Last Half, and Last Blog :(

Thursday morning, instead of going down to the tide pools, we got on two boats and rode an hour to Isla de San Jorge. The ride was very very cold, and very very very windy. But we did get to blast music while we traveled, which made the cold a little more tolerable! When we got there we could immediately see all the pelicans, and sea birds, and then we started to hear the sea lions, and see them swimming in groups towards our boat. Groups of females curiously approached the boat but kept their distance at first. While we waited for the other boat, and the wetsuits, we were able to take videos and pictures of the sea lions approaching us! When the other boat got there we started putting wetsuits, goggles and fins on to prepare for the water! The water was SO cold, but it wasn't too deep, and it was pretty clear so we could easily see down to the bottom! Underwater we were able to see a few sea urchins, lots of coral and sponges, lots of anchovies, and we saw two stone fish that were camouflaged with their venomous spines sticking out. Obviously we saw many female sea lions underwater as well, with occasionally a male swimming by us or underneath the boat. They were very curious of us, and would swim up to us really fast and then dodge us at the last second! After swimming for a while, we got back on the boat and ate burritos for lunch, and then did a survey of seal lions that were entangled with fishing gear, and of how many pups we could see too. We only counted about 3 pups, but we saw 16 entangled seal lions. Then we rode back to the mainland and blasted some more music, and as we docked we were able to see the major height difference on the floating dock of the tide that had come in while we were gone! We had walked onto the boat before and had seen all these barnacles and algae growing on the side of the poles attached to the dock. When we got back, the water covered the whole sections of the poles that had organisms on them, and the dock had risen up much closer to where we had parked the car. We traveled back to CEDO and had some free time to shower off and work on homework, and then we went to dinner at Al Capones! We spontaneously checked out a ride pooling spot that Paloma recommended to us that was by the restaurant, and noticed that it was almost a blend of the Vina del Mar and Cholla Bay substrates from what we could see. There were quite a few rocks in the sandy beach, and when the tide is lower it would be a great spot to see some intertidal creatures. I noticed at that time of day the tide was higher up, and we weren't even able to see any snails or hermit crabs, the organisms must've been traveling deeper into the water than they have been at low tide. After that we stopped at a coffee shop for drinks and then used that caffeinated energy to have a study group downstairs at CEDO. Then after lots of laughs and distractions, and getting some work done too we all headed to bed.

Friday, we woke up early again to help two representatives at CEDO do a survey of the Least Tern birds nesting in that area of the estuary. We walked in single file lines with three groups of three, and one group of four down this peninsula area in the estuary. We walked to the edge of the widest point of the peninsula, and would walk across the land horizontally and 10 paces behind the person in front of us. This was the system that we were told to use to best scan and observe the area for Least Tern nests, and any other kind of bird's nests as well. The Least Terns preferred to scrape a small divot into the sand and lay their very small eggs in the center. However, other birds like the American oystercatcher, use plants, shells, trash, etc. to build their nests into the sand. As we were walking in these lines, we had to be very slow and look about 5 paces away from us on the right and the left to make sure we didn't step on a nest, and so that we could find them as well. We spotted three oystercatcher nests with eggs in them, and we spotted about 3 or 4 Least Tern nests with eggs in them as well. The oyster catcher nests only had one egg in each from what I saw, but the Least Tern nests had ranges from 1-4 eggs in each! We saw lots of empty nests, and markings where nests were being built, and we saw a few egg shells as well meaning that some of the empty ones were already hatched! When we finished our walks, and survey of the area, we walked closer to the high tide zone to look under some rocks and shells for chicks that sometimes hide there and wait for their mom to bring them food or to take them out to catch food themselves. Sadly, we didn't find any cute babies, but we found some very pretty shells and went home after that. After arriving back at CEDO we had lots of free time to get our presentations, papers, and blogs done. Some of us also went down to the beach for a little and played in the waves, and found some cool seashells to take home too! After that we went to dinner at La Curva, and it was the best meal I've had since I've been here! Then we headed back to CEDO, and walked down to the beach to watch the sunset. We talked, and laughed, and picked up more shells, and looked for some organisms making a twilight appearance as well. We didn't find anything in the water or under rocks, but we did find some dried out sponges, some seaweed, and lots and lots of snail and clam shells. We walked back to CEDO, and discussed the exam questions together, and then headed to bed!

Saturday, we got to finally sleep in a bit! We got to help the representatives at CEDO do some grounds keeping, and cleaning that needed to be done. We cut plants in the land around the building, we cleaned a fish tank that held endangered pupfish, and we swept and shoveled sand off of the walkways around the grounds as well. After that we did a little more extra studying, and got some lunch, and then we watched and presented our projects on three phylum of invertebrates. The group who had the phylum of Echinodermata went first! Echinoderms are called "spiny skinned," and they all have tube feet that they use to move around and for feeding. Some examples are the brittle stars that we have seen and the sea cucumbers. I learned that some echinoderms can regenerate limbs lost, and they can asexually reproduce with a limb that has fallen off as well, and grow a whole new and separate organism! The second presentation was my group with Elizabeth and Audrey on Arthropods. Typical arthropods that are known are arachnids, insects, and crustaceans. We talked about the four subphyla that are in the phylum, and how it is the largest phylum of all the invertebrates. We noted their segmented bodies hence the name Arthropoda, as it means "Joint-Appendage," and we talked about their how they shed their exoskeletons, and how there are terrestrial and marine species. We also talked about one of the keystone species that marine arthropods have in the crustacea subphylum. The only marine arthropod keystone species that we found was the Antarctic Krill, which are sadly being affected by climate change and by overfishing. Lastly, we watched a presentation about the phylum Mollusca. Molluscs are categorized by their foot, mantle, and visceral mass, meaning the muscles they use to move around, their head or shell, and the place in their bodies where their organs are held. These are organisms like octopuses, snails, nautiluses, and nudibranchs. The coolest thing that I learned from their presentation was the fact that certain molluscs, like clams, oysters, and mussels, are filter feeders and they use a siphon to pull in water to filter food particles through their gills and then they push the water back out! I also learned that in Sweden they use mussel farms to clean and filter some of the bodies of water that they have! After all of the presentations, which served as a sort of review for our exam, we took the test! We all did very well on it according to Whitney! And then we went out to the port again for a final group picture, and stopped for some coffee again! Then we came back to CEDO headed down for another trip to the beach, and then came back for some wonderful homemade tostadas! We then had a bonfire with s'mores and listened to music, and assigned My Little Pony characters to each other! But tomorrow morning we are heading back to Arizona, which is so so so so sad. I am going to miss this beautiful scenery, and wonderful people and the culture so much! Goodbye Mexico, goodbye Puerto Penasco, goodbye intertidal animals, goodbye CEDO.