Jennella's ED271 Blog

My view halfway through the class  My Marine Biology class just finished a lecture on coral bleaching, so we went out to see it up close and personal. Over the past years,  corals have bleached faster than they have grown. Based off what I learned in class, corals bleach when they are under extreme amounts of the stress. The most common of them all is when the ocean's temperature suddenly spikes. The algae that photosynthesize for corals leave, causing the coral to "bleach".  When our class met at the lab site (Piti Fish Eye Park), the first thing I realized was how FAR we were swimming. Keeping in mind that I have not yet experienced snorkeling, I started to panic because I quickly realized I did not bring my gear. A great majority of my classmates were ill-prepared for this lab as well. But with determination, our class set out to see the coral nursery to see how corals are farmed. We walked out until we saw live corals, and from there, we started to swim to ...

This week for Marine Biology, we went to Talafofo to explore the estuary. When you search "estuary" on google, it'll state, "the tidal mouth of a large river, where the tide meets the stream." The class started around 1:20pm, and everyone had separated into pairs. Before heading to the water, Julie, our teacher assistant (TA), explained a few house rules. She explained how to row using the kayak as a safety precaution. As we strapped on our life jackets, each pair decided who would be the front and back paddler. Julie suggested that the back be the more experienced out of the pair since the back paddler is also the steerer of the kayak. The front merely sets the pace for the pair. By this time, I was extremely excited to just onto the kayak and see the river. My partner had more experience with a kayak so she was the navigator for the trip. Once our professor pushed his kayak out, the rest followed. It was easy to go up the river. The hard part was paddli...

My groupmates Edward and Vanessa, standing on a rock formation at Tanguisson beach. Many wonder how we evolved from land to sea. For Marine Biology, the week was mainly about the Rocky Intertidal Pools. The Rocky Intertidal Pool is the most stressful environment for marine life to live in, or as what I've learned. Our professor thought it would be best to see it up close and personal. And so, in the wee hours of Friday morning (that's the day we go out for lab), I received an e-mail from him saying we would be going out to Tanguisson beach to observe how animals adapted to survive in their environment. Right around 1pm, we went out of our cars and followed our Professor and Julie, our teacher assistant, out to find marine life in the tide pools. After 30 minutes of walking and having a mini hike out in the hot sun, we finally reached our destination. After that, we were told to split in our canoes (aka group) and look for an animal and point out to the professor how they su...