MBFE - Day 10 - A three-hour tour near the mouth of Coos Bay

"Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip..." (from the Ballad of Gilligan's Island)

The photo above is this year's official MBFE group photo.  L-R: Dr. Holyoak (on dock), Arianne, Rachel S., Eileen, Skyler, Isaac (back), Devon, Kelly, Jessica, Rachel M., Danielle, Courtney, Jennifer, Shannon, Luke, Joseph.

This is Captain Larry.  He always gives a safety briefing before departing.  He took good care of us, he's retired Coast Guard.

It's easy to see that the class enjoyed the outing. L-R: Arianne, Kelly, Shannon, Jessica

L-R: Isaac (back to camera), Joseph, Devon, Jessica, Kelly, and Luke

L-R: Courtney, Danielle, Rachel M, Isaac, Joseph, Devon, Arianne

L-R: Arianne, Eilen, Isaac, Luke (over Isaac's shoulder), Danielle (background), and Skyler.

Because Capt Larry was piloting the boat students worked the deck (under his direction).  In this photo Isaac is working the winch that lowers and raises the small trawl net we used to collect specimens.  L-R Courtney, Danielle, and Rachel M look on.

Here are L-R: Kelly, Jennifer, and Skyler retrieved a net full of shells, crabs, fish, and other things.

Later Jennifer tried her hand on the winch.  Yep, she's NOT having fun.

 Skyler and Arianne retrieved the net this time.

Skyler is a real "fish guy" so he was happy to make the acquaintance of this flatfish.  You can tell he's thrilled by the look on his face.

Midway through the trip Capt Larry took us close to a beach with around 100 harbor seals, here are a few of them. 

On the way back to port Eileen, our group's bird enthusiast, was treated to some nice sea birds

Here's a pelagic cormorant (it's actually got a small fish in its bill).

Here's a shot of a pelican during take-off.

And these gulls followed us for part of the outing...they love to do this, just in case there's a chance that some scraps or other things that they might be able to swoop down and scoop up.

About three hours later we were back in port with great experiences had, memories made, and friendships deepened.

Stay tuned for more adventures.

MBFE - Day 9 - Docks Piers and Piling Communities - Oh My!

The MBFE adventure for the day today (Weds 4/29) was to discuss dock, pier, and piling communities in the morning, then to walk to the Charleston Marina and explore them.  We expected to see lots of marine invertebrates and algae growing below the water line on the docks, and we were not disappointed.

Here are some shots of the crew checking out the life on the docks:

Eileen and Isaac are on the dock in the foreground with Skyler hanging over the dock in the background.

Here are L-R Rachel M, Danielle, and Courtney...

Rachel M is standing on the dock in the background with Danielle, Isaac, and Courtney lying down, with Skyler in the foreground.

Here's Jessica getting a good close look at the dock community.

Here are a few things we spotted:

Giant barnacles Balanus nubilus...

...sponges and small thread-like caprellid sprimp...

...more sponges and tube worms...

...giant green anemones...

...and smaller white anemones among other things...

What we DID NOT expect was that while we were hanging over the edge of the dock with our faces within inches of the water that we would be observed by something else...

A class member was hanging over the end of a dock and there was a large splash right next to them - it was a harbor seal.  Shortly after that I was hanging over the edge of a dock checking things out and taking a few pictures when I heard a swish in the water close to my head.  I was wearing a baseball hat so I couldn't see what it was, but when I looked up there was an adult harbor seal (Phoca vitlulina) and there were only about 6" between our noses.  I had a waterproof camera in my hand off to one side so I pointed it in the general direction and shot...this is what I got!  After a few more seconds the seal flopped down and with a splash was gone.  Wow!  There's a journal entry experience.

I wasn't the only one to have a visitor while we were on the docks...an adult male northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus) made an appearance as well.  Here he is taking a good long look at Shannon and Jennifer.

Right after that it cruised over and got acquainted with Jessica, Arianne, and Kelly.  This shot was taken just as it dove..

...and here he is in a slip at the marina giving Skyler, Shannon and Kelly a good look. 

This is a day that we will all remember for a good long time.  It wasn't our plan to observed marine mammals along with the invertebrate dock community, but in this life you don't always get what you expect...sometimes it's better than that.

MBFE - Day 8 - Estuary - salty and fresh!

Tuesday April 28th dawned gray and rainy...well, drizzly, that's rainy Oregon-style.  That meant that it was a perfect day to discuss salt marsh ecology and restoration ecology at the South Slough National Estuary Research Reserve (which is only about 5 miles form here).  Then after lunch we drove over to the estuary.

It's actually a lucky thing that we didn't visit the estuary on Monday (our beach day) because the interpretive center is open only Tuesday-Friday each week!  Maybe it wasn't luck...anyway we enjoyed roaming around the center for a little while, then we went out for a self-guided hike.

Here's a photo of the crew just before we headed into the primeval forest and down to the estuary (L-R: Courtney, Rachel M, Shannon, Arianne, jennifer, Devon [back], Eileen, Joseph and Rachel S [kneeling], Luke, Danielle, Isaac, Jessica, Kelly, and Skyler).

You can't tell from the photo, but mist was coming down consistently, but still, look at those smiles!

We walked about 1/2 mile down to the overlook to the estuary.  It was actually nice that the mist was coming down.  We saw things we probably would not have seen on a dry day.  We saw salamanders, rough skinned newts, actually.  Devon spotted a snake and was off after it, but no luck.

We also saw birds, and raccoon at two separate locations as they came down onto the mudflats to forage for small invertebrates.

The hike was interesting.  At one point the name of route was "Tunnel Trail".  Here's why:

One of the main reasons we went in addition to seeing the estuary was to take a look at some of the restoration ecology that is being done there as the biologists there try to help the region recover to a more natural condition after nearly 100 years of dredging of the main channel as well as the building of levees and dikes as well as draining tidal wetlands for agriculture.  The restoration efforts started in the 1970s and are ongoing.

Here's a shot of an old levee and you can see where it has been breached to allow tidal water to reenter tidal flats where it went before the dikes were built.

All in all it was another great outing.  Stay tuned for more updates.

MBFE -What happened on Days 5 and 6?

If you are following this blog you might wonder what happened to Day 5 and Day 6 of the Marine Biology Field Experience.

Well, they happened all right but there isn't much to write about since these were Saturday and Sunday.  We had class on Saturday morning, starting at 9 and wrapping up a couple of hours later. After that I cut the crew loose for the rest of the weekend.  After all, everyone (including me) needs some down time.

On Sunday we attended the 3-hr block of meetings with the North Bend Ward; their meeting block meets 9am-noon, thus meshing nicely with the Dining Hall's meal schedule.  Church was great and in the evening on Sunday we had a group FHE.  Everyone was invited to come to my cottage where we had a thought, played a group game, and those who were interested/not otherwise committed were invited to stay to watch a movie.

So, sorry, no misadventures, no big tales to tell, but we all enjoyed some down time.

Things are going great, and students are now mulling over possible ideas for research projects that they will start later this week or early next week.

Stay tuned...

MBFE - Day 7 - Sun and Sand

Man oh man, Monday April 27th was a beautiful day on the southern Oregon coast.  You rarely see nicer!  The skies were clear and blue, highs were in the upper 70s, and there was only a gentle breeze.

Earlier in the morning I was debating whether the class should do dock, pier and piling communities or sandy beaches, but when I walked back to my place after breakfast the weather clinched it.  It HAD to be sandy beaches.  Sun and sand just go together.

The plan for the day was to visit several nearby beaches, find and identify as many sand beach community species as we could and collect samples of sand from beaches that ranged from highly protected from wave action to beaches that are fully exposed to pounding waves.  The crew will then later use a set of progressively smaller sieves to sort the sand into size classes and characterize each beach based on sand particle size.

The first stop of the afternoon was Bastendorf Beach, just south of Charleston, OR.

Here is most of the crew (L-R: Rachel S, Jessica, Danielle - behind Jessica, Kelly, Rachel M., Shannon, Jennifer, Courtney, Arianne, Joseph, Devon, and Luke) at our first stop of the day - Bastendorf Beach.  It's a wide beach with moderate wave exposure.  We did some digging, some looking, and found pretty much...a worm.

Our next stop was just around the next point, Lighthouse Beach, Point Gregory:

We found some awesome things there.  

A few students found a couple of dungeness crabs - here's Isaac showing off the find, and yes he knows hes' holding it upside down, but he didn't want to let go of the pincers.  He's so wise.

You can tell that this experience is already seriously affecting the class...I take them to a beautiful beach and they head immediately for the rocky point to see what's on the rocks (L-R: Shannon, Luke, Joseph, Devon, Jennifer).  While there we saw something that's incredibly bizarre, squid egg masses all over the rocks and filling the tide pools.

This is just a couple of small clumps compared to all the egg masses we saw.  We brought some back to the lab for observation. 

Our next stop was Sunset Bay.  This is a beautiful bay that is almost completely surrounded by cliffs and is highly protected from wave action.  It fills during high tides and nearly empties during low tides.

Devon and Luke made an usual sighting there.  They spotted something swimming out of the mouth of a small stream that empties into this bay...it as a 12-16" lamprey.  Devon nearly caught it, but it was just too slippery!  It's the first live lamprey any of us had ever seen.  It was awesome!  Well, as awesome as lamprey can be.  Here's what they look like:

Our next beach stop was Simpson Beach.  

Like Sunset Bay, Simpson Bay has a narrow opening to the sea, but unlike Sunset Bay, Simpson Beach takes a serious pounding when the tide and waves are high.  This is evidenced by the beach safety sign you see as you reach the beach.  Don't worry, we were safe.

The find of the day at Simpson Beach was a cave that went back maybe 30-40 feet.  Here are Luke, Isaac (background) and Devon in the cave.

Our last stop was Cape Arago, where sand samples were collected from South Cove and Middle Cove.  The South Cove collection came off without a hitch...we've already been there a few times as a class.  The Middle Cove sample, however, included a notable misadventure.  

This is Middle Cove, Cape Arago:

I readily admit that I've never been down to Middle Cove, but colleagues told me that there is a steep, but accessible though rough trail...so I found what looked like could be a trail and Joseph, Luke, and Devon were willing to give it a try.  They started down and I then went over to organize a team to collect sand from South Cove. When I got back to the top of Middle Cove to see how that group was doing, they were still very close to the starting point.  Luke had however slipped/slid down a steep slope.  The other two were still close to the starting point.  I told them to hang on and I did a little more exploring and found the real trail head.  Joseph and Devon were able to make it back up, but not Luke...poor guy!  

This photo shows Joseph working his way down toward Devon.  If you look carefully you can see Luke in white over by the large fallen tree.  He had to bushwhack his way over to the other guys and the actual trail.  

Fortunately everything worked out in the end, and here they are collecting the sand sample they were sent to retrieve.  

OK, field trip tally:  6 beaches, sand, sun, a few sunburns, crabs, squid eggs, a lamprey, a cave, and one significant misadventure that turned out alright in the end...thanks to Luke's good nature.

Stay tuned to see what happens next!