MBFE Day 5 - More sun and more rocky shores - Sunset Bay

It's Day 5 of the 2017 BYU-I MBFE, aside from a little fog the morning dawned clear and bright. This was our sunrise over the Charleston Harbor boat basin about 30 mins before the breakfast bell rang.

Yeah, I know, it's not very picturesque here but we are struggling by. :-)

The low tide happens about half an hour to an hour later every day so by now the low tide, another great one of -1.6', happened late enough in the morning that we had a more leisurely breakfast before heading off to Sunset Bay and doing more field work.

The plan for today's field work is to give students a chance to learn how to collect data needed to generate a species diversity index.  The group divided into five teams.

Janae, Darby and Wyatt have identified their study site and are ready to start collecting data.

Harrison and Rob are hard at work counting lots and lots of barnacles, among other things.

Emily acts as data recorder as Jay and Courtney survey their site.

Bri, Caitlin and Ashley work their site as well.

After data collection is done the MBFE crew spread out and explored another new place, the rocky intertidal zone around the southern edge of Sunset Bay State Park.

Teams are wrapping up their work (Wyatt, Darby and Janae in the foreground, and Katie, Stephen and Darren in the background.  Dr. H's wife also came along to check out what the group had going. 

Harrison and Rob explore and discuss research possibilities. 

Here Ashley and Caitlin look over the rocky shore with the Cape Arago lighthouse in the background.

One new species the group found was the sea palm, Postelsia palmaeformis, one of the cutest seaweeds along the west coast.

Emily shows off a find - an intertidal crab.

Did you know that a length of the hollow stipe of the kelp Nereocystis can be played like a bugle?  Class members give it a try.  It's fun, though the mucus from the seaweed can dry out your lips.  Emily gives it a try.

Courtney tried but was too busy laughing most of the time to get much out of it.  "I'm a violinist," she explained.

Darby tried too, not getting more than a wheeze out of it at first, but redeeming herself later with a good blow.

Wyatt gave it a shot...

As did Janae and other class members.  

Marine biology is fun...and btw, I'll bet you didn't know that people also sometimes make pickles out of this species of kelp.

Once the morning's work was done and we returned to the lab the students were released, and are off the clock until Monday.  Everyone needs some down time!

More to come...stay tuned.

MBFE - Day 4 - Rocky shores and sunny skies

Though we'd only been on site for a few days, we were relieved and excited to see the sun.

The OIMB Dining Hall staff were great.  They had sack breakfasts ready for us by 7am so we could be in our way to the rocky shore at Cape Arago's South Cove and a -1.6' low tide.  Man oh man it was a great morning!  The rain and cold wind of the previous days set us up nicely for a morning doing field work in the rocky intertidal zone at South Cove, Cape Arago State Park.

Here's the 2017 MBFE crew at about 7:20 am getting ready to head down to the shore:

MBFE 2017 (L-R)

Dr. Holyoak, Courtney, Harrison, Bri, Wyatt, Ashley, Jay, Katie, Rob, Darby, Stephen, Janae, Darren, Emily and Caitlin

The crew divided into three teams again, and each team carried out a species richness survey of a tide pool and adjacent non-tide pool rocky area in the mid-intertidal zone and again higher in the intertidal zone.  The groups all went to work with a will.

The group works its into the rocky intertidal zone at South Cove.

After some final instructions the groups are off to work their field sites.

Here are (L-R) Wyatt, Darby, Rob and Jay working one of their sites.

Here are Harrison, Emily, Janae and Darren doing their species count.

(L-R) Ashley, Katie, Caitlin, Bri and Courtney collect data. 

After data collection was done, MBFE team members were encouraged to spend time exploring this rich intertidal zone, collecting specimens they did not yet know and thinking about research.  Some of them surprised themselves by not only what they saw, but by what they were willing to pick up and hold - yep, this is the stuff marine biologists are made of!

Here's Dr. H in his native habitat with a lovely specimen of the brown alga Alaria marginata

MBFE team members clamber over rocks looking for new friends and undiscovered treasures.

(L-R) Rob, Caitlin, Ashley, Jay, Dr. H,, Bri and Katie

Rob and Dr. H put their faces where their feet are to get a better look at all things intertidal.

(L-R) Darby, Janae, Dr. H, and Jay show off their finds.

Here a sea slug in a tide pool.

Students found the largest species of chiton in the world (a chiton is a mollusk that is related to snails and slugs)

Here are some orange sponges living under the edge of a rock.

Courtney poses with a new friend - Cryptochiton stelleri

And Caitlin does the same, "Just to prove to everyone at home that I can do this,"  Anyone surprised?  I guess even she was.

Students also saw sea urchin hotels where many urchins had worm away soft rocks to make homes for themselves where they'd be protected from waves and predators.

When the work was done some members of our group found a dry rock and soaked up the sun.  What a great place to go to work!

Before we knew it we'd been at South Cove for about three hours.  What a great day!  And just when we thought it couldn't get any better, Wyatt thrilled the crowd with his find...the remains of a giant pacific octopus. It had apparently washed ashore and was then dragged above the intertidal zone by some kind of scavenging animal, maybe a dog or possibly a raccoon.  

There's no scale, but the part of the octopus that was left was probably around two feet across.  The arms and suckers were amazingly muscle-bound.  Don't worry, Wyatt's quest for a live octopus continues.

After a busy, busy week of early mornings, long hours in the field, the classroom and the lab stretching into the night, how did the group feel when they were done? 

 TRIUMPHANT!

(L-R) Rob, Darby, Janae, Dr. H, Wyatt, Ashley, Emily, Bri, Jay, Katie, Darren, Caitlin, Courtney, Stephen and Harrison

AND POWERFUL!  

Stay tuned for the ongoing adventures of the 2017 BYU-I MBFE.

MBFE - Day 3 - Fun in the mud

The tides continue to come early in the morning, and this morning, right after breakfast the crew pulled on those rubber boots and after a change of plans, headed off to our friendly neighborhood mudflat.  It's fantastic to be someplace where we can go on a 5-minute walk and be in an amazing marine habitat - today, MUD!

Did you ever get in trouble as a kid for playing in the mud and getting filthy?  Today that class was assigned to dig in the mud, muck around and see what they could find.  They were genuinely surprised to find as much as they did living in the mud - clams and worms and ghost shrimp, Oh My!

Here is the group divided into three teams surveying the diversity of life living in the mudflat from the low tide line up to the top of the mud, a distance of over 150 meters.

Here are (L-R) Emily, Bri, Ashley, Janae and Wyatt getting ready to survey their second site.

This group made up of (L-R) Caitlin, Harrison, Darby, Jay and Stephen take an elevation change reading between two sites.

Once the elevation difference was noted it was time to dig and see what comes up.

In this team (L-R) Emily, Wyatt, Bri, Ashley and Janae, some team members couldn't wait to get in there and get their hands dirty.  

Here is another team (L-R) Courtney, Rob, Katie and Darren digging into another sample site.

Everyone was grateful for a non-rainy morning.  The wind was brisk and the sky was cloudy but it wasn't drippy.  

It was fun to watch the groups as they moved toward the uppermost sample sites in the mudflat...I knew what they were likely to find, and they did...GHOST SHRIMP.  These are burrowing shrimp that can be up to about 5-6 cm long, a surprising find since all the teams had seen so far were mainly clams and worms.  

We had a largely enjoyable and fun 3 hours of digging in the mud!

The rest of the day was devoted to a class meeting, recording field data and identifying species found during the outing.  Mission accomplished!

The sky actually cleared this afternoon and we saw the big round yellow thing in the sky - it's been a stranger since we arrived.  The skies stayed clear enough long enough to give us a fantastic Oregon Coast sunset.  This shot was taken at Sunset Bay.  Here's to many more clear days and beautiful sunsets to come.

Tomorrow's plan is to hit the road early and spend the morning at the rocky intertidal zone at Cape Arago State Park.  We can't wait!

Stay tuned!

MBFE - Day 2 - Wet and Wild

Day two of classes for the daring crew of the 2017 MBFE dawned wet and drippy.  It rained pretty much all night and continued through most of the day.

We started early, meeting in the lab immediately after breakfast at 7:30am, gathered the gear and walked down to a rocky shore adjacent to the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology to collect data showing intertidal zonation.  Here we are heading off into the gloomy grey of an Oregon morning, but with smiles on our faces - we were headed to the field.

I was so proud to see our newly assembled group helping each other as they clambered over boulders and rocks as they made their way toward the research site.  Then once we got there I helped them set up their studies and they got to work.  The class was divided into three groups...

Here are (LR) Ashley (in orange with an elevation pole), Harrison, Wyatt (kneeling) and Rob  

This team included (LR) Janae, Darren, Caitlin, Darby, and Emily.

And the other team was made up of (L-R) Jay, Courtney, Stephen, Bri, and Katie (with pole)

I have to tell you that I've spent quite a bit of time at the coast doing field work over the years, but this was one of the more difficult times I recall in the field.  It was raining, the tide was coming in, yet the students carried on and worked until we had to retreat to higher ground.  It was about 2.5-3 hours before we headed back to campus but not before we took our first group photo: 

BYU-Idaho MBFE Participants 2017

(L-R) Wyatt, Darby, Janae, Katie, Jay, Ashley, Dr. H, Emily, Stephen, Bri, Darren, Caitlin, Courtney, Rob and Harrison

They were soaked, they were drippy, but the were still smiling!

Later on that day the crew reassembled to record data and work up their observations.

Students also worked into the night identifying specimens collected during the the morning's outing. Yep, things are working out nicely.  Like a student from a previous MBFE class once happily quipped, "Sleep is for tourists!"

And this day that started so dark and grey ended with a beautiful sunset at nearby Bastendorf Beach. Here's to the possibility of a drier even more enjoyable field day tomorrow!

Stay tuned for the ongoing adventures of the 2017 BYU-Idaho MBFE.