MCC's Marine Biology Study Ablog 2023

 on saturday, we took a boat trip to bird island. on the way there, we saw humpback whales swimming in the water. it was very cool seeing their fin pop out and go back under. later in the day, we see two more humpbacks breaching! we sped over to the location and got a wonderful show. we think they are the same whales from earlier, but aren’t 100% sure. we stayed and watched for a while, i had to keep reminding myself that it was real life and not TV. i’ve never seen whales that close before, let alone breaching ones. it was so surreal and became a core memory. not many people are lucky enough to stumble across something like that. -kristen  (photos taken by Sharon Cruz, not me)

 on thursday, we explored cholla bay which is a small residential area. while there we saw blue crabs, soft shell crabs, sea cucumbers, sand dollars, and some octopus. the amount of sand dollars found was unreal! we also found a washed up fishing net which Sharon, Noah, Noel, Adel, and I cleaned up. There were many blue crabs stuck and it was covered in shells and trash. it took a long time to cut each crab free but finally we returned 6 to the ocean. this just shows how careless people are with fishing nets, and how much destruction it can do to habitats. it’s unfortunate how many people saw the net and ignored it until we got there to clean it up. please clean up beach trash, even if it’s not yours! the only person to protect habitats is you -kristen

 The second day in Mexico we spent in a rocky intertidal habitat. It was off the property of viña del mar in el malécon. personally, it’s my favorite habitat because of the opportunity to see so many different animals. on this trip, we saw brittle stars, sea cucumbers, sea hares, urchins, and chitons. i enjoyed more of the high intertidal zone just because there were less boulders and more deep tidepools that housed more creatures. i had more luck tidepooling there than in the low intertidal near the shore. there was also a lighthouse at this location which made it even more special since lighthouses are very close to my heart. -kristen

    Yesterday,  we went to an intertidal area to help contribute to some research being done on the number of species found within the environment at Sandy Beach. We used a surveying tape measurer to map out a transect line from the shore about 28 feet vertically up the beach. After we placed the transect line down, we used a quadrat (which is a measured square) every few feet to map out an area to look at for the number of invertebrates found. The organisms that we found were found in each of the different phylum's we learned about earlier in the week and in my previous biology class. Two groups of five people with a researcher did this twice across different areas of the beach. The team at CEDO does this every month because Sandy Beach is one of their first certified beaches in Puerto Penasco. This includes having an environmental cleanup crew, monitoring the ocean water for health and salinity (salinity is the dissolved salt content), and having a place to recycle and ...

       Today we took part in some long term biological research being done by the CEDO research team here in Mexico. We supported the researchers by taking data of the Least Tern nests, eggs, other species, and birds found while we walked in lines down the sandy shore of the Morua Estuary. The Least Terns nests are fragile since they are such small birds so their nests are easily ruined by things like ATV's, human activity, carnivores such as coyotes, as well as loud noises disturbing them.      Here is a picture of a baby least tern trying to find its balance The adult Least Tern's have yellow bills and a black and white head pattern. The researchers need everyone's help in making sure these endangered species stay safe by staying away from the nesting areas and respecting wildlife. Some fun facts about these beautiful birds are: The male birds offer fish to the females in hopes of mating They are monogamous animals that mate in colonies of up to 25 p...

 Today we joined some researches from CEDO to take part in a survey of the endangered least tern. These are pictures of two baby chicks that had just hatched within the last few days. This bird sadly is overlooked by ATVS and humans and eaten by coyotes, dogs and other pets. It also doesn’t help that their nests are made in the sand on the ground without much cover or decoration. It’s very hard to see their eggs amongst the grains of sand, so it would be very easy to step on them. Thankfully, the researches we were with knew what to look for so there were no casualties.  Similarly to the vaquita, hopefully we can continue to use the plans in place to conserve this precious species. Kinzie Mahlstede

  Bird Island (Or known locally as Isla del San Jorge) is an Island approximately 22 miles away from Rocky Point. I first learned of this Island last Summer when I was at Encantame Towers with my family looking to buy a condo down here. I noticed an Island far off in the distance and I was told by the person giving us the tour that the Island is a refuge for Seabirds and Sea Lions. I thought it would be cool to visit the Island one day and see the wildlife up close. Nearly 10 months later, My dream would become a reality. We got to the dock around 7 am and loaded up onto the boat. Since I wasn’t scuba certified I would be going to snorkel instead. It took us nearly an hour to get to Bird Island but on our way there we saw 3 Mantas swimming around our boat. Afterwards we then saw 2 Humpback whales swimming which was really cool. As soon as we got to the Island we again saw another 2 humpbacks (probably the same 2 from earlier) breaching over and over again. My classmates and I manag...