Written by Naomi Scott, Ana Matteson, and Seth Hallbert
Heading Into Heat
Our days on San Juan island are flying by! Though we’ve been here only five days, it feels as if we’ve known each other for weeks. The breakfast room atmosphere is as lively as the bustling Lugworm networks beneath the False Bay sand.
Once we’d fueled our bodies for the day ahead of us, we completed our daily knot, the square knot. Our maritime skill improvement session was followed by a reminder to stay cool, hydrated, and protected from the sun as we head into a record-breaking heatwave that will sweep across Washington, Oregon, and other areas of the Pacific Northwest.
Talking about Tides
Up first on the agenda for the day, we headed to the Spring Street International School science lab for a tide-chart reading lecture from Tim. As we reached into the back of our brains to remember our third-grade tide cycle lessons, Tim explained how the Salish Sea and surrounding area experience mixed tide cycles and currents.
When a location experiences mixed tides, it doesn’t have the consistency of the similarly sized, two high and two low tides every day that locations with semidiurnal tides experience. Instead, it’s more varied.
As a refresher for those of you who are also trying to reach into the back of your brains to remember your third-grade tide cycle lessons, when the sun and moon are in line, during spring tides, they pull water towards them causing the tides.
FHLOO (pronounced “flu”)
After a short break, we returned to the labs to speak with Mr. Samuel Garson, a researcher at FHL and high school biology teacher at Friday Harbor High School. Sam told us about his work with ocean observation systems, and how the Friday Harbor Labs Ocean Observatory (FHLOO) is using a variety of equipment and data loggers to survey the water around FHL.
Sam and his fellow researchers are responsible for the brain of the observatory, otherwise known as “The Dock Box,” on the FHL dock. The different equipment in “The Dock Box” collect data regarding the salinity, turbidity, pH, oxygen concentration, and more of the surrounding water.
Sam showing us the FHLOO survey site on the NANOOS NVs data explorer page
With the assistance of a technologically advanced data logger, all of the collected numbers are recorded in uniformed files every thirty minutes, and uploaded to the Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems (NANOOS) NVS data explorer page.
Look at the NVS website and zoom in on San Juan Island to see FHLOO’s site!
Sam said that all of this data could not only be used to identify potentially harmful algal blooms, but it is all accessible to the public. This means that students and researchers across the world can use the data recorded on this site, and questions that haven’t even been asked yet can be discovered through the observation of these records.
Looking For Lugworms
Starting off in the classrooms left us with more energy for our lugworm collections at False Bay in the afternoon. After a lovely lunch break, we headed out to False Bay on the Southwest side of the island. While at False Bay, we hoped to record the population of lugworms, large marine worms in the class of Polychaeta, that lived on the beach.
These little creatures are extremely helpful in overturning dense sand and enriching it with minerals like oxygen. They do so by ingesting the mud-like sand and excreting fecal casts of clean sand.
Fun fact, False Bay got its name from the way it completely fills when the tide comes in, then completely empties when the tide goes out! Here is False Bay at low tide.
We recorded the numbers of Lugworms using quadrats, squares of PVC pipes which allow people to look at the distribution and abundance of different species in and out of the water. We used the haphazard quadrat placing method to help remove bias from our surveys; this method includes walking to different areas and tossing the quadrat in your survey site. One would then proceed to count inside of the quadrats.
Left: Maddy taking the temperature of a pond and Islay recording the data at False Bay
Right: Sonja counting the fecal casts in a quadrat at False Bay
We identified the number of lugworms in the quadrats by counting the fecal casts the lugworms left behind. These swirly, soft-serve-shaped tubes of sand lay on top of the beach substrate next to their burrow holes.
Shown in the red circle is a fecal cast from a Lugworm
We split up into groups of two and each dropped the quadrats fifty times in two areas, one closer to shore and one closer to the water, counting the fecal casts inside as we went. There was also an additional group of three that took samples of the sediment. They filtered the beach substrate through multiple sieves and revealed the different components of the sand.
Photo on the left: Burrow of Lugworm split vertically in half
Photo on the right: Lugworm held by Tim
After recording our data we had some fun! We walked out to the edge of the bay where the tide was coming in to explore the calf-high puddles in our awesome boots. On our walk back we took data samples of the water temperature and salinity of different ponds and puddles on the beach.
Hebaq helping Andrea empty water out of her boot
Independent Project Introduction
After returning to the dorms from our Fales Bay surveys, we got our first look at the projects which we will have the chance to complete during our remaining time in the program.
To complete our projects we will be asking a question and seeking to answer it using experimental or observational methods. At the end of the program, we will show and explain our research to an audience of scientists, friends, and family.
Anything from routinely counting jellyfish at a specific beach to observing the behavioral patterns of sea slugs is a possibility. With the many resources available to us, we have the opportunity to be as creative and imaginative as we want. Despite the potential time restrictions, which will be a significant factor in the development of our projects, we can’t wait to get started.
Babies with Bea
To end a busy day, we got a presentation from a very busy recent Wellesley graduate. Tonight we had the privilege of hearing from Bea Grauman-Boss, Tom and Caroline’s daughter. Bea grew up on the island, and told us about her journey from sea urchin and sand dollar larvae (babies) to pancreatic cancer research. A recent graduate of Wellesley College, Bea is Lab Manager and Technician in the Hemann Lab at MIT.
Though the two things may seem unrelated, there are many parallels to be drawn between the marine larvae and cancer molecular biology. Other topics of Bea’s presentation included invasive rabbit data collection and Island Marble Butterfly conservation on San Juan Island. We can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings with more exploration of the island.
More Photos!
