MBFE - Day 2 - Octopus!

It's hard to believe that the marine biology field experinece (MBFE) has been rolling for only two days!  The students have already learned a ton and are gelling nicely as a group.

Yes, it was another busy day.  We got another early start.  After our usual 7 am breakfast the crew met in the lab at 8 am ready to head out and do more field work. Today's adventure?  Observe vertical zonation of organisms in the intertidal zone.

There was another great low tide today of nearly -1.0'.

Students divided themselves into three groups of 5 to carry out today's field work.  FYI, this part of the world experiences what is called a mixed semidiurnal tide.  This means that there are two high tides and two low tides during each 24 hour period and one of the high tides is higher than the other and one of the low tides is lower than the other.  This produces an interesting distribution of organisms along the shoreline, with rather distinct horizontal bands of different kinds of organisms.

Each team of students collected data needed to plot the cross-sectional profile of the intertidal zone as well as collected data that indicated percent cover of areas they surveyed as well as lists of species contributing to that ground cover.

Here are some action shots from the outing.

Joseph uses a horizontal sight to determine the contour of his team's transect line along the intertidal zone.

Another team (L-R: Eileen, Shannon, Rachel S,, Skyler, and Isaac) collects data on total percent cover and species richness along their transect line.

Another team does does the same (L-R: Rachel M, Jennifer, Danielle, Jessica, and Courtney) along their transect.

Though everyone enjoyed collecting more data, the day's main excitement happened when one of the crew found a small octopus in a tide pool!  I think that made everyone's trip all in one go.

Here's Devon with our new little friend.  Everything went just fine until the little critter decided it has been held quite long enough and it gave Devon a good pinch with its parrot-like beak.  Luckily only a little blood was let and Devon carried on like a trooper.  Further research in the lab showed that this is most likely a juvenile giant Pacific octopus.  It's now living in its own little enclosed space complete with small crabs for its snacking pleasure.

The octopus hasn't been named yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

After lunch we spent a couple of hours in lecture.  It was another great day.  

Check back for tomorrow's adventure.  You never know what we might see or do..and I mean that in a good way.