Archive for January, 2017

Investigating the properties of seawater 2017

January 29, 2017

Once again, first year marine scientists carried out individual investigations into the properties of seawater.

Matias watching for boiling
Piero measuring salinity, pH and oxygen

Many students did lab-based investigations:

Juan Diego
Emilio investigates the effect of salinity on adhesion
Emilio’s set up
Tamar

And a few went out into the field… Yeji measured the variation in salinity with location in Pedder Bay by kayaking (she got a bit wet and had her pants dried by Hazuki, who investigated the effect of wind speed on water movement). And Quni was prepared for the wet weather but as you can see below, returned to the lab in the sunshine!

Hazuki measuring the effect of wind on water movement
Hazuki using ‘wind’ to dry Yeji’s pants
Quni returning from sampling with Secchi disk

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Free glaciology and marine programs for girls seek applications

January 26, 2017

International Arctic Research Center

Inspiring Girls Expeditions is accepting applications through January 31, 2017 for free summer science and wilderness expeditions in Alaska and Washington for girls ages 16 to 17.

Three teams of up to nine teenage girls and three instructors will spend 12 days exploring and learning about mountain glaciers or fjords with tidewater glaciers. They’ll conduct scientific field studies with professional glaciologists, oceanographers, artists and mountaineers.

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Pedder Bay sunrise – 13 January 2017

January 13, 2017

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Thanks to Abbie for the photos!

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Cold water, big tides

January 12, 2017

After a very cold night, there was a layer of ice on Pedder Bay again this morning which allowed for some interesting observations and data collection by marine scientists.

ice-fragments

Data below were collected by second year Marine Science students at two different times of the morning.

8:05 am 11:00 am
Depth (m) Temp (oC) Salinity (ppt) Temp (oC) Salinity (ppt)
0 3.7 28.4 4.6 25.9
0.5 5.8 29.3 5.8 30.1
1.0 6.4 30.3 6.7 30.6
2.0 6.7 30.6 6.7 30.7
3.0 6.7 30.7 6.8 30.8
4.0 6.8 30.7 6.9 30.8
5.0 6.8 30.7 6.9 30.8

One major conclusion can be drawn:

The water is COLD (right down to 5 m where we usually measure temperatures around 10oC). It is so cold that students’ tongues are turning blue:

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Wait a minute… the cold is not the reason for the blue tongues in these Biology students!

We are also experiencing big tides these days (2.8 m tidal range). High tides in the early afternoon:

D block 13:15 11 Jan 2017
F block 9:45 12 Jan 2017
G block 11:00 12 Jan 2017
Tomma touching the top of the piling

Then low tides at night:

low-tide

Emilio, Heather & Millie at low tide (20:15 11 Jan 2017)

Interesting times!

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PC connections with ONC

January 11, 2017

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Pearson College (PC) students have had the opportunity to connect with Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) in a few ways lately. During block week (12-15 December 2016), second year Marine Science students travelled to the headquarters of ONC at the University of Victoria. Thanks to Natasha, Jessica and Mercedes for all that you taught us. In the photo above, PC students are using aluminum foil to create boats in a competition to hold the most ‘fish’ (actually marbles, metal washers and foam bits) in water of different densities.

Navoneel’s boat
Andras’ boat
Maya and Adi test their boats
Martin testing his boat
Special guest Suman floating his boat

Yesterday, 10 January 2017, Dwight Owens from ONC (and father of PC 41 Tessa Owens!) came to PC to present ‘Hot, Sour and Breathless: Oceans under stress’ to first year marine scientists. It was a wonderful review and preview – thank you Dwight!

And one final connection with ONC that I must mention, Dave Riddell spent almost two hours with me on 23 November 2016 guiding me through Oceans 2.0 which allowed me to assign a data analysis task to first year students. Thank you Dave!!

We are very lucky to be so close to such an incredible organization staffed by wonderful educators and scientists and doing leading edge marine science.

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Pedder Bay pancakes

January 4, 2017

Pancake ICE, that is!

Pancake ice by Second Nature
Pancake ice under ramp

Defined in a sea ice glossary as “Predominantly circular pieces of ice from 30 centimeters to 3 meters in diameter, and up to about 10 centimeters in thickness with raised rims due to pieces striking against one another. It may be formed on a slight swell from grease ice, shuga, or slush or as a result of the breaking of ice rind, nilas, or under severe conditions of swell or waves, of gray ice.”

Pancake ice is not common in Pedder Bay, but due to many days of cold air temperatures, it is abundant around the Pearson College dock and around the Pedder Bay Marina.

I did a quick measurement of surface salinity (ppt) and seawater temperature (oC):

temp-sal-at-surface

Yikes!! The poor mergansers, their feet must be very cold!

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