Introduction to Marine Biology 2017

We look forward to this week every year. The week when we welcome high school students with an interest in the ocean to the Huntsman for an introduction to marine biology field course. While here the students go on our research vessel, gather data on invasive species, explore rocky and muddy intertidal zones, study live animals and their behaviour in the lab, use microscopes, conduct a fish dissection, tour the Huntsman Fundy Discovery Aquarium and the Atlantic Reference Centre, and look at the connection between art and biology. It is a fun week of hands-on learning!

Here are a few pictures from our week.

Boarding the Fundy Spray.

Sorting through the items collected using the benthic drag.

We found a great diversity of animals, including a toad crab,

common seastars, blood stars,

scallops,

and rock crabs.

Using the secchi disk.

We collected phytoplankton and zooplankton to study in the lab.

Exploring a rocky intertidal zone.

Found quite a few green crabs with eggs.

Also, found some little seastars!

In the lab identifying all the animals we have collected so far...38!

Getting a closer look at the anatomy of a sea urchin.

Doing their part to combat marine debris.

#DebrisFreeFundy

Searching to see what lives in the sediments.

We found a beautiful clam worm.

Also, a milky ribbon worm.

The students also got a huge piece of rope off the beach. 

Examining the feeding rate of barnacles at different temperatures.

Art and biology combine to study fish anatomy.

Screen printing t-shirts.

One of the finished shirts.

Does size affect the flipping rate of seastars and urchins?

Observing the flipping behaviour.

Last experiment was to test the strength of sea urchins. Some held 25 times their own weight!