It's a wrap!

    

Thought the sun set on my time at Shannon Point I will never forget it.

     What an amazing life affirming experience I had this summer with COSEE at Shannon Point Marine Center.  My only disappointment was that it went by way too fast and I was packing to return home before I knew it.  Luckily I'm not truly finished yet and still have some writing to do and most likely a conference with my adviser, Dr. Dinnel, in the near future. Plus, as I live close, I will return to volunteer on the continuing Olympia oyster restoration project monitoring whenever I can.  I plan to continue helping Denise Crow with any outreach projects that I can as well, which is always so much fun.

     This program reinforced my decision to make a huge life and career change moving from law to science.  Everyone I had the good fortune to interact with this summer was so amazing, friendly, helpful and excited about science.  Not only did COSEE help me become confident and comfortable in my decisions I was lucky enough that Shannon Point Marine Center is part of Western Washington University where I was accepted and will start in the fall.  I feel like I really have a foot in the door and more understanding of my program of study and the opportunities available to me at an undergraduate student.   I also am already planning to apply to be an REU student next summer, something I may not have done without this summers experience.
     When our final numbers were crunched it is evident that the oyster restoration project is  considered successful, a very happy moment for me.  Between this project and the City of Anacortes working to clean up their entire waterfront from historic mill operations the area is, and will continue to, recover ecologically.   Additional sites have shown to be promising as well and oyster seed will be planted this fall or next spring. 
     Thank you COSEE for an unforgettable summer and life affirming experience I will carry this forward with me using all I have learned to be a better scientist.

Crista working her magic with a camera older than herself.

Crista's installation, everyone's pictures and cyanotypes.

The wonderful students I was lucky enough to spend the summer with.

My individual shot. I love it!

The end of one adventure simply signals the beginning of another.

 *I was lazy and this is my final COSEE post.

    

A beautiful end to fieldwork (8/1)

Padilla Bay

      Today marked the end of the fieldwork portion of my summer experience and what a beautiful note to end the experience on.  First Dr. Dinnel and I went to Padilla Bay to scout for a good seed location that was marked by way-points on the GPS and to replace the temperature sensor.  It was a beautiful day to slog about in the mud. 

Still working on the over/unders.

     A non native snail species is present in Padilla Bay.  Battalaria as far as the eye can see, these little guys aren't classified as invasive, meaning they haven't been shown to have a negative impact on the local environment.  They have provided a boon to the local hermit crab housing scene.

Battalaria everywhere.

      After we finished we headed out to Lone Tree Point to chat with a tribal representative biologist about placement of spat on shells next year.  Jen, the Swinomish representative we were talking with then headed out to Kiket Island with us to discuss placement there.  We also replaced the temperature and salinity sensor.  We dropped Jen back off and headed back to SPMC done with out fieldwork for the summer.

One Tree Point Lagoon

Mussels at One Tree Point.

     Mussels growing in the outflows is a good sign the both temperature and salinity in the area are probably good for oysters as well.

Kiket Island lagoon outflow.

     I put the final touches on my data analysis tonight and just need to make my trestle illustration and substrate and oyster density illustration to go along with it.  My time here is coming quickly to an end and I am sad that it went so fast and extremely grateful for the experiences and opportunities I have had here at Shannon Point.

Spectacular failure (9/31)

Heading out from Cap Sante Marina

     Tuesday morning found Dr. Dinnel and myself kayaking out to retrieve a shell bag that wasn't collected in the spring with the rest.  After we rounded the breakwater and started along parallel to the shore I heard a wet breath behind me and found a harbor seal checking us out.  He got less then ten feet from both Dr. Dinnel and myself which Dr. Dinnel said was unusual.  They usually don't get that close but this little guy was super curious.  At one point he dove under me and I stuck my camera in the water in an attempt to catch a photo, I didn't really think I would get anything and was pleasantly surprised when I found the photo below. 

Lucky shot!

Our futile shell bag site.

      The site for the shell bag wasn't to glamorous, the end of a drain in a marina.  We looked and looked, feeling around through thick kelp for about half an hour.  We found this years shell bag but not last years.  We eventually gave up and headed back to the marina.

Feeling watched.

     On our way back to got some more attention from the harbor seals and it soon became apparent why.  Mom and baby were hauled out on a float, a float we actually have a shell bag nailed on.  There was at least one seal in the water keeping an eye on us and mom watched while the baby nursed.  We kept a respectful distance and they seemed fine with us.

Momma nursing baby.

More momma and baby.

      As we approached the marina I wasn't quite sure what I was seeing in the water, as we got closer I realized it was a couple of guys chest deep in the water wandering around with clipboards.  We stopped and chatted with them and they were contracted through the marina to survey how well the out planted eel grass was doing.  It is thriving and that is fantastic!  This is part of the clean up of Cap Sante Marina and the oil tank farm that I discussed last week.
     After we got back to the marina and out of the kayaks we followed the GPS to where it claimed a remaining temperature sensor was supposed to be.  We spent about 20 minutes digging around in the mud but were unable to locate the sensor.  Dr. Dinnel thinks it got covered under more than the 3-4 inches of mud we were digging in.  We gave up and headed to our last task of the day, one we couldn't fail at.

Weaverling Spit, future shell addition point.

     Weaverling Spit is at the west end of the trestle and is slated to receive oyster shell to encourage recruitment of native oysters.  Dr. Dinnel and I took a sampling of the current substrate to have a basis of comparison after the shell is delivered. 
     Though we failed at two of our three tasks it was a really amazing and beautiful day.  Also as it was only of the lowest day tides of the summer everywhere we went we found other people surveying and working on ecological projects.  It was encouraging and nice to see everyone out working to help the environment. 

I'm going to be famous, or something. (9/30)

     Monday morning Dr. Dinnel and I met with a film crew from Western.  They interviewed us on the history of the restoration project and oysters in Washington in general.  It was fun and laid back, I just don't think about that fact that people will see it later.  Apparently our interviews will be edited into a few minute segment for a show through WWU.  Hopefully we get a copy and I can see how goofy I sounded.
    After we were finished with filming Dr. Dinnel and I headed further down the road to Crandall Spit on refinery property.  After we checked in with security and got the go-ahead we headed down to the beach.  We planted a temperature sensor and took a series of quadrat samples to asses suitability as native oyster habitat.  There are plans to place dead oyster shell there to encourage recruitment.

We walked under the oil pipeline to get where we needed to on the beach.

     Dr. Dinnel was not surprised to find the occasional Olympia oyster already where we were doing our quadrat samples.  The one pictures below is an oyster of unusual size, well it is big for an Olympia.

Large Olympia found at Crandall Spit.

The beautiful survey area.

 While I was poking around in the stream running from a lagoon to the open water I found a hermit crab living without a shell.  I felt bad for the little guy but he was being picky, there were quite a few shells around.  I did place him on a rock and as hoping he would unwind and leap off but not while I was looking apparently.  The curly part visible in the picture is his rear, usually hidden in the home.

Naked hermit crab.