Ashbury College - Day 1

Early this morning we greeted the Ashbury College students that arrived last night from Ottawa.  We packed up our boots and boarded the bus for the short drive through town to Indian Point.  Here in the foggy intertidal zone we looked for animals under rocks and seaweed.  We found a great diversity of creatures such as sea stars, urchins, rock gunnel fish, and finally the elusive sponge.  

As the tide pushed us back to shore the students studied plankton in the lab and went aboard our research vessel, the Fundy Spray.  While on the Fundy Spray the students counted animals collected from the bottom of the bay, gathered data using a secchi disk and salinometer, and had a tasty snack of fresh scallop.  

The students are currently on a tour of the aquarium and this evening they will have a presentation from Danielle Dion on the whales that visit the Bay of Fundy in preparation for our whale watching trip tomorrow.

Foggy at Indian Point.

Searching for animals in the intertidal zone.

A beautiful terebellid worm!

They finally found sponge!!

Lots of great finds ready to back to the lab to study.

Copepods from the plankton sample collected today.

Learning about the base of the marine 

food chain in the plankton lab.

Collecting from the subtidal zone using the scallop drag.

Found a brittle star in the collection. 

Taking the salinity and temperature readings.

Starting their aquarium tour with a video of the tides.