Tuesday Afternoon by Victoria

When we got to BMSC, we immediately went to our dorms and everyone took the next hour to relax. After a safety and building orientation, we went to the Whale Lab. It is called this because it has skeletons hanging up of a big whale, sea otter, and other sea mammals. When we stepped into the lab, everyone was intrigued to see many marine invertebrates. They were all in sea through containers, open for us to hold and touch them. After a quick lesson on the different species (phylum) of invertebrates, most people went straight to the sea cucumber. It was one of the favorite creatures of the class. Sea stars, sea sponges, decoration crabs, barnacles, sea urchins, anemones, tube worms and many more invertebrates were out and free to handle and touch. Jessica and Mr. Ohly touched a sea star for the first time. This was a big step for both of them because they are afraid of sea creatures. This was a great way to start the trip and to learn about all the different creatures we would see during the trip. Right before dinner, we went for an hour long hike through the rainforest. This hike went through the forest to a little beach. The weather was so bad. It was raining really hard and it just collected in mud puddles along the trail. Most people loved to jump in the mud puddles. Britni and Jessica both got their boots stuck in the mud and had to walk back to the dorms with wet socks! We had little learning sessions and we had to teach each other different plants and algae that were along the trails. After dinner, the class went to the Rix building to watch a really neat movie. It was called “Edge of the Sea” and it was about many different sea creatures and how the feed, defend their selves against predators and how they live. It was filmed at Bamfield. Did you know that a muscle can attach itself to a rock and stay there for about 50 years? Or that the tides change every 6 hours and 12 minutes? All of the activities planned were a perfect way to start our trip and it got everyone interested and ready to enjoy the next few days ahead!

Wednesday Morning by Dylan and Brenden

On Wednesday October the 5^th we woke up at 6:00 A.M, Got into all are rain gear for the day ahead of us. After breakfast we setup a seaweed lab to measure the amount of oxygen produced by Bull kelp and giant kelp, we also measured how light effects the production of photosynthesis. After setting up we left it in the sun for the rest of the day. We also went out on a boat for an oceanography lab, which we measure the turbidity of the water at the mouth of Grappler inlet, after this we measure the turbidity in Grappler inlet where fresh water and seawater meet. Then we compared the results we got from both tests, to find out how this effects where some animals live in the ocean. After this, we used two very fine nets and dragged it behind the boat at different depths so we could collect zooplankton and phytoplankton, to analyse under a microscope. When we took these plankton back to the lab everybody took a petri dish and put the two types of plankton on it, when we were viewing these plankton through the microscopes.We had to draw out what some of them looked like and identify them, with an identification key we had. Which there were thousands of these little insect like species buzzing around, and thousands of different types. After a very busy morning at Bamfield we had an excellent lunch and continued with the busy schedule and continued our adventures with the wonderful Bamfield staff.

Wednesday Afternoon

On Wednesday afternoon we walked to Eagle Bay beach. We investigated some tide pools. There were crabs, snails, seaweed, starfish, sculpins, anemones, barnacles and other assorted oceanic organisms. One the types of seaweed was called Turkish Towel seaweed. You can use it for exfoliating your skin! Our leader, Robyn, told us not to feed any organisms to other organisms so Jessica put a limpet on an anemone and it ate it. Disappointment fell upon the group. In response to this, we made moral boosting skits about the interactions between oceanic organisms. The two most entertaining characters were Garrett as a rock and Mr. Ohly as a starfish. After lunch, which was chicken burgers and fries (which was awesome), we went to finish the seaweed lab we started in the morning. We were trying to measure the amount of oxygen seaweed produces through respiration and photosynthesis. We mixed exciting chemicals in little stereotypical science bottles. We used iodine to determine the amount of oxygen produced. You add it drop by drop and when the solution goes clear, we measured how much chemical we used. The amount of iodine used equalled the amount of dissolved oxygen in parts per thousand. It was an exciting lab.

Thursday Morning by Maddy

We woke up to a clear but chilly morning and packed our bags for the trip home that afternoon. At 7:30 we walked over to the cafeteria for a bacon and egg breakfast and then took our bags to the main building. We then walked down to the dock and took a boat across the Bamfield inlet to the west side, where we hiked for about half an hour to Braidy’s Beach. In my opinion, Braidy’s Beach was the highlight of the trip! As the last field trip of the trip to Bamfield, everyone just relaxed, had fun, took pictures and got WET! We had learned earlier about rogue waves, and how we had to keep our lifejackets on while we were on the beach. Even though everyone was complaining at first, a few of us (Victoria and I) were very thankful for them when we got totally soaked by a huge wave! Daniel decided that he wanted to be buried in seaweed, so everyone helped cover him in the stinky, sandy weeds. He regretted that later! Kelly, our instructor on the last day, told us all to each pick out a piece of seaweed, and she told us what they were all called, and what they’re characteristics were. It was so interesting! On our walk back to the dock, we passed the “cat houses”. It was a bunch of little houses built by the community for cats that lived in Bamfield with a former “crazy old cat lady” that had passed away and left the cats wild. We were all sad when we had to board the Frances Barkley and leave Bamfield, but we had an awesome time! And we have lots of pictures to prove it!

Thursday Afternoon by Jessica

On Thursday afternoon, we boarded the Francis Barkley boat at 12:30. We spent our first hour or so doing a quiz on all the cool facts about biology we learned. After that, some of us went outside, some slept, and some just hung out. At approximately 2:30, Victoria and I decided to go to the bathroom before getting off the boat. As I stepped into the stall, I screamed in shock! There was a ten dollar bill in the toilet! After telling Victoria, and showing her, I stared at it for a few seconds, and then decided that I would fish it out. As Victoria got out the camera, I grabbed some paper towel, and grabbed the ten dollars. I stuck it in my pocket wrapped in paper towel, because the fact of having money that was in a toilet in my pocket, grossed me out a bit. We arrived in Port Alberni one hour earlier than expected. As we spotted a doughnut shop claiming to have “Vancouver Island’s Best Doughnuts”, we decided to make a quick trip to buy some doughnuts. As we approached the shop, we were devastated to discover that it had closed. As I read the sign, I saw that it said closing was at 4:30, and it was 4:28 according to my phone. The shop lady opened her door and explained that she had closed. I then informed her that it was 4:28, and she still had 2 minutes according to her sign. She let us in and we decided on a few doughnuts to buy. When she asked if we would be paying separate, I realized I had my ten dollars of toilet money in my pocket! I decided that I would buy a dozen doughnuts for 6 dollars, and then Garrett came up with the idea to buy another dozen and only have to pay 2 dollars left over from the rest of the toilet money. Choosing our 24 doughnuts was a nice way to end the trip, especially considering it only cost 2 dollars! This proves that it does pay off occasionally to stick your hand in a toilet. By the way, Garrett ate 5 of them to himself and used the change to buy pop, so he owes us bigtime.