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.