Hello family + friends! Poppin into update you once again about my time in Bamfield. I’ve started taking another course here – marine ecology, and it involves a lot of computer work and coding. I’ve also started my final “directed studies” project, where we pick any research question and develop a project to answer it.  Otherwise, its been rather rainy here… anyways enjoy the pictures, hope you are all doing well!

First up – sunset walks at Pachena Bay! And next, the view from classroom!

 

First up we have some field work pictures! We had a class project where we had to make an ID guide about a certain species – our group got barnacles. Needless to say, I know more about barnacles now than I ever wanted to!

Here is some cool barnacle footage I shot, the barnacle is feeding with a worm going by.

This was me + my group for the barnacle assignment! It was a very wet day

We also have been experimenting for our final project on D. vexillum – this orange slime-like tunicate that has invaded the waters of BC and grows under docks and along the seafloor. It is originally from Japan and came here by hitchhiking on ship hulls. Our project is looking at the best way to kill it since it grows on all the oyster aquaculture gear and is a real nuisance – we’re trying out hot temperatures and freshwater as removal methods. On the left is a picture of one of our samples in Tupperware (one of 80!),

Us collecting from the docks

 

Visit to the Sugsaw salmon hatchery! What a cool day. We first had to get to the hatchery by crossing this precarious bridge (pictured left) which was a slippery log across a river… pretty cool! We saw some salmon in holding tanks, they are about to spawn.

On the left is a fish egg counter, they scoop up the eggs and count rows of 10! On the right is us in the salmon river right next to the hatchery. Salmon kept hitting our legs and it was the weirdest feeling!

Once the salmons are ready to spawn they kill the female and open up her belly and drop her eggs on to trays that look like these. Then they manually fertilize them and leave them to develop in these trays until they are baby fish. They are then removed, stored in tanks for a while to grow, and then released into the ocean. The reason they do this is to a) take pressure off the wild populations of salmon and b) to support the sport fishing industry.

Another cool thing I learned was that fish from hatcheries have much worse instincts then wild fish (ie they are more likely to lay their eggs in the wrong places, choose the worst males to mate with, and go back to the wrong rivers). So they try to keep the wild fish as separate from the hatchery fish as possible so they don’t interbreed and “dilute” the wild fish instincts.

And lastly – and coolest – we saw 5 bears!! The hatchery is super remote, and the bears love salmon, so we saw lots of them by the river. My favourite was seeing a baby bear in a tree, when the mom heard us she ran up from the river and started to make “chuffing” sounds to warn us. We also saw lots of dead salmon in the river (after they spawn, they die). Watch the video above for more!

Some delicious cookies from my English grandparents! Yummy!

And a scenic picture from a field trip on a rainy day!

 

Thanks for reading! Hope all is well 🙂

I’ve now spent one month in Bamfield – and its been an absolute blast. I am writing this blog post from Vancouver as I am home for Thanksgiving, but will be travelling back to Bamfield on Monday morning! Take a look at the pictures:

(and in case you missed my week 2 update click here to read)

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Off on another field trip to Wizard Islet – departed right before sunrise so we got to see the view from the water, another day of algae collecting!

 

Saw a dead humpback whale on the way (pictured left), the smell was noticeable. The carcass was decaying on the beach, it had apparently been hit by a fishing boat. And a very blurry picture of seals on the rocks on the right

Measuring tide heights with long stadia poles, and collecting algae for future experiments

Cougar sightings on campus – this one was spotted by some students in the library. There appear to be 1 mom and 2 cougar cubs that frequent the campus, we were warned to travel in groups to avoid any encounters. The cubs are known to be more dangerous, since they can’t control their aggression/ differentiate humans as well. I’m hoping that I do not run into any of these guys!

Truth and Reconciliation Day – we volunteered at a pole raising ceremony hosted by the Huu-ay-aht community (pole pictured left). It was an amazing experience and an honour to attend. Lunch was also great – salmon and herring roe. Pictured right are the elders that were victims of the residential school system, the ceremony ended with song and dance.

A visit to Louis Druehl’s kelp shed – the home of Canadian Kelp Resources. Pictured left is the kelp shed where they dry out the kelp they collect from the waters around Bamfield. They dry bull kelp, giant kelp, and Kombu. Pictured on the right is the wooden contraption with nails that is used to hang the seaweed blades. They do all the drying and packaging by hand, and sell to health food stores nationally.

No visit to a kelp shed is complete without some tasters! Pictured on the left is dried bull kelp, it was crunchy and VERY salty. And then some kelp brownies! These were surprisingly delicious as the bull kelp adds a salty rich flavour and combined with the sweetness of the brownie, it was a treat. Had to go back for seconds.

Speaking of food, check out the steak we had for dinner one night. Pretty amazing

Experimenting with seaweeds using a $10 million flume, which is like a lazy river for seaweeds, and measures drag force. The flume was 2 stories up, and we could walk underneath and see the seaweed being pulled by waves (middle). Then we layed them out on the floor to measure area (pictured right), I won’t bore you with the details but seaweeds have some pretty cool adaptations for dealing with huge waves!

Top Chef – algae edition. Competition to make the best seaweed dish, we made Foccacia L’alga, which was focaccia with seaweed sprinkled on top. It was really delicious. Some people made grilled cheese and kelp sandwiches, bubble tea with seaweed straws, and dumplings.

Another day, another sunrise field trip. Can’t complain when you get to call this school!

Bear sighting from the water! Coming out at low tide to forage in the intertidal

Rainbow!

Finished off the week by investigating this orange snot-like substance which is an animal called Didemnum vexillum. This little guy is the focus of our directed studies project, which involves finding the best way to kill it, since its an invasive species and biofouls aquaculture gear. Pretty gnarly!

Thanks for reading, and see you in another month or so!