Blog Credits: Sophie Li, Cooper Drew Allim, Isabelle Ava Bruni Akalin
Day 1 started with ferries and socializing too much. New introductions were in order for the faces no one recognized yet. Everyone stuck together as we all rode the ferry to the San Juan Island, and made our way to our new home for these two weeks.
Our first day was just time for us to get oriented and settled into our respective dorms. It was lights out at 10:30pm for everyone, we needed a full nights rest for Day 2!
Day 2 started bright and early for everyone. We had a fun breakfast that was set out by our breakfast team (Thank you Annalise, Grey, and Olivia), packed lunch and then head out to compete in a scavenger hunt race! Our Breakfast prep team ended up winning the scavenger hunt, but everyone tried their best, congratulations to our winners!
After the scavenger hunt, we had time to regroup, eat ice cream, and change. Then we set out to the Friday Harbor Labs (FHL for short). There we ate our lunch, and took a look at many varieties of Starfish and Fish that belong to the Salish Sea.
We also learned about the Starfish wasting disease that FHL is trying to prevent from killing any more starfish. We saw how Starfish infected with this bacterial disease would tear off their legs, but we also saw how the lab helped rehabilitate these Starfish. Giving them a chance to heal and grow new legs.
In the Fish lab we learned about how the researchers there studied and learned about the insides of fish using 3D printers and CTL scans. They also had us take a look at all sorts of varieties of fish with dyed bones and cartilage. It was very interesting!
After we explored the Starfish and fish labs everyone took a short walk to the docks. There we used long sticks to flip over the tires at the edge of the wooden dock, where the boats would park. We flipped those tires over because they would show a variety of organisms that grow near the docks and use these human made structures as a ecosystem and home for them.
The trip to FHL ended there, and we took the van back to our dorms. There, our dinner prep team (Thank you Emily, Katelyn, and Isabelle) made “fancy baked potatoes” and salad with “very yummy blueberries”.
We are very excited to have Shauna Barrows from the San Juan County Land Bank join us for dinner as she shares her experiences in ecosystem restoration and land conservation work which she has been doing since 2017.
A Land bank is guided by the local community’s input, and works “To preserve in perpetuity areas in the county that have environmental, agricultural, aesthetic, cultural, scientific, historic, scenic or low-intensity recreational value and to protect existing and future sources of potable water.” Which is what Shauna Barrows is coming to talk about with us today!
Learn more about her with: https://www.hometrust.org/shauna-barrows
And: https://sjclandbank.org/staff/
Once dinner is over, its lights out for everyone again at 10:30pm for we have a lot to do for tomorrow! Day 3 of our two week journey in the San Juan Islands.
Stay tuned for our Day 3 blog to learn more!