HIGHLIGHT REEL

By Chris Uyeda

How do we sum up the Oceans: San Diego course?  It’s hard.  By the numbers – 15 days, 10 students, 17 field sites, and nearly 50 miles of San Diego coastline.

In words, well, check out what students said when asked to sum up the course in one word:

“Phenomenal”,  “Adventurous”,

“Fun”, “Incredible”,

“Exploratory”, “Mind-opening”

Not surprising for a class where students grew fish, ate oysters, held sharks, caught waves, hung out with frozen dolphins, collected nearly 100 pounds of trash, saw the border, and went to sea.  The photos below won’t do it justice, but they are a start.

In short, it was a great program with an even greater team.

And nothing great happens without a lot of help.  So special thanks to Dan Wagner, Susan Domanico, Julie Strong, Mark Marcus, and Gary Krahn for their support, advice, and encouragement in getting this program off the ground.  To Beyond Land Adventures, Stephanie Heinrich and Patrick Crockett for connecting the dots for the SCUBA certification.  To all our hosts at Carlsbad Aquafarm, Bumble Bee Seafoods, SDSU’s Coastal and Marine Institute, NOAA Turtle Lab, I Love A Clean San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve, Marine Corp Base Camp Pendleton, and Hubbs-Seaworld Research Institute for giving us access and their time. To Kevin Worth, the LJCDS drivers, and all the families who put in a real team effort to safely transport our students all over the county (and who patiently put up with our many late returns).

And most importantly to the students who made the program what it is.

Oceans: International next year anyone?

Rachel at Carlsbad Aquafarm holding a green abalone.

Day 1 learning about aquaculture in Carlsbad.

Stephanie, Kathryn and Rachel at Bumble Bee Seafoods headquarters sampling some of the latest products.

Arthur pointing out a clutch of grunion eggs

Day 3 – Digging for grunion eggs at Mission Beach

Ishaq and Max learn how to lay a transect at Silver Strand State Beach in Coronado

A female sand crab carrying eggs.  Students spent the day surveying sand crab populations.

Stephanie defining what it means to be stoked in Del Mar.

The ohana after a day of learning how waves work first hand

Ocean beach tidepools

Day 6 in the field.  Exploring the intertidal zone and the organisms that live there.

Students set up a field station out at False Point in Pacific Beach

Justin and Kathryn running some basic tests to determine chemical properties of ocean water.

Justin at NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center.  Behind him is a frozen dolphin, one of the many stranded animals NOAA collects in order to autopsy.

Marine debris cleanup with I Love A Clean San Diego.  The team collected over 90 pounds of trash.

Alex, Max, and Ryan dissect a bolus from a laysan albatross, demonstrating just how far plastic can travel in the ocean.

Horn sharks with Dr. Andy Nosal, shark expert at Scripps.

Leopard sharks gather every summer in the shallows of La Jolla Shores.  Here on Day 10 the team went out to swim with them.

Trash booms at the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve.  The project demonstrates the challenges of managing an ecosystem that crosses a border.

Overlooking the Tijuana River Estuary.  It’s the only estuary in southern California that isn’t interrupted by a freeway or rail line.

Spotting common dolphins on our whale watching trip.

Day 13 – The crew is pumped to leave the dock and head out to sight some marine mammals.

Ishaq pointing out the seabass brood stock at the Hubbs-Seaworld Research Institute.

Agua Hedionda Lagoon.  Students came here on Day 1 and Day 14 to experience two very different approaches to aquaculture happening right in their backyard.

A baby grunion!  Students incubated grunion eggs over the course of the program and were proud parents to hundreds of hatchlings like this one by the end.

By unanimous vote, the team decided it was only appropriate to bury Mr. U in the sand on the final day.