MBFE - Day 24 - By-The-Wind-Sailors continue to wash ashore in the millions

We had our last BIO 314 lecture on Tuesday 5/12 so students have shifted to full-time work on their research, writing, gathering photos for a class assignment, and getting their field/research notebooks ready for evaluation early next week.

The By-The-Wind-Sailor Velella velella appeared in one of the early MBFE 2015 updates, but students and I remain shocked at the vast number of these little animals that keep washing ashore along beaches near us.

Velella is related to animals like sea anemones, jellyfish, and coral.  They have an upright sail that allows them to tack away from the direction of the wind and normally avoid shore.  As they drift they dangle tentacles into the water and capture small plankton that they use for food.

On Bastendorf Beach, only a mile or so south of the marine lab, you can see even more of these lovely little animals along the entire length of the beach.   

In some places they are stacked several deep on the sand.  Sadly, ones that wash ashore die.

Velella are, thankfully, not dangerous to bare feet.  It's impossible to avoid these if you want to walk the beach near the water, and they are disturbingly squishy.

The appearance of hoards of these animals appearing on west coast shorelines is not at all unusual, so there is no cause for alarm, though this is amazing.

We are on track and doing great.

Stay tuned for more updates.

MBFE - Days 15-16 - Research continues

The days are starting to fly by.  Now that we are done with our class field trips, teams of students are engaged in their research whenever they are not in class.

Speaking of class...the past two days have been real crowd pleasers.  Tuesday was "Shark Day."  We spent a couple of hours in the afternoon discussing sharks and their relatives.  I mean what student who signs up for a field marine biology trip like this one doesn't like sharks?

Then today we returned to our overview of marine communities and we spent our time thinking about life in the deep sea open water environment.  This meant that we discussed topics like marine snow, bioluminescence, and daily vertical migrations.

Yesterday morning and this morning students spent time in the lab and in the field.

A couple of groups spend a few hours doing field work back at South Cove, Cape Arago.  Here are Arianne, Kelly, and Jessica making their way over the drift logs at the bottom of the trail down to the beach.

Later Devon, Joseph, and Luke (far right) arrived to do some collecting while Isaac and Shannon collected specimens and data (far left).

The crew is really getting into their research, though some of the groups are still working to get their research feet under them.  All in all though, things are going great.

Student research teams were also out working this morning's nice low tide.  Here are Jennifer (left) and Eileen (right) getting ready to collect data they need to investigate population genetics of shell color in a common mussel.  The large rock is near the OIMB and is their research site.

In the meantime Luke, Joseph, and Devon work the low tide at South Cove as they collect data on the the population vertical distribution and size frequency distribution of little animals called chitons. They are also hoping to observe the development of these animals under different levels of water acidity.

The animals they are working on are not familiar to many people, but they are related to snails.  They have 8 shell plates and are some of the nicest animals you are likely to meet (see below).  

Stay tuned as the MBFE adventure continues.

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...