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.