By Ezra Bergson-Michelson, Orly Lindner

At 6:00 AM, the tap-tap on every door aroused us and alerted us to the start of our busy day. After dragging ourselves out of bed, we soon embarked on our journey. While a few people journeyed with our always electrifying leader, Dr. Derek Smith, to the tidepools, the bulk of us drove to Cattle Point to begin our kelp and algae identifying quest.

We worked with Dr. Katie Dobkowski, a specialist in bull kelp and professor at Bates College, to identify algae along transects that graduate students have been analyzing for over 40 years. We split into two groups, each group taking two transects, and began the long process of identifying algae along it. Each group worked on identifying algae in different quadrats along the transect, moving down the beach, identifying every scrap of algae in the square. Every two meters, the pairs would photograph their quadrat, count percent cover of each species of algae, and log the data to be added to the database.

While we counted algae at four sites, each corresponding to a different substrate, we also collected kelp and decorator crabs. We mainly found kelp crabs, eventually finding a total of 19 crabs through the two groups. The crabs, lurking among the eelgrass, pinched and prodded before being collected for Dr. Katie Dobkowski’s future projects.

Afterward, we followed up on our earlier learning from the renowned musician, Alex Shapiro, by attending an exhibition of her music in an Orca-awareness event. Her nature music paired with her breathtaking photos were filled with the true spirit of the event.

Throughout the rest of the day, we all worked on our projects, from spreadsheets to nudibranchs, at the dorm or Friday Harbor Laboratories. We ended the night with a wonderful bonfire on the beach, after a hearty burrito dinner.