Saturday 10 September 2011

Our Final Day

By Jordan Samberg        

         Today was our final day of our marine biology course. We started off our morning just after breakfast with a fish dissection. We each got a fish. We first had to start out and identify our fish. The fish I got was a white wake. Then, we examined its external anatomy and analyzed certain characteristics such as its markings, fins and furthermore. We did this to estimate certain characteristics of the fish such as; if it is a hard-bodied or soft-bodied fish to determine if it is a fast or a slow swimmer, if it  has teeth to trap its prey, if it is stream-lined shaped bodied and if it has large eyes for deep low-lighted areas of the ocean, and farther on. After examining its external anatomy we sliced open the the inside to see its internal anatomy, which we then identified its vital organs.
       
         Later on that day we did our presentation marine related problems. Each one of us received a individual topic 2 days ago. We did research and then presented our topic for 15 to 30 minutes to everyone else. Our first presentation was by Jason Miller on the decline of Atlantic Cod. He discussed how Atlantic during past years was hunted enough to be put on to the endangered species because of the more efficient and successful fishing technology it developed to catch an excessive amount. After Jason, went George Perlman and he discussed bycatch, which is when fishermen unintentionally catch other fish that they did not intend to catch with their nets. The fisherman have right to legally sell the bycatch. However, this can lead to a serious problem because fishermen can target certain areas catching other fish declaring it as bycatch, and they don't have permits for that specific fish. After George, was Conor Smith and he did a presentation on coral bleaching. This is when coral bleach because of temperature change, deadly chemicals are released and pressure change, which causes the coral to release hazardous chemicals for the other corals possibly wiping out the reef. This can cause a problem for marine life that coral is its vegetation. After Conor, was Nicholas Stavrakis and he wrote about 5 garbage geysers in the ocean. He discussed the hazardous of each of these geysers and how they are larger than Texas. Each geyser is located in one ocean, and all garbage forms the geysers by being pushed together by the current. After Stravakis, was Nikita Vezina and he talked about aquaculture, which is fish farming. He discussed the issues how they cause problems by the bacteria formed in these fish farms. After Nikita, was me. I talked about marine ecotourism, which is activities that involve exhibiting touring the marine world, such as scuba diving, snorkling, whale watching and so on. I discussed how the noise pollution and pollution of fumes and gas, but I said it was still very important for awareness and knowledge of the marine world. after me was Charles McCluskey and he discussed swimming with the dolphins, and how they it can be dangerous because potentially dolphins are aggressive. However, we disagreed with this notion because beside orcas(killer whales) which are in fact dolphins, this has only been one recorded dolphin attack. This dolphin was also being attacked by the man who was drunk and the dolphin just rammed the man and he died of internal injuries. After this presentation and marine experience was finished.               

       

      

Final day of our trip

I cannot believe that a week has already gone by. It is incredible of how much you learn in a hands on experience. This trip has been one of my favourite school trips at Selwyn House and I would do it again in a flash because I learnt so many interesting facts about marine life. I would like to thank our teacher as well as the staff there for making it such an awesome adventure.

Today, we dissected fish in the morning and presented our projects in the afternoon. I really loved dissecting my white hake fish because it was cool to see the insides of it. I did not know that the organs of fish do not take up the whole body. In fact, they take up only a small portion of the body and the rest of it is muscle. I really found the mouth of my fish interesting because it expanded so large that it could eat something as big as itself. Opening up the stomach and finding little fish skeletons inside was amazing. seeing its dark red heart and digestive system was fascinating because they are so much smaller than you think.

The presentations in the afternoon were really well done and it was amazing to see how one topic was related and linked to the other. We all put in 100% effort in our presentations and it really showed. Eating supper as a group outside on the picnic tables was enjoyable and seeing everyone run up into the dinning room when the chef told us that there was ice cream inside made me laugh.

I learnt so many interesting things about marine life on this trip and truly did appreciate the wonderful scenery around me. New Brunswick is such a unique town and the hands on activities that we did made it a lot more fun. I hope that the next group of Selwyn kids who plan on coming on this trip enjoy it as much as I did. A big thanks to Mr. Grier and Mr. Deegan for making this a super cool week.

Nikita

Final Day

Throughout this trip we encountered many different types of marine animals and plants. We went on many excursions and  even got to see a shark. My favourite activity was when we went whale watching. There was really no outing or activity that I didn't like on this trip. My favourite lab was this morning where we had to dissect a fish. It was really cool I got to see what the liver of a herring looks like under the microscope. Also the heart was oddly close to its head and most of the herring's organs were hidden behind its digestive tract which was pretty cool. All in all the trip was fun and I would do it again in a flash. I would like to thank Tracy and Laura for being amazing teachers throughout this trip. Finally I want to thank Mr. Deegan and Mr. Grier for coordinating this whole trip without them this whole trip would never have been made possible.

Gotta love photoshop

Today was our last day here at the Huntsman Marine Science Center, and it’s a bit disappointing to know that we have to leave early tomorrow morning and then be expected to go to school the next day. I mean really, where is our break? People enjoy their weekends at home but I get to enjoy it by dissecting a fish and giving a presentation about Dolphins on a Saturday, then sit in a car for another 11 hours while we drive back home on Sunday, have 2 or 3 hours to myself, go to bed, and THEN go to school for a full week. Well, to be fair, this week was awesome and I feel bad for the people who didn’t go.
Anyway, enough of my ranting. The morning started off rather fishy as we got our own dead fish to cut open. We each got different fish which we had to identify (Mine was a Silver Hake, I believe). After answering our text book questions about the exterior of the fish, we were given further questions that involved performing highly dangerous surgery on the fish. It’s a good thing they were already dead, because that brings it from highly dangerous surgery to really messy dissection. Personally, I destroyed the liver of the fish I was working on when I was cutting it open from the bottom, but I managed to get the stomach out just fine. Turns out, I found another, smaller fish in the stomach which, when compared with the sharp teeth it had, told me it was a carnivore. Yes, it smelled really nasty.
When that was over and done with, we had had a very nice pizza lunch and proceeded to present our projects a little bit later. For the most part, the presentations were done really well. We had 4 presentations done before dinner, and the last 3 done after dinner. I was the last one to go, and I’m pretty sure people enjoyed my photo of a dolphin next to a cow. Who would have thought they could co-exist like that?
Right now, we’re in the process of packing our bags for tomorrow morning. I just hope that the drive doesn’t take 11 hours again.

Last Day in NB


September 10, 2011
Its day is our final day in St. Andrews. Although today was more relaxed than the others, we still had an eventful morning and afternoon. This morning we partook in a lab based on the interior and exterior of certain fish. These fish were the same ones we caught on Tuesday when we went trawl fishing. Among them were a couple of white hake, a red fish and an Atlantic herring. We were asked to make certain find out certain details about the fish such as what depth they lived at, what type of foods do they eat and whether they were fast fish or not based on their outside anatomy. Afterwards, the dissections took place. We discovered a lot of differences between our body structure and that of fish. The placement of the heart in fish surprised me (its in their throats). Most of their organs were like ours. The experience overall was interesting, but the stench of the dead fish was, at times not very noticeable and at other point revolting (especially when opening the stomachs).

The afternoon was highlighted by the various presentations given by the seven of us. We were each given a specific subject to research; giving both causes and effects and pros and cons for each subject. I present the issue of coral bleaching, George spoke of the process of bycatching and Nick address the 5 major gyres of garbage in the world, Jason spoke of the history of cod fishing in the north atlantic. As well Nikita presented the industry of aquaculture and its purpose, Jordan spoke about marine ecotourism and Charles address the various points of human interactions with dolphins.

All in all, this trip has been spectacular. We’d like to thank Tracey and Laura for their aid and commit to this trip; they have been greatly helpful and kind throughout this week.

Connor L-Smith

Kayak Ride and Presentations

Sept. 9-10, 2011

Yesterday we set out on kayaks into the Passamaquoddy Bay. After some technical difficulties were resolved in some of the kayaks, we set out to Navy Island. After 2 stops on a beautiful, sunny day, we made the rest of the trip around some fishing nets and the island. On the way back we enjoyed a great view of St Andrews and the Algonquin hotel. Our guide, Allison, told us the rumor that Stephen King based the hotel in the Shining on this hotel.

The next day, after a lab on fish anatomy that involved dissection, we started our presentations on environmental problems in the marine environment. Jason started it off with an interesting story on the decline of Atlantic cod fishing. George then followed by informing the group on bycatch. Connor's presentation was on a little-known phenomenon called coral bleaching, and Nick finished off the afternoon presentations with his project on gyros and garbage island.

After our last dinner in New Brunswick, Nikita gave us a riveting presentation on aquaculture, or fish farming. Jordan then told us about marine ecotourism, and Charles capped off the presentations with one about swimming with dolphins.

All in all, we would like to thank Mr Grier, Mr Deegan, Tracey, and Laura for making this trip a great success!

George and Jason

Our Photo of the Shark Receives some Recognition.

Hi everyone,
The photo we captured of the Shark preying on the Porpoise, midway between Grand Manan and East Wolf Island in the Bay of Fundy (Lat: 44.52930, Long: -66.44131) was published this morning on the Quoddy Link Marine's Blog site.
Follow the link below to read their version of the encounter.

http://quoddylinkmarine.blogspot.com/

Mr. Deegan


Friday 9 September 2011

Links to some photos so far

Please click on some of the links below to view pictures of the trip so far.
Day 2 Part 1 September 7th 2010
Day 2 September 7th 2010
Day 3 September 8th 2010

Enjoy, and keep your eyes peeled for the Shark!
Mr.Deegan

Thursday 8 September 2011

Whale watching


         Today, Selwyn House went whale watching off the coast of the Bay of Fundy. The boat ride had remarkable scenery. We went for about a 4-hour boat ride. Selwyn went with our marine biologist expert Tracy.

         The whales that we had seen are all baleen type whales. One species of whale that we saw were minke whales. They were 35ft long and were the smallest type whales that we had seen today. Another whale that we saw was the humpback. The humpback was 55ft long and it feeds mostly on hearing and krill. The biggest whale that we had seen on our whale watching trip was the finback whale, and it is the second biggest species of whale in the world. Something that was interesting about all the whales is that we were able to identify the specific individual id of each whale if it is a returning whale by its tail. The reason is that the tail for all whales is like a fingerprint the texture and pattern of the white pigmentation is unique for each whale.     

       Beside whales we had the chance to see many different types of other marine animals. We saw Harbour seals have dog-like shaped faces, and they weigh up to 150kg. We also saw Grey seals weigh up to 350 kg, the females have light with dark spots and the males are dark with light spots. We had seen as well porpoise, which are similar to dolphins. They are 6ft long with a black back, and lighter color bellies.

      Something incredible that happened on the trip was a shark attack. Usually in the Bay of Fundy the sharks are rather small, and they are only capable of eating of not larger marine animals. However, today we had seen half of a dead carcass of porpoise, which was very fresh. Then out of nowhere we saw a shark grab the half corpse of the porpoise and drag the remainder of its body right down. We saw the outline of the shark and could see that it was about 11 ft. By the fins he was able to make the assumption that it was a great white shark. The guides are sending it for further analysis by a shark expert. The guides said that they have never seen a shark that strong that could rip a porpoise write in half. The guide was amazed and when he talked about the seals, he mentions how he says that they have never had a predator, but after seeing that shark he is not so certain. The entire crew had said that in their lifetime they are probably never going to witness a shark attack like that in the Bay of Fundy ever again.        
      

Whale Watching

Sept. 8, 2011, Afternoon

Bay of Fundy

This afternoon could be described as a more fun afternoon than an educational one, aboard our tourist boat we commuted from Passamaquoddy Bay to the glorious Bay of Fundy. While entering the Bay of Fundy we stumbled across a few rocky islands home to two different types of seals, harbour and grey seals, as well as an abundance of seagulls and other marine birds. During the first 30 minutes we travelled out towards international waters, on the way we came across many Harbour Porpoises, dolphin like creatures that grow up to 6 feet in length.

Now to the good stuff, first we came across a three year old Humpback Whale, Humpback Whales can be told apart by designs on their flukes, each Humpback has a different one. This Humpback had been seen earlier in the summer. When Humpbacks come up for air, they manoeuvre close to the surface taking in a few breaths, when it has had enough breath it raises its fluke in the air as it dives back down into the depths. After seeing our first Humpback, we saw another larger one, Humpbacks can grow up to 55 feet long. These majestic beasts are perhaps the most interesting to watch because they are one of the few species to raise their flukes into the air. The next thing that happened was breathtaking, one of the boats crew spotted a dead porpoise in the water and steered the boat closer to examine it. In fact it was only half a porpoise, the back half had been bitten off by what we were about to see. A 15 foot Short Finned Mako shark appeared near the surface to finish the other half of the porpoise off, unfortunately, we did not get any pictures, but Mr. Deegan has one good one. Anyway, this massive shark took his fresh kill down to the depths and the crew explained that this experience had never been seen before, truly once in a lifetime. And to finish off the day we saw a great big finwhale, with its lighter coloured back and larger body, it does not show its fluke when breathing. On the way back to the wharf we sat and had hot chocolate and Wheat Thins as everyobody was just a little worn out.

Jason Miller and George Perlman

Sea Stars, Whales, Sharks, and Lobsters

Note: I wrote quite a bit

Today, Thursday the 8th started off pretty usual. Wake up early in the morning when you really don’t want to, have breakfast yawning like a hippo with bags under your eyes, and a cold walk down to the marine lab for the first part of the day… Or maybe that’s just me, considering that I walked down there with a coat and an extra layer while others went down wearing just a t-shirt. Seemed pretty chilly to me…
In any event, the lab ended up being about something that some of the guys have been doing numerous times already: flipping things on their backs and seeing how fast they can right themselves (notably star fish). Only this time, we did it properly and measured them and timed them. We also performed the same test on sea urchins as well. All this was done after viewing them under a specimen microscope to take a look at their front and rear ends (mouth and anus respectively) and drawing them as best we can. To say that it was difficult is an understatement, as a sea urchin under a microscope looks like a tangled mass of spines and tube legs whereas a sea star looks like a tangled mass of even more tube legs.
After this was done, we hopped in the van for a drive back up the hill to the dorms, where we had time to unwind and have a meeting about the topics for what our presentations that are going to be on Saturday morning (I got the subject “Swimming with Dolphins”). After that, we then had a great lunch consisting of “I can’t quite remember anymore, but it was good”, and we killed more time until the event we were all excited for: Whale watching.
This was easily the main event of the entire week, and I’d just like to point something out now that I’ve done it. Whale watching isn’t exactly correct. It’s more like “Whale hide’n seek”. Watching would imply we’re always looking at them, but they surprisingly don’t surface often. It was quite a great experience, and we also noticed a peculiar spectacle that didn’t involve a whale. While out on the water, we found a porpoise which had its tail bitten off. When we found it, it was barely alive and bleeding profusely. Shortly after, a shark came along and took the rest. We weren’t quite sure what shark it was, but they say that based on the size of the porpoise and the fact that it was gone in two bites that it was a great white. This was an event that no one anticipated and that I was lucky enough to capture on my own camera. Aside from the shark, we also saw a fair amount of humpback whales, one of which was apparently un-identifiable at the time.
After the whale watching trip, we had a free after-noon in our schedule. We took this opportunity to go out to the town and play a few rounds of mini-golf. As we got hungry, we decided to go for dinner at the “Harbour Front Restaurant”. I ended up ordering garlic cheese bread, and a whole lobster with fries. I had never eaten lobster before, and never realized that they are just so darn good! The meal was a bit expensive, but it was worth it. All in all, today was very good.
P.S. Sorry you lost your chance to teach me how to properly eat a lobster, mom.
P.P.S. It was a messy meal.

Charles McCluskey

I really enjoyed our visit to the aquarium this morning and seeing a 22 lbs lobster with claws so strong that it could cut off your wrist. The skates, which look identical to sting rays, were really fascinating because they would swim up to you at the surface of the pool and wait to be petted. The feeding of the seals was also a cool event because they would do tricks to get their food such as spinning around, climbing up rocks and even kissing the trainers.

This afternoon, we went to a muddy beach in search of worms. As yesterday's hunt for sea creatures was a blast, I knew without a doubt that today would be the same. After digging in the sand for an hour looking for worms, we found many of all different sizes such as blood worms, lug worms and red line worms. Some tried to bit us in defence and others tried to squirm away when we picked them up. I could not believe the cool colours that these worms were. Some were transparent, some were orange and others had a red line down the middle of their body. 

I thought that it would be a cool experience to walk along the sea shore covered with rocks and seaweed to see what kind of unique marine life I could discover. I did find a few golf balls, broken glass bottles, crabs and many clams. It was so quiet by the shore because there were no cars passing by and no waves hitting the beach. Sorting the worms into their families when we got back to the lab was challenging because they would hide in the mud that was in the bucket and we would have to search for them inch by inch with tweezers without causing harm. Tomorrow is going to be incredible as we are going whale watching out in the Bay of Fundy.

Nikita

Wednesday 7 September 2011

Pottery Creek

Sept. 7, 2011, Afternoon

Pottery Creek, St Andrews, New Brunswick

Worms are Winners! This afternoon, just down the road from the Huntsman Marine Biology Centre we stopped by as the tide was receding at Pottery beach. A clay coloured beach on Passamaquoddy Bay, Pottery beach is home to an abundance of intertidal sea worms. From the common Red lined Worm to the exquisite Clam Worm, shaped like a centipede, this worm is mostly green and bright orange and can grow up to 10 inches.  Although those 10 inches does not compare to the Milky Ribbon Worm which can grow up to 4 feet in length, one was caught by Huntsman of that length just a few weeks earlier.

Shovels and buckets in hand, we dug into the beach and looked for these different worm species. As a group, we managed to find 7 different species, each with its own uniqueness. For example the Acorn Worm that has three vertically long segments each of different colours, yellow, pink and purple. This worm was also accompanied by other segmented worms such as the Blood Worm and the Clam Worm. The only non-segmented worm was the Milky Ribbon Worm. These segments provide not only flexibility and protection but a pre-cursor to the growth of limbs, scientific term "appendages". Interesting stuff, all in all we had a great afternoon and we hope to continue to have a good time whale watching tomorrow. Thanks to Tracey for helping us through the mud today and guiding us to the worms!

Jason Miller and George Perlman





Tuesday 6 September 2011

September 6, 2011
St. Andrews New Brunswick, Canada 

Today is our first day in St. Andrews (excluding the the 12 hour car ride). After a quick breakfast, we headed to the nearby research center of the Canadian Department Fisheries and Oceans. We boarded onto the Fundy Spray, a modified lobster boat, and departed to collect some samples. After 20 minutes we collected some plankton from the surface of the water. The finer net collected much more than the other one. Later on, we dropped a scallop drag (the metal equivalent of a fishing net used to accumulate specimens from the sea floor). A pile of sea urchins, rocks, hermits crabs and scallops was the result. Finally, the crew dragged a large fishing net through the water for a half-hour and filled a metal basin with water. The fishing net dragged in a solid variation of fish species and several lobsters, one of was absolutely staggering in size. It was a foot and half long, weighed approximately 11 pounds and had claws which could separate your finger from your hand with ease. Afterwards we sorted through the fish in the basin and found some species of fish that i didn't even know existed for example the Shorthorn Sculpin. The Sculpin's defensive mechanisms are to flare its gills and vibrate its stomach. We had to measure the different species of fish and then the guides decided whether to keep them for the Huntsman aquarium or to throw them back into the bay. Some of the fish didn't survive the pressure so we kept them for dissection later this week. All in all our first morning here in New Brunswick was a great success.
Nick and Connor
Sept. 6, 2011

Indian Point, St. Andrews, NB

This afternoon, we traveled to Indian Point on the edge of the peninsula of St Andrews in search of marine creatures left above water by the low tide. The common intertidal creatures included sea stars, green crabs and sea urchins. Some less common ones were the majestic dogwinkle snails, sand shrimps, scale worms, and brittle stars. There were also lots of different kinds of seaweed, such as knotted wrack and Irish moss.

The most important thing that we did today was using our senses to find the different animals. We also had to think like the creatures and look under rocks and moss to find our crabs and sea stars. All in all, we developed our skills at finding intertidal animals and learned to identify many different ones. We're all excited to go out tomorrow and have more adventures.

George Perlman and Jason Miller





Monday 5 September 2011

The long drive


Good evening from St. Andrews,
After the 12 hour voyage from Montreal to the Huntsman Marine Science Center, we were all itching to get out and stretch our legs. The drive was without mishap and we seemed to find our direction magnetically, as Mr. Grier’s relentless positivity ensured us that all roads lead to the sea.  We pushed through the heavy rain near Skowhegan, Maine, and watched in the mirrors as the rain clouds chased us to the coast. They have finally caught up with us as I can hear the rain drops penetrating the canopy of trees outside my window. All of the lakes we passed were abnormally high and the muddied rivers were brimming and spitting like a chocolate shake.
Aside from the rain outside, it is finally quiet as all have gone off to sleep in preparation for the big day tomorrow brings. We will be out on a boat by nine to survey the coast and to embark on our first Journey of our stay. From here on in the boys will be in charge of updating the Blog on a daily basis. Stay tuned to hear their reflections on the adventures of the days to come.
Best,
Mr. Grier and Mr.Deegan