Pearson College Marine Science

On Wednesday 10 April (F block) and on Friday 12 April (A block), second year Marine Science students visited the Goldstream estuary.  Closed to the public since 1994, the estuary is an incredible place to explore.

There are many Canada geese in the estuary these days and they do a great job of mowing down the vegetation.

Although we didn’t see any living salmon, the juveniles should have been in the Goldstream River (pictured above) and we saw lots of evidence of adult salmon:

On both days we were accompanied by a naturalist from the Park – Tracy is holding the salmon jaws and vertebra in the photo above and Bree is pictured below.

On Wednesday there was sunshine and blue sky – students were invited to take off their boots and walk barefoot through the mud.  Chris and Susanna accepted enthusiastically.

 Since Chris probably would have lost at least one boot in the mud any way it made good sense for him to remove his boots.

 Eliott has lost his flip-flops since our trip to East Sooke Park, so he came in boots but decided to keep them on!

 Chris managed to leave the estuary with both boots!!

 Susanna also walked barefoot through the mud and sincerely enjoyed it!

 And then she cleaned her feet in the river.

 We had to jump across a channel in the estuary – Karam does it with panache above.

 And Thea too!

 Jon, however, looks like he is going to fall backwards on his bum – he didn’t though!

Two last images to include from our trip to Goldstream – salmonberry blossoms:

And skunk cabbage: