, the rest of the way to Vendovi Island.

Our new camp on Vendovi Island had much to offer us. We were greeted by the small Island’s caretakers, who graciously let us be the only overnight guests on the Island. Vendovi had many treasures, as it is a privately owned nature sanctuary. As the sun set, and we prepared for our stay on the island, we watched the island’s Pigeon Guillemots fly back to their nests, and settled in for the night as well, spirits high for our adventures on the island the next day.

By Grace Davis, Faith Jayaram, Jeremy Davis, and Tony Yuan

To kick off our third day in the Salish Sea Sciences program, we learned about underwater acoustics and the effect man-made noises may have on marine life. Although it was upsetting to hear recordings of boats drowning out the calls of our Southern Resident Killer Whales, the information and skills we acquired were valuable. Being aware of this issue is imperative for the environment of the San Juan Islands and, possibly, the environment of every ocean. Two of the wonderful people we met were Jason Wood and Jessie Turner. Jessie has an ongoing project that revolves around the audio impact sea planes have on marine mammals. As budding marine biologists and ocean enthusiasts, it was a lovely experience to learn about his craft.

Tomorrow we will be embarking on our five-day longboat journey. We are all excited and a tad bit nervous. We will report back on our expedition when we return to our home in Friday Harbor.

By Olivia, Ezra, and Orly (with help from Toffee)

We voyaged out into the wide Salish Sea on the Centennial! It was a great introduction to how oceanographers collect scientific data. A plankton tow, which is used to collect plankton near the surface, was lowered into the ocean very slowly and glided along the surface for a couple of minutes. The results proved very fruitful – who knew there could be so many plankton in one petri dish? The microscope was the center of attention for quite a while – we all oohed and aaahed over plankton unseeable to the naked eye.

Not only did we discover plankton on that trip, our group of over 18 also learned how Nisken bottles operate. Nisken bottles collect water at different depths by remotely closing the containers at specific water levels. The water contained information on the salinity, ph, and temperature. This information unfortunately did not get used in a hands on experiment, but it was a fundamental and interesting introduction to the tool.

Luckily, we had other activities that were very hands on, literally. Using a box dredge, rarely seen ocean floor creatures were brought to the light and scrutinized by our curious eyes and hands. Bull kelp, sea cucumbers, and crabs were all combed through among a variety of other interesting animals. The excavation was peppered with shouts of “duck your head! There’s flying shrimp!” as we threw the live shrimp overboard. The benthos, or bottom dwelling creatures, were all kept alive during our thorough examination.

Out came the notebooks for our first scientific lecture. Our first guest of the trip, Dr. Megan Dethier, is a specialist on shoreline ecology and was recently appointed to be the director of Friday Harbor Laboratories. Dethier’s talk covered everything from armored sea walls to the impacts of climate change on shorelines. Both her information and speaking style created a presentation that even us amateurs could understand.

The main focus of Dr. Dethier’s talk was on the extremely fascinating topic of beach armoring. Beach armoring is the building of walls to prevent erosion of seafront properties. However, this practice is detrimental to the ecosystem because it limits the crucial deposition of sediments into the inter tidal zone. Wow! It’s surprisingly easy that even with good intentions one misguided action can ruin the health of a whole ecosystem.

Throughout the first full day of the program, we bonded as a group over gooey sea cucumbers, challenging new concepts, and our first of many scientific expeditions. We have spent the last 10 minutes trying to find a presentable concluding sentence, so this is it.

By Evelyn Wyman, Brian Chu, and Gabrielle Cooper

Apologies for not making a blog post yesterday, we were out late on a wonderful canoe trip, courtesy of the Pacific Northwest Voyagers. The water was such a nice temperature many of us brave souls ended up swimming. Although swimming got us slightly behind schedule, the perfectly refreshing water and the gorgeous view of the sunset from the row back were completely worth it.  After the long night, most of us were pleasantly exhausted this morning, but we still had an exciting morning of science studying Eelgrass Wasting Disease with PhD candidate Morgan Eisenlord.

View from Kaigani

For the past few days we have been out in the field and in the lab with Morgan. A few days ago we went out to Fourth of July beach with her and collected samples to work with in the lab. Today we laid out more samples from different locations for scans and did some analysis to see the severity of the infection. After two days of entering eelgrass data into spreadsheets, we were lucky enough to have Will King, a graduate student, talk to us about statistics and how to transform data into visual information. He talked to us about proving significance in data, and also helped us individually determine what techniques we would use for our end of the program presentations, which are rapidly approaching!

Will King teaching us stats

Tim Dwyer also mentioned the significance of statistics, and how it separates the “I think” or “I feel like”, from the “I know”.

After a wonderful dinner cooked by chef Tim Brogdon, everyone gathered in the warm common room for Tim B.’s lecture on life skills. Wanna hear a construction joke? Sorry, still workin’ on it! He taught us the importance of being able to keep a positive attitude, how to be a successful leader, and how to be a wonderful human being. Being able to survive in society can be a rigorous adventure, but we are the ones who can make it fun and meaningful. Just as Avicii once sang, “He said, ‘One day, you’ll leave this world behind, so live a life you will remember.’