MBFE - Weds 5/15 - A three hour tour, and three hour tour...

We had a full day including an outing on the research boat in the morning and looking at plankton we collected on the boat in the lab in the afternoon.

The only class field trip we had had left to do was to go out on the U Oregon research vessel RV Pluteus and collect plankton samples and do some bottom trawls to see what we might get there.
Today was that day!

Here we are at 8am, geared up and ready to depart.

Here's the team (L-R): Dr. Holyoak (on dock), Sam, Eric, Victoria, Michelle, Cale, Collin, Matt, Liv, Chey, Jenn, Maddie, Hunter, Emma, Anne, Ben.

This is the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology's main research vessel, the RV Pluteus.  Pluteus, by the way, is a larval stage of a sea urchin.  

Before departing, Captain Knute welcomed the group and gave some safety instructions.  And we were off!  We passed some of Charleston, Oregon's fishing fleet as we left the harbor.  Charleston is a commercial fishing port, and a fish processing plant is actually right across the street from the OIMB.

It was a gray, overcast but calm morning as we headed out onto the bay.  The wheelhouse on the boat is fairly small, so most of the time most of the students were out on deck (me too).  We did not need to leave Coos Bay to do what we needed to.  That was nice.  We were on relatively calm water and didn't have much wind either.

Here are (L-R) Ben (turned away, Jenn, Eric (background), and other mystery students hooded up.

Meanwhile on the foredeck, Hunter, Caleb, Matt and Anne took in the sights as we headed out.

As did Chey, who was also up there.

Once underway, Capt Knute had time to chat with our group.  Here he is with Ben.

Our first task was to deploy the plankton net and collect plankton to take back to the lab.  A plankton net, at least the one we used, was perhaps a meter in diameter.  After pulling it behind the boat for a little while we needed to haul it in and put the sample in jars.  We did two plankton tows.  

Michelle is pulling in the plankton net as Victoria looks on.

Shortly after we left shore, it started to sprinkle and then to rain.  Up went the hoods and people started to shelter under the aft overhang of the wheelhouse, but spirits and morale remained high.  Here are (L-R) Collin, Chey, Maddie, Emma and Michelle.

And toward the stern were (L-R) Matt, Jenn (facing away), Eric and Sam.

In this photo should note that the wire cable coming off of the winch is taut. This means that we were in the middle of a bottom trawl using an otter-trawl net.  

And the rain kept on coming down...

When it was time to retrieve the net, someone has to guide the cable back onto the spool so it goes side to side and doesn't wrap up too much in one place.  Liv volunteered to do that job of a deckhand during one of the retrievals.

We attempted two bottom trawls, but, alas, the net was fouled and we didn't get any samples either time.  So, sadly the efforts to bottom trawl were a bust.  By this time many in the group were wet and chilled so we headed back in.  By the time we docked we'd been been out for three hours...just like the crew and passengers of the SS Minnow (Gilligan's Island), except we made it back to shore a-okay!

Here were a couple of nice finds.  This first one is something that I'd know about for a long, long time, but I'd never seen a live one.  This is a planula larva of a cnidarian, possibly a sea anemone.  If successful, it will settle down someplace and metamorphose into a juvenile anemone or some other kind of cnidarian.

If you look carefully in the center of this photograph you'll see something that looks like it has clusters of needles sticking out of it.  It is a larval annelid worm of some kind.  It will eventually elongate and start adding segments.  It will then settle out of the water and become a juvenile worm.  Very cool stuff, right?

By the end of the afternoon we were all pretty well bushed, and ready to rest up for the next day.

This outing was the last of our scheduled marine biology class field experiences.  From now on we will still have daily lectures and the rest of each day will be devoted to student research.