MBFE Weds 5/8/2019 - Back to South Cove, Cape Arago State Park

Tuesday afternoon we spent a couple of hours discussion strategies intertidal marine organisms have for dealing with water flow forces, as well as desiccation stresses, etc.  And today we had the best low tide so far (-1.0' MLLW) and fantastic weather so we headed to South Cove, Cape Arago State Park, where I cut the group loose to look for examples of the strategies we discussed the previous day. 

It was still cloudy when we arrived around 8am, but within an hour the fog and clouds burned off and we had an absolutely lovely, sunny, warm and calm day.  Students were not assigned to research teams, but they are always expected to use the buddy system while at the shore - just for safety.

Here Hunter, Collin, Chey and Liv head out toward the rocky shore.

It didn't take long for Victoria to make a lucky find, though the crab got her back with a nasty pinch to the thumb.  Victoria handled it with grace and a smile.  And, of course, other class members wanted to meet this crab as well...

 

Chey...

Liv...

Collin...

It's always fun to me to watch the MBFE students develop friendships and meld into a working team during the field experience.  Some friendships that start here can last a lifetime.

Here are Hunter, Michelle, Maddy and Jen clowning around with a bull kelp.

Anne, Caleb and Sam explore the lower intertidal zone.

And here Collin, Jen, Victoria, Maddy and Emma share a discovery.

After spending a couple of productive hours at South Cove, we decide to strike out on an adventure and work our way around the point between South Cove and Middle Cove.  

This requires not a small amount of scrambling over rocks and pools.  It was fun though.

We made it to Middle Cove.  Interestingly, South Cove is a protected rocky shore, while Middle Cove is an exposed rocky shore, and so has different things to offer.

These are the kinds of experiences that the MBFE students remember for the rest of their lives.

Normally, we have lecture in the afternoon after a morning like this, but the weather was simply fantastic, so I released the students to enjoy the sunny, warm weather on the Oregon coast (a relatively rare thing).  I later learned I would have had to cancel class anyway because there was a scheduled power outage at the lab that I knew nothing about.  Serendipity!

Not to worry, I have a full day planned for tomorrow.

MBFE - Days 1-3 We are here! 5/2-5/5

It finally came - BYU-Idaho Marine Biology Field Experience (MBFE) 2019!

After three hours of lecture on our first full morning of MBFE, we headed for the field in the afternoon.  We spent three largely sun-soaked hours at the rocky intertidal zone at Cape Arago State Park, South Cove.  Here is this year's group.  

LR: Dr. Holyoak, Sam, Matt, Eric, Caleb (back), Maddy, Hunter, Michelle, Cheyennah, Collin, Anne, Emma, Victoria, Jen (back), Liv and Ben.  

And this is the way they look when you're usually not looking...and how they feel about being at the seashore.

And so, the adventure begins.  I felt a little like a duck with her little ducklings in a row behind her as we walked down the path to the beach...

Over the driftwood logs and debris that's common along this part of the coast...

And out onto the beach on our way to our destination - the rocky shore at low tide!!!

And after negotiating the algae-covered rocks was when the real fun began!  Data collection.  Today's exercise was a species richness survey using 100cm3 quadrats to compare the tops and sides of rocks in an assigned area.

They LOVED IT!

Collin, Maddy and Michelle...

Anne, Victoria and Emma...

Sam, Eric, Matt(?), Jen and Caleb

Caleb takes a close look in a tide pool.

Emma, Ben (back), Anne, Victoria (I think)

Caleb, Anne, Hunter, Eric, Sam...

Collin (in rock), Liv (below), Michelle, Maddy, Victoria

Chey makes here way over some rocks with samples in her bucket.

Hunter and Eric check out what's in their team's bucket.

And three hours later it's time to head back to the lab to be in time for dinner.  It was a great day in the field.

I'm happy to report that this one day at the rocky shore was enough to alter all of my students' minds sufficiently that they are now unavoidably drawn to rocky areas, even when beautiful sandy beaches beckon.  Ha ha - how do I know?  The next day, Friday 5/3, we were in the field for about 3.5 hours visiting several local beaches doing beach profile surveys and collecting sand for particle-size analysis.  Invariably, as soon as the sand was collected and we had looked at the beach profile, students would bee-line toward the nearest rocky outcropping to see what was there.

Your honor, for evidence I present the following photographs :-)

Students around a rocky outcropping at Cape Arago, South Cove...

Students examining rocks at Simpson Beach (Shore Acres State Park).

And, lastly, students on rocky shelves by the beach at Cape Arago, Middle Cove.

I rest my case.

This actually happens every trip, it just happened faster than normal this time around.

Saturday 5/4 - Yes, May the Fourth, STAR WARS DAY - was celebrated, but not until the evening after students had completed their sand particle size analyses and many of them visited some tall ships that were in the area for a few days.  

Here are the Lady Washington (foreground) and the Hawaiian Chieftain (background).  They just happened to be visiting Coos Bay this weekend, so most of us went and took a look.  They are pretty cool all right!

And we topped off the day with a STAR WARS movie party in the cottage where my wife and I are staying.  

May the Fourth be With You!

MBFE - Day 12 - A Walk in the Park well between parks

Here it is, day 12 of the 2017 BYU-Idaho marine biology field experience, and our second Saturday.  The day was sunny (woot!) but windy.  

There were no scheduled class meetings or classes today so students used the morning to rest, recuperate and work on research.  In the afternoon some of us used the beautiful day to go on a 4 mile hike along the cliffs above the ocean between Sunset Bay State Park and Shore Acres State Park - former summer home of timber magnate LJ Simpson.  

It was a fantastic day!

Here are some of the vistas the day treated us to.

 

Between Sunset Bay and Shore Acres

 

Cape Arago lighthouse.

 

Between Sunset Bay and Shore Acres

 

Between Sunset Bay and Shore Acres

 

Simpson's Beach, Shore Acres State Park

(L-R) Courtney, Darby and Rob, Katie, Bri, Harrison and Ashley

At the end of our hike we went down to Simpson Beach at Shore Acre State Park.  It's a pretty little pocket beach with a nice sandy beach overlooking the a rocky shelf and the outlet to the ocean.  It was here that I realized that the trip is really working!  Rather than lounge up on the beach, the group was drawn to the rocks and tide pools where they started scouring the place to see which algae and invertebrate animals were there.  Life is good! 

We came across an impressive overlook along the trail, just before we arrived at Shore Acres State Park, where waves were crashing full-force into the rocky shore.  We were well back from the edge, but we stayed and watched for a while.  Here are a few highlights of that break.

 

If you look closely you'll see two people sitting atop some rocks to the left of this image (Darby and Courtney).  Though it looks like they are dangerously close to the waves, they are well back and there is a deep channel between them and the waves.  They are in no danger.  In fact, they didn't even get wet.

I made a short animated gif that shows this particular wave breaking.

 

The hike took about 3 hours, and we were all glad we went.  

Then to cap off the weekend most of the crew (including me) went to the theater and watched Guardians of the Galaxy 2.  Good times were had by all.

Stay tuned for more adventures and updates from the BYU-Idaho MBFE.

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.