The days of frequent log entries are probably over. For the past week my typical day starts at 6:00 in the morning when I roll out of bed. I typically leave Hobbit either by dinghy (usually) or bicycle shortly after 6:30. Before 7:00 I’m either in the lab, in front of a computer looking up words I don’t understand, or studying for the quiz I will be taking at 8:30. We now have a quiz before each algae lecture on assigned reading.
We have lecture from 8:30 till about 10:00 then lab. Typically we have about 4-5 hours of lab work assigned for the 2 hour lab. Since I only have a couple of handfuls of trail mix for lunch, I typically work through lunch trying to get as much lab work done as possible. The afternoon lecture starts at 1:30 followed by the afternoon lab where we get another 4-5 hours work for a 2-hour period. I usually stay in lab until just before 6:00 when dinner is served in the cafeteria. The zoobots generally sit together and have good discussions about everything under the sun. By 7:00 I’m back on Hobbit where I study until I fall into bed about 11:00.
Just before one lab the instructor (Robin) opened a case of bottled water and gave everybody one. She then said we had 30 minutes to drink the water (just under a quart) because the bottle was needed for lab. The water was irrelevant, what she wanted was for each of us to have a cylindrical glass bottle with a lid for an experiment. We gathered some mud from the beach then added shredded newspaper and a couple of chemicals. This filled the bottom third of the bottle. We added a small layer of mud without the newspaper and chemicals, then slowly filled the bottle all the way to the top with filtered seawater and screwed the lid on. The bottles were then set in the window. The plan is to observe what types of life develop. The compled project is called a "Winogradsky column." The water cost $3.59 a bottle – it is artesian spring water from Norway. I can’t imagine who would pay this much for bottled water unless what they want is the bottle.
Wally Holding Winogradsky Column
There is one quiz we had last week I just have to describe. Both algae instructors told us not to concern ourselves with taxonomy. Nevertheless, one quiz required a very detailed knowledge of the taxonomy of quite a few groups with absurdly long names. The names themselves were long enough that it requires several days of repetition to even remember them. Nevertheless, the 5 question quiz on the preceding night’s reading required an understanding of the material on the taxa. I looked at the quiz the instructor flashed up on the screen and didn’t know the answer to a single question even though I had read and outlined all the material. I sat back for a moment and wondered how the instructor would write the test. I decided he would just go through the groups 1 by 1. Fortunately, the last thing I did before closing my notes was look at the 5 groups. For question 1 I put down the first group. For question 2 I put down the second group. For question 3 we had to choose between one of 2 anatomical features. I asked myself what one the instructor would like the most and put that down. Same for question 4 which was a true-false question. For question 5 I had to put down the age of the oldest known fossils for a particular group – I had nothing to help me there. Incredible as it may seem, I got the first 4 questions right and missed the 5th. Apparently the whole class had the same problem with the above quiz. Based on conversations at dinner, it appears everyone drew a big blank with the quiz.
By week’s end the stress level for the whole class was quite high so I invited everyone to Hobbit for a TGIF wind down. Nine of the other 11 students checked out FHL rowboats and came over about 8:00 for what was an enjoyable evening.
Zoobots on Hobbit. From left to right: Sarah, Caitlin, Kaza, Kelsey, Lauren, Bev, Whitney, Asher
Today (Saturday) I took the dinghy over to the lab and got mostly caught up. By mid afternoon I headed out on a 25 mile, 3 hour bike ride over fairly hilly terrain. My destination was Cattle point. Near the end of the ride is a National Historical Monument called “American Camp.” Back in the early 1800’s the Americans and the British had what I think is their last armed conflict – the Pig War. Fortunately, the only fatality was a pig. The altercation was over the ownership of the San Juan Islands. Ultimately America and England called on the German emperor to mediate the dispute. He ruled in favor of the Americans, hence the San Juans are now American and not Canadian. My body is telling me that I haven’t been exercising much and a 3-hour bike ride is quite a bit.
Cattle Point with Lighthouse
One constant since I got to Friday Harbor has been the incessant wind. It is rare that we have less than 10 to 15 kts. I can only hope this abates as it makes life somewhat unpleasant.
April 17, Saturday
Most of the past week was spent on invertebrates and field trips so it wasn’t as tough academically as the week before when we spent most of our time on algae. Unfortunately, however, starting last Sunday I spent most of the week sick with a cold. It was bad enough on Tuesday so that Megan (the zoology instructor) suggested I not accompany the class to an “expert’s day” trip to a local middle school where 6th graders were being taught about marine invertebrates. Probably a good call on her part as I went through the better part of a box of Kleenex in one day.
Several species of wild animals have become quite adapted to people at the lab. Raccoons are an issue at the dumpsters and sometimes approach people walking there with something in their hand. Deer roam all over and ignore you until you get about 15 or 20 feet away. Occasionally a red fox will wonder through the campus. In another month or two fox kits will show up and we were warned not to pet them as the parents may get aggressive. It is also not uncommon to see an otter bound between the buildings. Yesterday while standing on a bank at the lab I even came across a pair of otters mating.
We regularly hear about how easy the Mac is to operate compared to PCs. Most of the machines here are Macs. Interestingly, most of them are configured as PCs running XP. On a few occasions I have had to use one in the Mac mode – that’s all that’s available in our lab. Personally I don’t see why people think Macs are easier. If anything, I find them more difficult than PCs. Just saving my work has been a challenge. A couple of days ago I tried to do a scan and was unsuccessful at saving my work. I got help from one of the people running the computer network. It took him the better part of 15 minutes of playing around with the software before he figured out how to put the scan on my memory stick. Then yesterday we were using a freeware statistics program which had been loaded onto all of the computers. Those of us with one running in the PC mode had no trouble. They never did figure out how to make it work on those machines running as a Mac.
On Monday we took a field trip to a place fairly close to the south-east point of San Juan Island called False Bay. It gets its name because when the tide is up it looks like a great spot to come in and anchor a boat. However, the bay is very shallow and almost completely dries to mud flats during minus tides. Our primary goal was to find as many species of worms as possible. For those not familiar with marine worms, the number of kinds is enormous and the way they look is really varied. We were also looking for different types of algae. Zoobots Looking at Algae, False Bay, San Juan Island
Charley Teaching Zoobots about Algae at False Bay
On Thursday we took a trip to Reuben Tarte Park which is on the San Juan Channel not far from Roche Harbor. This park has a rock shoreline and is rarely exposed to the brunt of major storms. The trip was a nice diversion. It has surprised me how many different types of algae there are within small areas of rocky shoreline.
Charley and Zoobots at Reuben Tart Park
The best trip of the week, however, was to Cattle Point which is the southeast tip of San Juan Island. Since the middle 1980s the instructor of the marine zoology course has been collecting data on the number and species of the animals, plants, and algae.
As a side note, when I went to college in the 1960s there were 2 kingdoms: plants and animals. Now, based on DNA evidence, the debate is on how many kingdoms there are and even whether or not the kingdom concept is still valid. In any event, brown and red algae are certainly not in the plant kingdom. Green algae may be since land plants originated from them. Also interesting is that fungi are now placed very close to animals and are very far removed from plants.
Anyway, back to the Cattle Point studies. On the order of 20 pairs of stainless steel marker bolts were drilled into the rock back when the study originated. Every year the class has come out and placed a grid made of PVC and string over the bolts then counted everything there as well as estimated how much cover each of the different species in the grid occupied. In the following picture you can see me and the young woman, Sarah, I was teamed up with collecting our data. The second picture, also at Cattle Point was one I liked so much I had to include it. It shows a Leopard nudibranch (Diaulula sandiegensis – about 2 inches long) eating purple sponge (Haliclona permollis). The tubes sticking up are homes to “feather duster” worms which don’t stick their plumes out unless the tide is up.
Wally and Sarah Collecting Data on Cattle Point Transect
Leopard nudibranch (Diaulula sandiegensis) eating purple sponge (Haliclona permollis)
