MCC's Marine Biology Study Ablog 2023

We've had a great week so far! Wednesday morning we explored the sandy beach close to CEDO. This habitat had hard coquina substrate interspersed with sandy areas, providing a lot of 3D structure for algae and invertebrates.  Paloma, a biologist at CEDO, gave the class a lecture on the natural history of Puerto Penasco on Wednesday afternoon.  On Thursday, we explored the rocky intertidal area behind Vina del Mar and found many different organisms.  Thursday afternoon, we went kayaking in the Morua estuary. Alan from CEDO was our guide and told us all about the estuary and its benefits.  We went tidepooling at Cholla (Choya) Bay this morning. This is a sand/mud flat with limited hard substrate. The water recedes 1/2 mile or more during low tide, leaving a lot of area exposed for us to explore.  This afternoon we went to the dive shop and got all of our gear for tomorrow's trip to Isla San Jorge (Bird Island), where we will scuba dive or snorkel with sea lions. We...

  Today we heard about marine mammals from one of the CEDO instructors, Paloma. I learned about what makes a mammal a mammal and how it differs from other organisms. Some characteristics of mammals is that they are endotherms which means they are warm blooded, their body is covered by hair or fur, they breath air and they are viviparous which means they give birth when they reproduce they don’t lay eggs like other organisms. But what I thought was awesome to learn was what makes these mammals “marine mammals” and basically over years of these mammals living in or near the ocean they developed some adaptive evolutionary traits. For example marine mammals developed a thick layer of blubber to minimize heat loss in cold ocean temperatures, they also have a modified circulatory system to help them dive under water and come up safely, they also have muscles with myoglobin which helps carry more oxygen in their muscles and they even have flexible ribs as an adaptation to the oceans water...

 Students experienced many areas of the estuary yesterday. Estuaries commonly are areas where freshwater flows into the ocean providing a unique environment for the organisms that live there including salt tolerant plants, wading shorebirds, and fiddler crabs. These coastal communities provide protected habitat for juvenile fish as tides raise and lower the water levels within these extensive waterways. Estuaries also provide value to humans by helping to accommodate rising water levels during intense storms and local people use the protected bays to grow oysters.     Dr. Cheroske

  Yesterday morning we went to Viña del Mar and did some tide pooling in the rocky inter-tidal zone looking for creatures that inhabit this area. We saw many echinoderms such as starfish, sea urchins, and sea cucumbers. From my personal observations, Compared to the tide pooling we did on Wednesday, this one had a lot more arthropods and echinoderms. These animals are better suited to inhabit this inter-tidal zone because it has substrate such as massive rocks that they can live and hide in. We also found a Sea Star that had up to 23 arms and many Brittle stars. Each of these animals can regrow their limbs if they lose them which is pretty neat.   This trip has been vastly different than the previous one's I've been on in Mexico. While I do come here for vacation and enjoy it, I never had the opportunity to see some of the marine life that was present here as well as see a Star Fish in-person. Overall, I'm glad that I was able to go on this trip as well as learn something a...

  Yesterday we went to a tide pool at low tide. The characteristics of this tide pool was vastly different from the one before. The first one was more soft floor and sandy and this one as you can see from the picture was very rocky. It’s interesting to learn that we are able to examine all these different organisms and creatures because of the low tide and to learn that they are usually otherwise submerged. I learned that many of these organisms fight for space and have different ways to adapt to their conditions. The conditions being how do they adapt to temperature, lack or excess of oxygen, and much more. Also yesterday we learned a lot about fiddler crabs, the males have one feeding arm and one large mating arm while the females have two feeding arms. So the male fiddler crab waves his large mating arm to get the attention of the female and he also builds a place for them to mate. And if the arm and the home he built are bigger the more interested the female will be.  -Hec...

I will be honest and say that I have spent more time exploring the tide pools than sleeping the last 48 hours and I am completely okay with this, if not thrilled. That is why we are here after all! Even though I have been to the beach a handful of times in my life, I have never had the opportunity to stop, explore, and enjoy the seemingly endless array of marine life. My favorite so far was finding the octopus and the sea hare! Both inked all over and it definitely made the experience noteworthy!   So far, this trip has been everything I dreamt it would be! Meeting my classmates and getting to know them has been great. It's been really cool to see so many different people and personalities come together and get excited over a common topic- our love of marine biology. We also had a great lecture from the staff here at Cedo- learning all about their conservation efforts and even seeing the ponds in which some native fish and conservation efforts are happening! Can't wait to see ...

Spent the morning searching the rocky intertidal zone looking for organisms that live in these zones. We found a lot echinoderms, such as sun stars. Here I am holding a sun star with 23 arms. Juvenile sun stars start their lives with 5 arms and as they mature they may have up to 24 arms. On the picture below you can see their tube feet that they use to get around as well as their connection to water. -RM