On the morning of Sunday, July 3rd, Salish Sea Sciences takes to the water on longboats, courtesy of the Northwest Maritime Center. As the NWC describes, longboats are “26′ open wooden boats. They are historic replicas from Captain George Vancouver’s exploration of the region in 1792 that were built at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding. The boats are equipped with 8 rowing stations and 3 sails. Stepping aboard is like going back in time. Both longboats are US Coast Guard Inspected vessels and are staffed by licensed Captains.”

Photo by Tom Grauman

NWC Program Coordinator Nancy Israel tells us, “Captain Michael Sharp and Mate Chrissy McLean are really excited to meet our Salish Sea Sciences team. Michael and Chrissy are experienced longboaters and Marine Educators. Michael is a licensed Captain who has recently been working for Salish Sea Expeditions aboard the yawl Carlyn as the Mate doing inquiry based science. Chrissy used to work for Pacific Crest Outward Bound on kayak and longboat courses and for the last 8 years, she has been working at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center.”

Here is Captain Michael’s blurb from the Salish Sea Expeditions website: “Michael [is] a licensed USCG Captain, lifelong sailor and adventurer. His earliest memories are of being aboard sailboats. In early 2015, Michael arrived in Port Townsend after an eight-year Alaskan odyssey aboard his 36-foot steel cutter Bluewater with his wife Susanna and Nisa the Wonderdog. When not working with Salish Sea Expeditions, he is a Maritime Educator and Sailing Instructor with the Northwest Maritime Center, and helps businesses and nonprofits with program development and strategic communications. With more than 25 years of sailing experience on vessels up to 137 feet, he is known for his emphasis on safety and preparedness and his ability to inspire enthusiasm in anyone who is the tiniest bit interested. In his free time, he enjoys exploring his new home in his Vanagon, learning ukulele and marveling at how spring arrives four months earlier at 48 degrees North.”

By Jack, Lynn, and Peder —

Today started wonderfully at 7 o‘ clock. It was a much more blissful morning compared to the teary-eyed days of the past. No more waking up before the rest of the island. We headed to Deadman’s Bay to engage in barnacle research pertaining to dissertation chapter 3 of University of Washington graduate student Will King. Ironically, we talked of horror stories on the way.

Photos by Caroline Grauman-Boss

We exited the van with terror in our minds, but exited to measure, identify, and record data about barnacles. Slipping and sliding, we perilously observed our calipers carefully.

We returned to the dorms, and proceeded to review our data. Jamie, Jack, and Tim headed back to False Bay to release our earwigs because we did not have time to perform our trials and did not wish to kill them. They were eager to return.

Soon we began to plan our costume for the famous Invertebrate Ball. At the thrift shop we encountered deer, orange, and purple.

Photos by Seth Grant

Inspired to be a sea star, we grabbed what we could and headed back to the dorms again.

All afternoon was spent making Sea Stars, Jellyfish, and a Nudibranch.

Creativity was flowing through the room like crazy as we cut, glued, and sewed.

Together we looked like a group of idiots, that was except Indeya who was rocking an 80’s purple get-up.

Photo by Tom Grauman

Our costumes were a hit. We brought home 3 prizes in the name of Salish Sea Sciences.

Now we prepare for our long boat trip around the islands. We will face the cold, feisty water and the smell of 12 individuals who haven’t showered for five days.

We are fortunate. Aside from a tremendous year-round faculty, the University of Friday Harbor Laboratories becomes home every summer to over 200 researchers—many of whom are willing to take the time not only to share their research with our students, but also involve them in it.

On the evening of July 1st, University of Washington graduate student Will King joined us for casual conversation over a sushi dinner prepared by dorm parent Sara Song Grant with the able assistance of three of our students.

Photos by Seth Grant

Three other students prepared the table and welcomed Will, peppering him with insightful questions—these same students wrote the day’s blog entry. The remaining students operated on clean-up crew. We rotate these stations daily.

After dinner, Will gave a presentation introducing us to aspects of climate change, encouraged questions, and informed us how to collect and use data effectively—not just for results, but also to stimulate fresh questions.

His own research aims at understanding climate change through an analysis of barnacle thermal tolerance.

On the morning of July 2nd, we joined Will in the field.

Photos by Caroline Grauman-Boss

Here are a few pictures of students working along their transect lines in the intertidal zone, identifying and quantifying three species of barnacle.

Vik Iyengar came to dinner on the 28th, on July 1st he was out in the field at False Bay early at 7:00am with Salish Sea Sciences. Here are a few photographs… To learn more about Vik and his research, please take a look at this earlier blog (and its links): Vik and Erika Iyengar: Earwigs! Slugs!

Photos by Tom Grauman

By Jaimie, Sara, Arielle, Jake—

Today has been a long but exciting day. We woke up at 6 this morning and promptly headed over to False Bay. False Bay has its name because when the tide is high, it looks like a nice place to anchor a boat. However when the tide goes out, the entire place is drained.

Photos by Tom Grauman

At False Bay we studied the population of Lug Worms (Aberinicola) by haphazardly placing quadrats and then counting the holes inside. We did this 100 times, then dug up 25 randomly chosen holes to get roughly the percentage of the holes that are actually occupied.

After that, we went further up the bay with Vik Iyengar and collected earwigs from under logs before returning to the dorms.

Once back, we went to the science room and wrote down the procedure for measuring the Lug Worm population and collecting earwigs.

After lunch we headed to the labs and practiced doing scientific drawings of the marine life we collected yesterday. We spent about an hour there before returning back to the dorms and sorting the earwigs by sex and size.

Next, we had some exploration time before welcoming our guest for dinner, Will King. Mr. King is a graduate student studying marine ecology. His study focuses on barnacles, and tomorrow we will be joining him in the field. After dinner, Mr. King gave a presentation explaining the effects of climate change on marine ecology, specifically how barnacles will react. Now we have about an hour before we will go to bed, waking up bright and early to work in the field tomorrow with Mr. King.

By Indeya, Lana, and Quinn—

Today, we awoke at five thirty AM and hopped in the van to the SJI County Park. The reason for this early rising was so that we could reach the beach at low tide. This enabled us to create transect lines from high to low tide. In total, we had it stretched 15 meters, ending at the waters edge. We then put our .5 meter by .5 meter quadrats down, starting at each meter and focused on the right side, to record the counted (some estimated) numbers of mobile animals, and percentages of attached animals and algae. A few of the mobile animals our field crew found were limpets, chitons, whelks, periwinkles, hermit crabs, etc. Some attached algae we found were green turf, red turf, green sheet, red sheet, hedophyllum, fucus, etc. And finally, a couple attached animals we found were barnacles, mussels, and other encrusting species. After finishing these transects, we split our transect line into three areas: low, medium, and high. We then used a caliper to measure and record at least 25 specimens in each section.

Photo by Tim Dwyer

Once we got back and had a quick snack, we headed to the science lab to go over the mistakes that sometimes go into data collection, and we all went over each others’ data and corrected any mistakes or writing that was unclear. We then wrote clear procedures of our morning transect and our slug transects from yesterday.

For lunch we enjoyed a mix of sandwiches and fruit/vegetables. After this well deserved meal, we again hopped in the van and made our way to the Friday Harbor Labs to take a ride in the Centennial. We used the Centennial to do a trawling and collect invertebrates (and some vertebrates) so that we could hold them in a tank and study them.

Photos by Seth Grant

We came across some bottom fish and got to look at them for awhile before putting them back in the water. I think this has been the most exciting day for the group thus far. Lots of crabs and fish and scallops came up in the trawl, and we all got to touch and see. It was truly an experience. We actually did two trawls and so we got to go through all the different species twice!!

Once back on the docks, Tim and Derek gave a diving demonstration and actually took a camera down with them so we could see. We had a walkie talkie kind of system and got to ask them to look at specific things or pick up some specimens we liked. A couple of us got sunburns during all this. We won’t forget sunscreen again.

Photo by Tim Dwyer

For dinner, an option between veggie or meat spaghetti and some bomb bread. But the day wasn’t over yet, we next went to an Antarctic photography presentation presented to us by Alasdair Turner called Antarctica: Ross Island and the Future of the McMurdo Sound Region sponsored by the San Juan Island Museum of Art. He showed us beautiful pictures and talked about the real Antarctica, like we would have never seen or heard otherwise. It wasn’t just all about beauty though, he also brought up why the ice was melting, global warming, ocean acidification, food chains, illegal fishing, and more. He was both serious and funny, and we’ve learned quite a lot. Until Tomorrow!!

• Here is Alasdair Turner’s Antarctica photography series.
• Here is Alasdair Turner’s Antarctica blog.

By Jamie, Sara, Jake, and Arielle—

June 29^th, 2016

This morning, we had an early morning with a wake-up call at 4:45 am. We ate a quick breakfast and left the dorm at 5:15 sharp. We drove to the Friday Harbor Labs’ terrestrial reserve to survey slugs with Dr. Erika Iyengar.

Photos by Seth Grant

We found two types of slugs: the invasive European slug and the native banana slug.

We surveyed 3 different areas until the sun was up. Slugs live in dark and damp places, so the only time that we can see them is before sunrise.

After, we went back to the Friday Harbor Labs. We took a tour of the labs and learned about its history.

After the tour, we came back to the dorm for a well-deserved reflection time. Some of us napped and read books, while others played some badminton and volleyball. After reflection time we all joined together for some lunch.

After Lunch, we hopped in the van and drove to Mt. Young. We were joined by Sharon Massey who taught us the basics of scientific illustration. On the top of Mt. Young, after the somewhat exhausting hike, we took inspiration from the amazing scenery and began drawing. Hiking back down the mountain was a whole different story. Having taken a different route, we encountered a smelly snake and at the end of the hike we discussed different patterns in the mountain’s vegetation.

Back at the dorms, we had some exploration time, which gave us time to clean up and explore the property some more. Soon it was dinner time and we were joined by Derek Smith, a PhD candidate.

He specializes in marine ecology, most especially the ecology of shipwrecks. He shared with us some extraordinary pictures and stories. After Derek left, we played some card games and then it was time for bed. We had a delightful but tiring day. We hope you enjoyed reading about our day!

By Caroline Grauman-Boss—

Tuesday, June 28th, Dr. Vik Iyengar of Villanova University and Dr. Erika Iyengar of Muhlenberg College joined us for dinner and an after-dinner presentation of their research. The next day, the Salish Sea Sciences team rose early to be in the field with Erika at 5:00am to participate in slug surveys with her. Students identified different slug populations and learned about their habitats, habits, and the effects of invasive species. Students will have the chance to study maritime earwigs with Vik at False Bay on Friday, July 1st.

Dr. Vik Iyengar at False Bay with Salish Sea Sciences: Photo by Tom Grauman

To get a sense of the kind of research the Iyengars do and why they do it, please take a look at the following links:

• the homepage of Dr. Vik Iyengar at Villanova U. and his page about his research on maritime anthropods, specifically earwig mating systems.
• the homepage of Dr. Erika Iyengar at Muhlenberg College.

Both professors have a deep history pursuing research at the UW Friday Harbor Laboratories. We are fortunate to have them here this summer and that they are making the time to share their knowledge with us.

By Caroline Grauman-Boss—

On the morning of Tuesday, June 28th the Salish Sea Sciences team received an introduction to one of Salish Sea’s great cetaceans, the orca whale. Science Director, Tim Dwyer, familiarized students with some of the vocabulary that distinguishes whale populations, most especially the fact that among mammals, whales are “cetacea” and that orca are odonticetes, or “toothed whales,” a subgroup of the dolphin family. There are three distinct whale populations in the Salish Sea at the southern end of Vancouver Island: Southern Residents, Transients, and Off-Shores.

Fun fact 1: people can tell which whales are breeding with which whales by tracking whale poop. How do they do that? Tucker the Labrador Retriever has a nose for it!

Fun fact 2: How do people know that the off-shore population eats shark? Shark skin grinds down their teeth!

Between 10:00am and 12:00pm, students gained deeper knowledge about Salish Sea whales and other mammals from Whale Museum program staff and exhibits. To learn more about Whale Museum programs, click on the following webpages:

The Whale Hotline

Marine Mammal Stranding Network

Soundwatch Boater Education Program

SeaSound Remote Sensing Network

Marine Naturalist Training

Salish Sea Association of Marine Naturalists

Education Programs

By Indeya, Lana, and Quinn

This morning, after an early breakfast, we made sure we were prepared for our longboat expedition starting Sunday. Afterwards we walked to the Whale Museum. The director there presented enriching information on the Orca inhabitants in the Salish Sea.

Photo by Seth Grant

She mostly focused on the Southern Residents and their characteristics but also went over the other types of Orcas in the area such as Transients, Northern residents, and Offshores. While taking notes, we learned of their hunting techniques, language/tone of voice, prey, size, and environmental issues. We then toured the facilities, seeing various skeletons, fetuses, and brains.

Photo by Seth Grant

After that we broke for lunch, again having DIY island sandwiches. I personally put chips on mine, it adds a whole new level to the sandwich taste and texture. We then adjourned to the Science lab, where Dr. Rebecca Guenther introduced us to the wonders of algae. Each table had at least one live aquatic autotroph. Dr. Guenther taught us the differences between algae and how to find out which specific algae you have using the Dichotomous Key. We tried out a simplified version of the key to find out the names of the algae on our tables. After working and being focused we finally got to play, and use the algae to create designs and dry them. Tomorrow we will check up on our Dried algae to see the state it’s in.

Photo by Tim Dwyer

While on break, our Instructor, Tim, put together a simulation to teach us how to survey organisms. Our organisms in this case were actually rocks and although we could have counted them all, we used transect tapes, quadrants, and our meter ropes to find a population estimate. We hope you enjoyed learning about our day! Until Tomorrow!!

Photo by Tim Dwyer