The holidays have arrived! Today the Salish Sea Sailors embarked on a scenic adventure to the San Juan Island lavendar farm. At location, there was quite a bit of frolicking, jaunting, and strolling about the flowers and the bees. Many sights were to be had. Finlee got stung by a bee.

Aside from the farm, the Sailors also visited Community Treasures, a second hand store near Roche Harbor. At said thrift, many interesting pieces of clothing, accesorries, and undergarments were found, and some bought! (not the underwear though, that’s gross). The thrifting was in preparation for our own joy and tonight’s dinner theme: Barbie. With the new Barbie movie out, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, we decided that the best way to show our appreciation was to have the selected dinner theme. This is the second best option to watching the movie because, as it turns out, the local movie theatre is under construction.

A lot of project time was put to good use today. Many went to Friday Harbor labs, local beaches, or stayed home. Emma patch tested her Fucus (Rockweed) gel samples on various “volunteers” and also used aloe vera as a comparison.

To add on, tonight we had our second presentation night! Some highlights included: The migratory patterns and living habitat of bagels native to North America, our campers as clash royale characters, soaps, fish, and why uncle Iroh from Avatar: The Last Airbender, is the best anime character to exist.

Another great day with the gang. – Salish Sea Sailors OUT (peace)

(plus photos by Hannah !!)

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.

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.

Vedha,Olivia and Max

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.

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.

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.

Warning !! The harbor seal photos are, as the last necropsy was, relatively gory, and not for the fainthearted !!

Hello again everyone, It’s the Students of Salish Sea Sciences returning with a brand new blog post! Today we once again partook in a wide variety of somewhat random activities. As usual, our day began with waking up (recommended at least once a day). After waking up and munching on a nice breakfast, we all departed for Friday Harbor Labs to watch a necropsy. As some of our faithful readers may recall we already observed a harbor porpoise necropsy. Today we watched another marine mammal get cut open. Instead of observing a harbor porpoise this time, we watched a harbor seal. While it was undoubtedly cool, most of us concluded that it was kind of underwhelming compared to the porpoise.

Most of our day thereafter was devoted to collecting project samples and developing our own research. Cassandra from the fish lab came by for an hour to try (and mostly fail) to teach us how to use data software, which left most of us exhausted, close to tears, and overwhelmingly confident we weren’t going to major in computer sciences. Hannah spent her day fertilizing and observing more Ascidian embryos, Maddie collected water samples, Ethan set up snail habitats and Emma cooked seaweed into a delectable concoction. Many other project activities occurred as everyone was hard at work.

Nothing terribly noteworthy happened (other than a brief thrifting expedition) until dinner time rolled around. We were joined by Ms. Shauna Barrows, a field assistant for San Juan County Land Bank, an organization devoted to protecting vast swaths of land for conservation and various ecological purposes. It was a very interesting talk that took a more political perspective and diverged from our usual scientific talks.

In summary, today was another stellar day in which we engaged in very fun activities and greatly furthered our projects. Moreover, we had a fantastic speaker and even got to thrift some clothes to wear to the Barbie movie. Welp, signing off for now,

The Students of Salish Sea Sciences

We are now in the full swing of our projects. Today, we spread out across San Juan Island and had a slow and steady day, some of us collecting data and resources, while others stayed back at the dorm and did more research.

One of our beloved peers, Hannah, had a full day at Friday Harbor Labs researching her Tunicate embryos under the guidance of Dr. Billie J Swalla. Olivia and Khadija were also at Friday Harbor Labs, searching for decorator crabs. Unfortunately for them, their search proved fruitless and yielded no crabs whatsoever. On the other hand, many people were out in the fields, scrounging San Juan Island’s many beaches for data and materials for their projects and busting with excitement. Maddie and Philip went venturing out into the harsh lands of False Bay, where they encountered trials and tribulations in the form of nasty spikes and heavy water buckets. Tommy and Ethan were also on the great plains of False Bay, scavenging for an assortment of bubble snails. On the other side of the island, Finlee went to the joyous Fourth of July beach, to collect eelgrass specimens and photograph them. Vedha was also with Finlee, and, with the help of Emma, took soil samples and identified different species of seaweed within quadrats.

We ended the day with a presentation from Dr. Tom Mumford, who is an active voice in the kelp community where he stresses the importance of protecting kelp and the species that rely on kelp. His current projects are “Kelp Recovery Plan for Puget Sound, Washington” and the development of the Ocean NOMAD (Nautical Off-shore Macroalgal Autonomous Device) for low-cost production of biomass of food, fuel and feed. We urge anyone who is interested in kelp to check him out.

Today was a truly action packed day, but maybe the real action was the friends we made along the way.

Signing off for now,

The Salish Sailors

Greetings!

Today the Salish Sea Sailors (unofficial official team name (even though we don’t sail)) got up to some worm hunting at False Bay with our previous dinner guest, and renowned scientist Tim Dwyer.

At False Bay, we ran an experiment tofind the preferred habitats of lugworms, a type of polychaete worm. By haphazardly throwing quadrats around the beach, we got a good idea of the average population statistics in the near-shore area and the area closer to the land. We also had a team digging for worms to gain an understanding of the actual number of worms relative to the number of burrows. We discovered that there was a vast difference in the number of worms further inland vs. further out in the tide.

After checking on Adam’s (one of our two science directors) ongoing eelgrass restoration project, we had a little bit of exploring time. Many bubble snails made it to our hands, and under our feet. Don’t worry everyone, there is certainly not a lack of them there.

When we got back to the dorms, we had lunch and a poster workshop for our future presentations. Next was project work time, and we split up, with some students going to Friday Habor labs to further gather information for their studies, and some staying back at the dorms to do more research.

There will be no guest tonight, as it is Thanksgiving. (That is not the actual reason, we just don’t have a guest. However we have still decided that today is Thanksgiving.) We wish you happy holidays! Christmas is only 4 days away. (Can you believe it??)

Thanksgiving:

Our dinner tonight consisted of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, consisting of mached potatoes, beans, salad, stuffing, and of course, turkey. Before we dug in, we had to grab some photos outside of our amazing dinner fits, and giving thanks at the table before we continued the feasting.

Signing off – Leo (AKA The Wall AKA California gurl AKA Ryan G), Finlee (AKA Finland), and James (AKA The Mountain)

Welcome back to the blog! Today we started the day off early in an attempt to locate the Rockhead Poacher at Deadmans Bay’s intertidal zone. We assisted ichthyologist, Daniel Geldof in finding his research project about this specific type of Poacher and their oddly shaped head. The first step of this process was emptying the water out of two specific tidal pools. To achieve this, we used numerous buckets by passing up and down the intertidal zone. After this long process we were left with the different types of creatures that inhabited these pools, making it easier to catch them with nets. After many scrapes and falls we finally finished the grueling task with absolutely no poachers, but we did find other species of marine creatures. Even though we didn’t succeed, we still had a great time exploring the intertidal zone.

After a good lunch it was time to go for a little hike at the well known historical park, American Camp. With the help of multiple signs and our personal tour guide Ms. Bea, we were able to grasp the captivating history. The American Camp was inhabited by US soldiers back in 1850s in order to stake out the land and sea from above. With little interaction from others they ultimately decided to abandon the camp, leaving it’s ruins for curious tourists to observe centuries later.

Our first stop of the journey was the town, where only two of the houses remained. After little history talk we ventured more into the settlement being able to view the water from all sides.

We made our way to the rocky cliffs where we were able to climb and explore the terrain before heading down the the beach. We played in the sand and water along with climbing the near by rocks.

Soon it was time to depart dragging ourselves back up the hill towards the van. Finally we got back to the dorms preparing for the night ahead with our special guest, Mr.Tim Dwyer who was the previous director of Salish Sea Science Program. Tim gave us a an in depth lecture on his experiences in Antarctica specifically on gigantism in marine arthropods. Some of his amazing work has been published in National Geographic. He is also a science teacher at the local high school here. We thoroughly enjoyed his talk due to how interesting the diversity of the marine environment in Antarctica can be. After he left, everyone was convinced that they wanted to live there. Later we all decided to go play volleyball to finish off the day. Signing off for now!

The Salish Sailors (written by Maddie, Ingrid, and Tommy)

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 !!)

-Olivia, Vedha and Max

Salutations fellow citizens of our green world, it’s the students of Salish Sea Sciences writing yet another blog. Today was yet another eventful and action-packed day for us. The day started off a little early with a 6:30 wake-up call that I could only describe as harrowing for many of us tired teenagers. Despite this momentary challenge, we were all able to push through and commence our first activity of the day. We drove over to Cattle Point where we rendezvoused with Dr. Dobkowski, the scientist who spoke to us the night prior.

The primary goal of our Cattle Point expedition was to survey different squares filled with algae within a medium-sized grid called a transect. We used data sheets to record which species of algae we could identify and the general percentage of each square they covered along 4 different sections of the beach. The explanation I’m writing probably doesn’t do an adequate job of explaining the process, but the general idea was simply that we were helping Dr. Dobkowski collect data on species diversity in different locations.

On our walks along the shore from site to site we also encountered some pretty cool creatures in the tidepools. Some of us even saw a fuzzy-looking nudibranch chilling in some grass. Overall, it was a pretty busy morning but it was also a good introduction to the kind of field work that marine biologists do to determine the health of an ecosystem.

After our morning of walking and collecting data, we retreated back to the comfort of the house for a few hours. After an uneventful lunch and some time spent further developing project ideas, we were met with a welcome surprise as Islay, a former Salish Sea Sciences student came in to help us work on art and scientific drawings. While some of us certainly made more scientific drawings than others, at the end of our art time, we created some pretty awesome art pieces.

I think almost all of us enjoyed our little art venture as it was not only an excellent way to unwind but also a good practice for creating art in multiple mediums. Some of us even created collages and 3D art pieces which was super cool!

All in all, today was another good day for the students of Salish Sea Sciences. A busy morning contrasted a very relaxing afternoon quite well! As projects continue to develop there will be plenty of opportunities to individualize our research and apply the skills we have been learning steadily over the past two weeks. Hopefully, tomorrow will offer something just as awesome as today!

-Philip and Hannah

We had a quiet and peaceful start to the day with a cheeky 7:30 AM wake-up, however, we were quickly rushed to the van in order to make our 9:00 AM appointment at Friday Harbor Labs. At Friday Harbor Labs, we split into groups and rotated amongst many stations to learn about various student projects. These projects had an emphasis on the ideology of how future generations will maintain their place within the ocean. Shortly after our visit to the labs, we attended a Marine Botany lecture on the diversity of non-articulate Crustose Coralline algae. Then, with our busting excitement, we made our way back to Spring Street International School while blasting Lady Gaga in the van. Once we made it, we settled into the afternoon finalizing our research project ideas and what we want to work on for the next two weeks. Nearing the end of the day, we got to unveil the kelp presses we made a week prior. These works were simply astonishing. The pieces were incredibly versatile, varying from intentionally organized seaweed kelp to abstract pieces of art that would rival even the works of Pablo Picasso. Finally, to end our night, we were all busting with anticipation to have dinner with Doctor Katie Dobkowski, who works in the Department of Biology at Bates College. Her studies also includes ecology, biomechanics, and physiology. After she left, we had so may questions to ask her, luckily we were able to see her the next day for field work at Cattle Point.

Signing off for now,
The Salish Sailors