Just Getting Started

Eric, Kaylee, and Valerie here. We've arrived on Catalina Island for our five week marine biology quarter at the Wrigley Marine Science Center at Big Fisherman's Cove on Santa Catalina Island. We're all so ecstatic to be here and are really looking forward to beginning our research. We will be conducting two experiments, one ecological and one physiological. We are also all AAUS dive certified and will be scuba diving while on the island, which makes designing our projects much more enjoyable because we have the ability to really stretch what we can accomplish while here for five weeks.

The ecological experiment will be primarily concerning colonization and biodiversity of invertebrates to satellite reefs placed at a distance from the interface between the kelp forests, primarily dominated by Macrocystis pyrifera, and the sandy bottom. We will be comparing two different sites, one within the marine protected area and one outside of the boundaries. This will hopefully give us some indication of the importance of marine reserves not only for fish, but for the algal species and the invertebrates which are the basis for a healthy ecosystem. This will be conducted by allocating algal species to different plots and placing them in Big Fisherman's Cove and at our secondary site (yet to be determined), and then collecting and doing a species count on the plots. We will also be doing fish surveys to give some indication of the health and success of the individual reefs.

Our physiological experiment will be lab oriented, observing algal preference of a common marine snail, Lithopoma undosa, or the wavy turban snail. Growing to a shell size of 4.5 inches, these snails can get very large and are critical herbivores in many marine environments. We will be ranking the snails by size and placing them with four different algal species of different sizes and morphology, commonly called functional groups. and observing the preference of the snails. This will give us some indication of the feeding habits of these snails, as well as what components of algae is desirable to them.

We will have many more pictures and videos to come, and a whole lot of fun to be had here on Catalina. Looking forward to sharing the experience with everyone and we can't wait to get up tomorrow to continue doing what we love.   

This is the ramp looking down from the Wrigley Marine Science Center.  The weather has been great and everyone is so nice, laid back, and loving that they get to live on this beautiful island.