Our last couple of days on the island were filled with lingering hours in the lab post-plot collection. Since it was our last go-through, picking up the plots was a cinch. To honor us on our last dive on Santa Catalina Island, a sea lion gracefully scoped us out during our ascent and swim back to the boat. While Valerie and Kaylee noticed it from the get-go, Eric was blissfully unaware until it came right up behind him and surprised him in the face.
We've found endless cool little critters in our algae, Dictyopteris undulata (we recently discovered that we weren't using Dictyota sp.) during the course of this experiment! Although I now wish we took photos of everything we filtered through the mesh, here are some select specimens!!
While we didn't take this photo, its pretty much what I imagine looked at Eric in the face. It might be a bit of an exaggeration.
We've found endless cool little critters in our algae, Dictyopteris undulata (we recently discovered that we weren't using Dictyota sp.) during the course of this experiment! Although I now wish we took photos of everything we filtered through the mesh, here are some select specimens!!
Tiny hermit crab!
A neato shrimp
Tiny bat star :)
Camouflaged decorator crab with bits of algae stuck to it!
As you can see here, the crab does a great job of looking inconspicuous. Also theres a Navanax sea slug!
A little sea star of some sort!
Tube-dwelling amphipod
Hermissenda, a nudibranch
Mini urchin!
Little gastropod snail. You can even see its little eye-spot through its shell!
Polychaete worm
Thursday, our last full day on Catalina, was spent cleaning and packing of the lab. Look how clean it was after Valkayeri, ShredEx, and Rhyn scrubbed the floors!
Sara Kappus's kelp art, with Kaylee's Lithopoma cutout
Friday was a bitter-sweet morning for all as we prepared to leave Wrigley Marine Science Center via the Miss Christi. We all deeply appreciate the staff at WMSC and are grateful for the opportunity to conduct real science at this facility. We can't wait until we can return to volunteer, explore, or perhaps even research for a PhD project!
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