bitsyblatt's Journal

This is my 3rd week on San Juan Island, at Friday Harbor Labs. As I have lived in the city my whole life, it is so nice to live somewhere with so much wildlife. Deer are about as common as people on this island. The first day I was here, I sighted some Dall's Porpoises and seals at Lime Kiln park. I have seen quite a few raccoons, and one black fox scampering along the beach at night. Looking under rocks at low tide or tires on the dock reveals many marine species. Our Icthyology class seining trip brought up many animals from the deep, some of which I have put pictures up of. I have seen some quails wandering around campus. Many of the observations I have put pictures up of are in captivity at the labs, but have all been found in Puget Sound.

The last few weeks haven't had as many wildlife observations as previous weeks, or at least, new observations. Last Wednesday, our Ichthyology class went night tide pooling. This was a new experience for me. We found a few types of fish, but mainly the same ones multiple times (Xiphister atropurpureus and mucosus, Gobiesox meandricus). Our group found one Pholis schultzi as well. I was surprised at how well the fish could survive with so little water, and how well they moved about on land. Unfortunately, it was two dark out to get any new pictures. Besides fishes, we also saw multiple Pycnopodia (species unknown) and other sea stars, hermit crabs, chitons, limpets, and snails.

Yesterday I went with a researcher, two graduate students, and my project partner who is a fellow undergraduate on a trip to look at Taylor Shellfish farms, with a focus on their mussel farming. I am currently working with my project partner on a research project testing the formation of byssal threads under different temperatures.the trip gave us a bit of insight into our project, we did learn much about aquaculture. We visited both the hatchery and one of many farming operations, with many floats out in the Hood Canal. They also farm geoducks, oysters. and clams (in California). Even at the mussel farm out in Hood Canal, there was plenty of wildlife to observe. The mussel float that didn't have workers on it was covered with harbor seals. I haven't yet seen harbor seals that close up in Puget Sound before. There were also many moon jelly fish in the water. Growing on the mussel strings were many animals, which were mainly considered pests (such as flatworms, which are a mussel parasite). Something that wasn't mentioned on the tour was the effect of pollution and anoxic conditions on the edibility of the mussels, and the affects of the farm and hatchery on the environment. It makes sense that the tour guides wouldn't talk about these issues, because they want their farm to look good. But I have heard that shellfish in Puget Sound have been found to contain toxins, and I don't know if they really should be growing and selling shellfish from this area. Another issue was that the hatchery seemed to be using huge amounts of water and bleach, which probably wasn't great for the environment. But compared to other types of farming, shellfish farming seems relatively sustainable.