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Oregon Coast Field Course
Florida to Oregon The Oceanography and Environmental Science programs at Florida Tech are joining forces to take a group of undergraduate and graduate students to the Oregon Coast for an intense,...
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Field Course Begins!
Saturday, May 5 – The Oregon field course, Pacific Coastal Environmental Issues taught by Florida Tech Oceanography, has begun! We met at 3:00AM (ugh!) at Clemente Center to depart for the airport...
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Renewable or Non-renewable?
An important environmental issue in the Pacific Northwest became very apparent as soon as the Florida Tech oceanography class was driving cross-country from the airport. That issue is the depletion of...
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Extreme Exposure
Sunday, May 6 – Florida Tech Oceanography in Florida begins in earnest now that we have settled into our host facility. The first 6 days of our visit are going to have early morning, negative tides,...
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Teaching in the DMZ!
Sunday, May 6 entry number two – On the way back in at Norton Gulch, the Florida Tech Oceanography class paused midway to examine colonies of the aggregating anemone Anthopleura elegantissima. They...
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High Cliff, Steep Trail
Monday, May 7 – Florida Tech Oceanography hits the rocky intertidal of Middle Cove (Cape Arago, Oregon). Up on the Cliffside, the view is breathtaking, and we spent some time at the point lookout...
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The Water is So Cold!
Monday, May 7, second entry – The Florida Tech oceanography students were fearless, in spite of the fact that the water temperature was in the lower 50’s. In the middle of the cove, sheltered by...
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Mudflat Madness
Tuesday, May 8 – Florida Tech Oceanography braves the mudflats of Charleston, Oregon. In sheltered areas, with greatly reduced flow and wave action, very fine sediments can accumulate. They tend to be...
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Stuck in the Mud!
Tuesday, May 8, second entry – The mudflats can be an exhausting place. But, it is a LOT of fun! Because the sediment is very wet and fine, in combination with hollow tunnels and tubes running...
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Bullwhip Kelp
Wednesday, May 9 – Florida Tech Oceanography goes to Lighthouse Beach. Here we found a 25-foot bullwhip kelp washed ashore. It had been torn loose from its holdfast by rough waves and deposited on...
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In-Seine!
Wednesday, May 9, second entry – Florida Tech Oceanography sand sampling consisted of shoveling sand into sieves to separate the organisms from the sand, and also using the beach seine net. The...
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Lost Urchins
Thursday, May 10, 2012 – The Biological Oceanography students at Florida Tech ventured out for their third rocky intertidal tidepool field trip in five days. This time we tackled South Cove at Cape...
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Unleash the Kraken!
Thursday, May 10, 2012, second entry – Towards the end of our trip to South Cove (Cape Arago), two of Florida Tech’s Biological Oceanography students shouted out, “we’ve got a Giant Pacific Octopus!”...
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Stampede!
Thursday, May 10, 2012, third entry – The Florida Tech Biological Oceanography students had a lab task when they returned from South Cove. They had to take turns exposing intertidal prey to different...
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Baby seals!
Friday, May 11, 2012 – The Florida Tech Biological Oceanography students are observing that the daily low tides are slowly advancing and getting later in the day. When we first arrived, the tides were...
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Mussel Mania!
Friday, May 11, 2012, second entry – After the exciting time with the pinnipeds at Simpson’s Reef, Florida Tech Biological Oceanography students headed to Mussel Point for our fourth rocky intertidal...
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Biodiversity!
Friday, May 11, 2012, third entry: The Florida Tech Biological Oceanography students are back in the lab, counting and identifying their 10×10 cm plot mussel samples from Mussel Point . There are...
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Egg-cell-ent!
Saturday, May 12, 2012 – One week gone already at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology! The Biological Oceanography students from Florida Tech are having a great time – and it is all going too...
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Ocean Cliff Paradise
Sunday, May 13, 2012 – The Biological Oceanography students of Florida Tech visit “Shore Acres Gardens,” an Oregon State Park originally the property of pioneer timber baron Louis Simpson, who built...
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The Spirit of the Pacific Northwest
While at “Shore Acres Gardens,” a state park on the coast of Oregon, we shot our official class picture on the sprawling roots of an enormous overturned tree that has been laying in this spot for over...
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“Best Team Spirit” Award
Saturday, May 12, second entry – The Biological Oceanography students from Florida Tech joined with the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology’s students and staff for a campus cleanup. Because we enjoyed...
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Ahoy There!
Monday, May 14 – The tides are not at impressive this week, so we have to get more aggressive about accessing submerged habitats. The biological oceanography students from Florida Tech ventured out...
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South Slough
Tuesday, May 15 – The Biological Oceanography students from Florida Tech visited the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve (SSNERR), which was the first reserve in the nation-wide estuarine...
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Have a Crabby Day!
Tuesday, May 15, second entry – The Biological Oceanography students at Florida Tech go crabbing! We used “crab rings” and hurled them off the boathouse dock at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology....
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Whack, Back, and Crack!
Tuesday, May 15, third entry. With 15 or more legal Dungeness and Red Rock crabs, the Biological Oceanography students at Florida Tech settled in for a crab feast. There are two easy ways to prepare...
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Baby Drifters
Wednesday, May 16 – Plankton Sampling. The Florida Tech Oceanography students went out on the 20-foot boat, the Pugettia, to collect plankton. Dr. Johnson helps haul the net in – thick plankton are...
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Sea Lion Caves
Thursday, May 17 – Sea Lion Caves! All of us Florida Tech Biological Oceanographers have been looking forward to our road trip North along the Pacific Coast Highway (US 101). The first stop of the...
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Marine Science Center
Thursday, May 17, second entry – Hatfield Marine Science Center. Florida Tech students comparing the Science Center’s octopus to the one we have back in the lab (ours was better!). Florida Tech...
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Puffin? You Otter Know!
Thursday, May 17, third entry – The Florida Tech Biological Oceanography students visit the Oregon Coast Aquarium! There was so much to see at the aquarium. Tidepool touch tank at the Oregon Coast...
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Deep-Sea Devils
Friday, May 18 – Once we were done with our big farewell cleanup of our lab and dorms, we set out to learn a few more things about the lab. One of the courses being taught at OIMB while the Florida...
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Ouch!
Sometimes you get the crab … and sometimes the crab gets you! The Biological Oceanography students from Florida Tech encountered all sorts of fascinating marine life, and sometimes terrestrial life,...
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Get a spine!
Friday, May 18, second entry. As Liza handles a walrus skull (note tusk sockets!), the Florida Tech Biological Oceanography students get ready to spend an hour or two in the Birds and Mammals...
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Light a fire!
Friday, May 18, third entry. The time has come for the Florida Tech Biological Oceanography students to say good-bye to Oregon and return to our tropical paradise of Melbourne, Florida. The final...
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Pacific Northwest Field Course!
The Florida Tech Biological Oceanography class “Pacific Coastal Environments” is hosted in the Pacific Northwest by the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology (OIMB) of the University of Oregon. The goal...
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Environmental Studies: Students Jump Into Icy Waters in the Pacific Northwest
The two-week course in environmental studies, “Pacific Coastal Environments” on the rugged Oregon coast, gives students used to exploring warm Florida waters a welcome change. They survey salt...
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