Sandy tide pooling in Cholla Bay

Sandy tide pooling in Cholla Bay this morning.  Found some octopi (cool!) living in mollusc shells.  When you try to open the shell, the octopus hangs on trying to keep it closed.  Even more cool: eggs and babies inside!!!

Sea urchin, sea star

Sea urchin, phylum echinodermata, found in rocky intertidal.

Spines are moveable. Mouth on the bottom.

Sea star, phylum echinodermata, found in rocky intertidal

Moves using its  "legs", fast,mouth on the bottom.

Oyster Suprise

Oyster Suprise

Today we got up at 6:30 to drive to yet another tidepool.

This beach, however, was rocky, and required us to walk about a mile on a flat, rocky terrain to get to the low-tide waterline.

We eventually got to the waterline and found quite a few interesting sea creatures! I found a few oysters, some sponges, and a few tiny crabs.

One of the more interesting finds was revealed when Glenn noticed that the clams weren't entirely shut all the way. He pried open the oyster to find an OCTOPUS inside!

This octopus's head was about three inches long, and it had quite a few eggs inside the oyster. Glenn thought this was its eggs.

On a whim, I asked if the other clam had something weird in it, too, as it was partially opened as well. Sure enough, Glenn pried it open, and inside was another octopus with eggs, yet this one's eggs were hatching!

We saw a few baby octopuses drop into the bottom of the oyster shell, cooed over how cute they were, then threw both oysters and their residents back into the water.

We had a very fun and rewarding tidepool adventure!

Blog Post 3 - Cholla Bay

On Thursday we learned about defense mechanisms marine species employ in mud flats, one of which was burrowing to avoid detection. This morning we visited Cholla Bay, which becomes a mud flat at low tide. When we arrived we walked over a half mile into the bay to get to water which was ankle deep. 

When there I spotted a blue crab which was probably eight inches from claw to claw. I and three other people surrounded the crab with buckets to capture it to show to the class. When we were about 4 or 5 feet apart and closing in the crab "disappeared" by burrowing into the sand. We looked closely to find where it had gone, and dug in the most likely spots, but we couldn't find it. That the crab could disappear so completely in such a small space demonstrated for me how quickly even a larger animal could hide completely and quickly in the presence of a predator.

Wayne Balmer

Studious students!

This afternoon study abroad students are busy working on their group projects where they will research and present on one if the invertebrate phyla. It's work but not such a bad place to do it!

Photos.

Photos from our adventures.
    Raven

Practicing marine scientists

One of our students measuring the salt concentration (salinity) of a tide pool.  While tide pools are small "oases" for intertidal organisms waiting for the water to come back at high tide, these pools get very warm and very salty as the water evaporates.

Another day, another adventure!

Another great day in the intertidal this morning, this time in the rocky intertidal.

Our students can now identify 3 different phyla (groups) of organisms in the shot below.  How about you?

Raven Desacia Blog post

Pounding waves and large rocks teeming with barnacles, mollusks, and anemones; all characteristics of the rocky intertidal.  Scattered amongst the rocky surface that seems barren at first glance are various different lifeforms camouflaged from sight.As the sea creeps in slowly the tide pools slowly become teeming with life as the sea creatures become more bold and curious.

Tucked beneath a rock and almost alien like in appearance is the invertebrate sponge (porifera) this harmless creature that looks lifeless at first glance is unique in the fact that it contains no tissues or organs,  but rather is a conglomeration of different specialized cells that all work collectively to keep it alive. 

Moving up from the simplicity of the sponge is the echinoderm or rather in this specific case of the rocky intertidal we observed today is the sun star. This sun star is a bit more complex in that it has a much more organized structure and gathered in the very center is a mouth. The cilia all bristling the bottom of the sun star all work to push prey into the stars mouth to be digested.  These particular animals are carnivorous and like to prey upon mussels, oysters and other bivalves. The sunstar functions as a key member in the intertidal community,  slowly working to maintain the diversity of the aquatic life dwelling there. 

One of the more interesting animals we observed was a member of the arthropoda classification,  we were able to find a small shrimp. This particular kind of shrimp (pistol) has a one larger claw that it uses to create a loud snapping sound to encourage predators to release it from its grasp. An interesting tidbit about this shrimp is that like the brittle star if this shrimp lose's it's snapping claw,  it will grow back it back,  but on the opposite side. 

There's a large difference between the rocky intertidal that we observed today,  in comparison to the intertidal that we observed in front of CEDO. The obvious difference being the presence of large rocks,  whereas the one in front of CEDO being a collection of coral like surfaces and sandy interludes. The sea life in the sandy areas were more present and easy to observe whereas the animals within the rock intertide ticked themselves away from sunlight and other predators.  

I'm looking forward to observing the estuary, as well as the large sea mammals out on bird island,  the area is incredibly diverse holding many incredible creatures with one purpose:to survive and as humans dive deeper into the water it's the one moment when they stop being at the top of the food chain.
              Raven Desacia

Sandy beach, low tide

Hey Marine life lovers,

  

Early this morning students went out to the great blue and explored the open intertidals, filled with a mixture of soft sediment and rocky zones. In each sediment we found anamzing invertebrates and some vertebrates.

As the sun was rising the tide was falling and many creative where being exposed to the dangers of the surface. Most creatures are adapted to liking in a small tide pool, where there is a tempature change, limited space and more. As I walked down to the beach I saw all the amazing specimens that live in the intertidals. 

Many Porifera (sponges) were attached to rocks in shady areas. 

The only Cnidarians I discovered were the sea anemone hiding under rocks and in tide pools with a decent amount of moisture in order to them to servive. 

Many worms where found in the  tides along with star fish!

The three types we observed where brittle stars, 

Students learning about renewable marine resources. This is the trona salt mine were locals extract salt from underground salt pans that are where the fresh water springs and the seawater meet underground. The salt can then be used for industry such as making windshields, and cosmetics.

This trip has been great! Learning about the different creatures we found in the tide pools this morning was a lot of fun, those swimming crabs were very aggressive!

Jonathan L.

Blog Post 2

This morning (Friday) we investigated marine live found in a rocky and sandy intertidal zone. When we arrived it did not appear any marine life was present. It was just a deserted beach of sand and rock. There were sea shells on the beach, but nothing looked "alive".

On closer examination, and following the direction provided by Dr. C, the group looked much more closely and found a wide variety of sea animals hiding under rocks, in tidal pools, and in various crooks and crannies. These included shrimp,orange sponges, hermit crabs, lumpy claw crabs, sea snails, sea urchins, sun sand stars, orange sand stars, brittle sand stars, spiny sand stars, armored crabs, barnacles, swimming crabs, porcelain crabs,sea cucumbers, clams, moon snails, nudibranchs, sea slugs, olive snails, segmented worms, flatworms, and several others. as actually

As a result of our more careful and informed search that what looked like a "deserted" beach was actually full of marine life - if you knew where to look and what to look for.

Wayne Balmer

Blog Post 1

It was interesting to learn how the Tohono O'odham Native American community have used the Trona salt flat as part of their rite of passage for males to become men in the tribe. Salt is a key human nutrient, is used in a variety of foods and has been a highly prized and valuable commodity throughout most of human history. The knowledge that tribal members walked 100 miles to obtain salt at Trona and return with it to their village to me demonstrates that the need and desire for salt spans human time - and great distances.

Wayne Balmer

intertidal exploration

Went exploring this morning and got to see the different zones of the intertidal. First creature I stumbled upon was a sea star of the Echinoderm phylum. Cool thing about them, is how they invert their digestive system and slowly break down whatever nutrients they need. We also found a couple crabs of the Arthropoda phylum, which did not seem to take kindly to us. Very agitated and defensive. We were able to distinguish between the male and female by the width of their underlying tails'. Overall it was a pretty amazing morning, as we saw lots of creatures from different phylum, however we did not find a octopus, so I will be keeping an eye out.

FIRE Worm!

Hi guys! Today we got up extra early to look at intertidal marine invertebrates here in CEDO Puerto Penasco! Had so much fun looking through the water and turning rocks over to hopefully find some awesome animals. Today was the first time seeing a fire worm. Really wanted to touch it but the bristles are toxic and can hurt. So for any of you out there doing your own adventure BEWARE!! Beautiful but painful! This is Nina holding one of the biggest fire worms I saw today.

Virginia Martinez

Tide pooling

Great tide pooling this am😍👍🏽. Echinodermata: sea cuke, starfish,
urchin. Mollusca: snails galore, clams including walking clams.
Crustaceans: crab, shrimp. Lots more. Up at 5:30 am to hit the low
tide an hour later, but worth it!
     Peter

Made it!

Our first study abroad group of the year has now gone international!  We got our first tour our CEDO (Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans) which is our base of operations.  Students were seeing aquatic creatures both large (fin whale skeleton) and small (a small population of endangered desert pupfish).  

One week to go!

All of us are in the middle of finals this week but only 7 days from now we'll be loading into vans at the Red Mountain campus of MCC and headed out of country.  Each year, a group of students heads down to Puerto Penasco and spends a week learning about the unique organisms and habitats found in our closest ocean. They may look the same when they return (though a little bit more tan) but they are changed in ways that stick with them a long time.
   Here's to another good year!