By Sasha, Josie, Alaina, Sid

We began the day with fruit and scrambled eggs for breakfast while watching the sunrise. Camping by the beach was fun for everyone; some of us slept outside under the stars.

As the day warmed up, we explored the North Beach and walked around the island’s east side. The morning was spent recovering from the arduous kayaking the day before. When noon hit, we ate sandwiches and started preparing to kayak around Jones and to the nearby Reef Island, Yellow Island, and McConnell Island. It was so beautiful!

The weather was warm and there was little wind; it was perfect for kayaking. We saw many harbor seals lounging around, bright red sea stars hanging about, and moon jellies floating by. After an easy paddle around, we headed back to Jones Island. Dinner was delicious burgers and hot dogs. After dinner, we played card games and ate homemade donuts.

Later that night, we went on a quick walk to see the sunset. It was beautiful and calming; the sky was painted in shades of blue, purple, and pink. We spotted a family of four silky grey river otters heading back to their den, and we also saw some pretty brown porpoises playing in the water.

It was a super fun day on Jones!

Blog by: Josephine, Alaina, Sasha, and Sid

The Salish Sea group was awakened bright and early, and we soon settled into our vans with our gear to set out for our 3 day kayak/camping trip. We had packed everything we needed into two 10 ounce dry-bags the night before, which prepared us for the upcoming days. When we arrived at the beach we were launching from, we were blown away by the view.

We had three awesome tour guides, Charlie, Clark and Dylan, who met us on the beach that morning, and they were fully prepared for all nineteen of us. They gave us each a sleeping bag and had already packed food, tents, and other sleeping materials into our kayaks. We split into pairs with our science director, Emma. We then kayaked through the Salish Sea to our lunch spot. We were exhausted from the sun, paddling and steering. Luckily, our guides prepared us a delicious lunch!

On the beach we ate sandwiches and Numenos’. We then got back into our kayaks and continued our journey to Jones Island. This section of the travel took around two hours; the whole adventure was about three hours. While it was hot, salty and exhausting, there were some great moments too! A couple people brought speakers onboard, which truly kept the vibe alive. We listened to some Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift, and sang along to the some Disney songs. We also had the amazing experience of kayaking with jellyfish!

When we finally arrived at Jones Island, we unpacked from our kayaks and brought our stuff from the beach to our campsite. We then put our kayaks on pieces of driftwood to keep them from floating away when the tide rose later that night. Afterwards, we quickly set up our tents at our site, moving even faster as dinner was prepared.

Dinner was carnita tacos and dessert was chocolate fondue with various fruits, marshmallows, and graham crackers. Our guides were master chefs! We then either crawled into our tents or set up under the stars. We had a tiring but fulfilling day!

Blog by Akemi, Evan, Maddie, and Ella

Today was a later morning, with wake-up an hour later at 8:30. Our first “activity” of the day was learning about the packing for our imminent kayaking trip to Jones Island with Crystal Seas Kayaking. We learned more about how to pack and what we would need for our 3-day trip. At around 10:30, we left for Friday Harbor Labs, a world-renowned research facility used by professors and students from all over. The facility has 12 labs and can accommodate 80 researchers and 175 people. Michelle Hecko was kind enough to give us a great tour of the Lab’s campus, and provided an interesting insight into some of the projects and unique features of the facility. One of the most interesting things about the lab as a whole was their flow-through water system, which brings water in and out of the facility quickly, allowing the scientists to observe the creatures in their sea tables and aquariums in a very natural water setting. In fact, this is one of the top reasons for people to come and use the labs! Another thing we learned about was a fairly new project regarding sunflower stars. Sunflower stars are a type of sea star that was heavily affected by the sea star wasting disease, and the labs are home to a project attempting to grow them artificially and return them to their natural habitats. This has been done before, but no other labs have been able to grow them from their first larval stage to full adults before releasing them, which was really interesting to learn about! 

After leaving Friday Harbor Labs, we went to perform field research at False Bay. We first ate lunch by the vans and then we finally got to wear our mucking boots! We had all been eagerly awaiting this moment since we first picked our boots. We took research equipment such as quadrats, shovels, buckets, and a big sieve (not like the one in your kitchen). We all had a surprise when we learned we were looking for lugworm fecal casings (poop). We split into three groups. One group walked through the muddy water with quadrats (a quarter meter slate) to count the number of fecal casings throughout the beach. Another group shoveled holes in the beach in spots, where there was evidence of critters crawling under the sand/mud, to see what we could find other than fecal casings. The last group sifted through the shoveled sand in the big sieve to try to see what was hiding in the sand. We found some shrimp, lugworms, crabs and even some jellyfish in the water. At the end we stood in a circle and discussed our findings, some of us sunk into the mud and got stuck, but overall it was a very fun and educational experience!

At about 2:00 pm, we went to the art classroom to hear a talk from Jess Newley of the “Friends of San Juan Islands” organization. She brought along her cute dog Ollie! We learned about significant organisms in the waters around the San Juan Islands, but we mainly learned about her teaching style! Jess believes it’s super important to incorporate what you love into your teaching (for her, it’s ocean photography!) At the end, she showed us the product of her underwater photography, using Oculus VR sets to show us salmon she encountered on her 360° camera to present to students! 

After eating the amazing sandwiches provided by the team at Salish Seas Sciences we attended a lecture at the Friday Harbor Labs commons where speaker Alyssa M Hernandez presented her talk “Robots For Biology”. During this presentation, Hernandez covered her story in science regaling her journey through biology to engineering where she continues to use her knowledge of the natural world to inspire her current work. We learned about her studies in robotic mobility where she used beetles in designing terrain-effective legs. We also learned about improvements to suction cups inspired by fish such as the cling fish and Snail fish. This was a great way to experience a college lecture and learn about new ways that robotics can help people learn about biology and vice versa. Overall, this was a busy but fulfilling day and we’re all looking forwards to our kayaking trip tomorrow morning!

Blog by Trevor, Greta, Susanna, and Pax

This morning we woke up at 7:30 again and after enjoying our breakfast together listened and read about our session capstone project. The project will be an environmental proposal aiming to solve an environmental problem or execute continuing research to further conserve our environment. We saw some project examples and then made our lunches together. This project will be completed throughout the session, and we are excited to begin brainstorming.

At 10:00, we left for Deadman’s Bay, crawling over plenty of seaweed to find different species for a game called Intertidal Bingo. We crossed off squares based on how many separate species we could find in the tide pools and on the beach, and thanks to a bit of teamwork, many of us were able to black out our bingo cards. The sea lettuce caused the rocks to become slippery, but luckily none of us sustained notable injury. This was a great opportunity to learn about the different creatures living in tide pools and how they interact with one another.

After tide pooling, we sat down on some large driftwood for lunch before piling back into the vans and heading to the Whale Museum.

In the afternoon our group toured the Friday Harbor Whale Museum, our tour guide explained the different groups of orcas living in the Salish Sea. We learned about many types of whales and porpoises living in our area. The tour guide talked about the endangerment of the orca whale, human impact, and that there are many ways that we can help.

After a quick drive back from the museum we prepared for our next activity, team town scavenger hunt. Each team had to find specific locations or actions and take a photo of everyone at or doing the task. Each team had a blast exploring the town and finding all sorts of different places. In the end, every team did quite well, with three teams getting over 375 points and the winning team getting a total score of 405. Tonight we will meet with Tim Dwyer who is currently co-teaching the Marine Subtidal Ecology course with Dr. Katie Dobkowski at the Friday Harbor Labs and was the founding Science Director for Salish Sea Sciences. Mr. Dwyer will teach us more about marine biology in the Salish Sea as we enjoy a delicious dinner and, afterwards, he will regale us with his experience with marine science research and communications in Antartica!

Blog by Maxene, Sophia, Morgan, and Carlos

Yesterday was an exciting day, anticipation was high as students finished last-minute packing and readied themselves for a long day of transportation. Two students touched down from out of state before seven more piled into the van for the long drive to Anacortes. After meeting three more students there, we enjoyed a scenic ferry ride to Friday Harbor, the place we’d be spending the next two weeks learning about and exploring the Salish Sea. After being acquainted with the final seven students at the dorms, all 19 of us were excited and ready to begin the program. We met our roommates, settled into our dorms, and ate a delicious meal together before turning into a good night’s sleep before an eventful day.

On the morning of the 22nd, we woke up at a very acceptable 7:30 am, ate a quick breakfast that consisted mostly of Cheerios, and went to Cattle Point to meet Dr. Dobkowski for seaweed surveys! Dr. Dobkowski’s research seeks to provide sound science for future conservation, restoration, and management efforts; she was a perfect fit for this activity. throughout the activity, all groups were able to identify different types of seaweed that are including but not limited to rusty rock, fucus, sea cauliflower, sea lettuce, sea moss, rockweed, and much more. overall a very fun experience, and a perfect way to start out this 2 week adventure.

Shortly after eating lunch, we rode the van to Lake Zylstra, a nature preserve on the San Juan. Lake Zylstra is one of the most fertile lands on the San Juan Islands and is home to many keystone species. Today, Lake Zylstra is used for low-intensity recreation, farming, fishing, and hiking. Students were introduced to Shauna Barrows, a field assistant at the San Juan Conservation Land Bank. Barrows started off by describing the lake and land, that it was important to preserve. She described her stewardship and her dedication to the land, such as the importance of water quality in the streams and creeks. Our 2-mile hike started in the parking lot, then we made our way to the Beaver Dam Analog Area. Barrows stated how the Land Bank worked with native communities on how to best conserve the Land, motioning to the wooden posts. Soon followed a discussion on water ownership, the effect of cow feces on the land, invasive species such as thistle, how the indigenous people burned the land to maintain it, and more. Around us were Gary oak trees, English daisies, Salmonberries, and more. Afterward, we left and rode the van back to Spring Street International School, arriving around 3 pm.

After our long day full of adventures we came back to Spring Street, where Ms. Caroline enlightened us with an orientation to the program. She told us how to preserve and respect the island. This is so important because we want to make sure that everyone can experience this beautiful island as we get to do. We had a great ending to our wonderful first day, officially, with Tom’s delicious Lausanne! Which was graciously prepared with help from the dinner prep team. Our meal was nicely accompanied by a guest speaker, Ms. Shauna Barrows. Ms. Shauna works for the San Juan County Conservation Land Bank. It is her mission to create a better environment by providing help to the numerous ecosystems that are interconnected on the island. She demonstrates how the poor water quality in one stream can have an effect on the wildlife from inland to the bay. Ms. Shauna and her team have already done so much to better this island. We are so very thankful to Ms. Shauna and all of our wonderful staff members who made our first day a success.

Kindly recounted by Caleb Zulauf, Finlee Rice, and Tatum Bunting

Today was a day. As we are all gearing up for the end of the program, the presentations that come along with it, and our posters that are due tomorrow at noon, we didn’t have much time to go out and about. For most of us, our day was dominated by statistical and graphical analysis, polishing our posters’ content, and struggling to format our long lists of acknowledgements. A few students working at FHL headed to the labs early this morning, for the first of their three trips of the day, to finalize data collection. 

After a long morning of stress-fueled productivity, we regrouped at the dorms for a beach lunch at Eagle Cove.Scarlett, Nina, Max, and Caleb all went swimming while the others spent their time on the sand laughing and looking at the driftwood. So far, every workday has been broken up by a nice long lunch break, giving us students the much needed chance to touch grass and mentally refuel before returning to our work. 

The afternoon mirrored the morning in terms of productivity by the students. However, thanks to Cara, we could also snack upon delicious rice crispy treats, lemonade, and sweet tea from her very successful lemonade stand. 

Tonight Helen Yip and Dr. Joe Heras have been gracious enough to agree to join us for dinner and give a talk on both DEI and genetics. Ms. Yip has worked with WISEST (Women In Scholarship, Engineering, Science, and Technology) in order to promote the presence of women and genderqueer people in STEM (you can find the link to the very cool WISEST women-in-STEM posters here) and has a master’s in biology, with a focus on marine biology.  Dr. Heras works using gene sequencing to look at the history of evolutionary adaptations in fish. His research program also examines how gene expression and the gut microbiome of fish shape their dietary specialization.

by Nina Johnson

Today the group took a day off and headed to Orcas Island! After a short ferry ride over, we drove to Turtleback Mountain. As we hiked up, Riley, one of our science directors, gave us some background on the importance of preserving native plants in the Pacific Northwest. Specifically, he described his work with the Land Bank on Orcas Island. As we strolled, we noted the diversity of the plants, as well as the presence of native trees such as Garry Oaks, which land stewards and conservationists have been working hard to protect.

After Turtleback Mountain, we drove to Cascade Lake. Although the morning had been cloudy, the sun was shining when we arrived. We spent several hours swimming, paddle-boarding, and enjoying a change of scenery. Some people explored the lake on paddle boards and rafts, while others opted to sit on the dock, read, or fish. The water was warm, and everyone enjoyed a day off in the sun!

We then drove up Constitution Mountain for another scenic viewpoint. The beautiful weather allowed us to see the islands in the area, as well as catch a glimpse of Mt. Baker in the distance.

We then took the ferry back to San Juan Island. Once back at the dorms, the group reunited with Flora and Ansuya who had opted to stay back at Friday Harbor Labs for the day and work on their projects. Although we missed them at Orcas Island, we were happy to hear they had had a successful day of work. After a quick dinner, some people headed off to JP’s for trivia night and then caught the sunset with a view off the Friday Harbor docks.

Project Work Time:

We began our morning by heading straight into project work time. Most of the group spent time analyzing their data and working on posters. Tatum woke up early this morning to hang out with her Pigeon Guillemot friends and had lovely conversations with Dr. Amy Cook. Many of us are heading into the project enzone as the camp is coming to a close.

Geological Hike with Park Ranger Jeff Hodge:

The group headed out on a tour of English Camp with Park Ranger Jeff, who gave us an in-depth look into the geology of the San Juan Islands, and the causes of development of the islands in the first place. We had a lovely hike up to the top of Young Mountain (Hill) with Ranger Jeff leading us to deeper thoughts about the geological creation of the islands. He mentioned to us how glaciers a mile high carved out the San Juan Islands. Thank you to Ranger Jeff Hodge for coming out and spending his time hiking and teaching us.

Friday Habor Labs:

After the hike up Young Mountain, Ansuya, Flora, Scarlett, Nina, Max, and Ian headed to FHL to continue their research projects. Ansuya and Flora frantically ran around the lab, rushing to get their research done in the short timeframe. Conversely, Max leisurely ran tests on his seastars, Scarlett and Nina walked around the lab to get their data together, and Ian sat around learning the R coding language. Overall, it was a very productive lab time as all parties made steady progress on their projects.

-Image of Ian’s coding

Lime Kiln with Shauna Barrows:

Later we went to Lime Kiln Preserve which is run by the San Juan Island Landbank. There we met with Shauna Barrows a Field Assistant for said landbank who took us on an interpretive hike. Along the hike, we learned about the limestone mines and their effects on the local environment. We talked about the changes to the changes to the soil, specifically how they are now more rocky and have a higher pH. We also were taught about how many trees have adapted to San Juan Island. These trees have typically become better at living with more rocky soil, salty air, and low humidity. Many people working in the forests of San Juan Island predict that just like how it was found that the coastal juniper is different from the rocky juniper, other trees might be genetically different enough from their closest relatives to be considered a new species. Some of these supposed new species include Madrona, Big Leaf Maple, Douglass Fir, and Western Red Cedar. 

Along the hike, we were shown an old quarry. Some of us wandered off from the group to explore the winding path through the quarry. Shauna Barrows afterward led us over to Carefree Lake where Northern Pike has been infiltrating the ecosystem, leaving devastating impacts on the ecosystem. We are exuberant for Shauna to join us at dinner tonight, to continue our conversations. If you want more information on the Land Bank head over to their website.

We started our day at the modest time of 8:00, waking up to prepare for our statistics workshop with the wonderful Dr. Cassandra Donatelli. We downloaded the necessary software, R, to get ready. After that, our paths divulged, with some staying at the dorms and some going to Friday Harbor Labs with our favorite Riley.

At the labs, many of us were continuing data collection, either in Dr. Billie Swalla’s lab space or down at Dr. Sandy’s tanks. It was a beautiful day on the island.

Flora and Ansuya were working on sea hare behavior, while Ian and Max were in the lab observing their behavior under certain stresses.

Supervised by the wonderful Emma, the rest of the students plugged away on their individual projects: designing posters, analyzing data, and compiling all the information we’ve gathered over the past three weeks. It was more productive for some than others, but with the program coming to a close, all the students are locking in to get their projects done.

After an intense work period, everyone needed a well-earned break. Emma and Riley took us all to Community Treasures, an eccentric and abundant collection of knick-knacks, doo-dads, and proverbial diamonds. We wandered around the complex, exploring antiques, cassettes, and fascinating fits put together from the various oddities.

After our terrific thrift trip, we returned to the dorms for our statistics workshop! For a second pleasant time, we had the honor of hosting Dr. Donatelli to teach us about the R program. We learned how to do many things with our data, including creating plots, graphs, and making calculations. This was incredibly helpful and provided a strong backbone for our data analysis work.

Kindly recounted by Caleb Zulauf, Finlee Rice, and Tatum Bunting

After two days of running all over the island for various project needs, the students at Salish Sea Sciences were in need of a late start. Ever the generous leaders, our co-science directors Adam Rogowski, Emma Ledin, and Riley Conley granted us a 9:00 wake-up and a delicious hot breakfast this morning. Cassandra was kind enough to prepare waffles, sausage, bacon, and eggs for a lovely start to the day. Though most took advantage of the late start, a few students were eager to get on top of things and began work on projects (mostly eelgrass related) at FHL. 

Once we had all regrouped, we continued our streak of untimeliness by barely getting out of the door at 10:20 to venture off to Friday Harbor High School. 

Under the guidance and help of Sam Garson, we conducted a PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) to identify the species of various mussels we collected at Cattle Point. Frustratingly, the invasive mediterranean mussel is nearly impossible to distinguish from the native pacific mussel based on appearance alone. Because of this, DNA analysis is essential to gauging the presence of this intruder in the Salish Sea and beyond. 

Mr. Garson, beyond guiding a very interesting lab, is an incredibly accomplished educator, communicator, and scientist who has worked on everything from deep sea exploration with the Nautilus to infectious disease at Children’s Hospital in Seattle. He is now utilizing his skills to encourage and inspire the next generation as a high school educator on San Juan Island. These authors would highly recommend reading about his unbelievable accomplishments in everything from managing ferocious army ants in the Amazon Basin to dominating spelling bees at the Kremlin. Or to learn more about his eventful past few weeks in Brazil, click here. 

Utilizing a new type of TAQ polymerase, we were able to condense a multi day process into just a few hours. After crushing and extracting tissue from our mussels (some more gently than others), we created our PCR cocktail and eagerly awaited our gels to phoresis. After a few hours of careful micropipette work, deliberate mussel crushing, and many conversations about our deepest fears to fill the time, we saw… *drumroll please*… few legitimate results (likely due to the Jenga tower that is global shipping). Despite finding few results from our PCR tests, we did learn a lot about micropipetting, PCR (polymerase chain reaction), and invasive mediterranean mussels. 

After saying goodbye to the icon that is Mr. Garson, we were scheduled to go on a hike with Shauna Barrows of the San Juan Island Land Bank at the Zylstra lake land preserve. Unfortunately it didn’t work out, and instead we had more project work time. A lot of us spent our time at the dorms compiling and analyzing data, learning how to use certain scientific tools (specifically dissolved oxygen meters), and observing wildlife. Another small group ventured back to the labs to monitor and work on their projects.

Tonight we are going to be dining on Tom and the kitchen crew’s finest (rumor has it spanakopita might be involved).

We will be joined by Jess Farrer who is the Research Director at The Whale Museum and  previously served as the San Juan County Marine Mammal Stranding Network Coordinator and Data Specialist. Currently, she is also working with SR3 (SeaLife Response, Rehabilitation, and Research) as a researcher studying Killer, Minke, and Humpback Whale populations in Antartica. She has extensive experience on this remote continent, having worked with the United States Antarctic Program studying Weddell seals at a small camp near McMurdo station and as a naturalist for National Geographic expeditions.

While working in Antartica, Farrer started utilizing photography and videography to document and share this incredible region. In 2019, the photo, “Curious Crabeater”, earned her runner up in The Underwater Photographer of the Year Competition in the wide-angle category. This award was founded in 1965 by British diver and magazine editor Bernard Eaton and it receives around 5000 entries every year.

On the videography side of things, (besides filming one of the most influential cinematic masterpieces of the 21st century, “Crybaby Learns to Swim”) Farrer has also worked with the BBC as a contributor to Frozen Planet.

To explore more of her wildlife photography, find her on instagram @jessica_farrer.