One-by-one Marin City students joyously stepped aboard Sausalito’s finest sailboat, the Freda B. For most of the children, this was their first time experiencing life out on the waters of the San Francisco Bay. There was a palpable sense of excitement among each of the 35 children and 10 adults onboard.
“Captain, I’m here to report for duty!” students shouted to captain Paul Dine after departing the docks of the Sausalito Yacht Harbor. Fourth and fifth graders eagerly lined up to help hoist the sails and begin the voyage. As the Golden Gate Bridge started to peak through the hills of Sausalito, the captain’s mate, Jimmie Marquez, invited students to take turns steering the schooner and taught them some traditional sailor lingo as they got on course – “two spokes to port, ay!”
Golden Gate peaks through Sausalito
Meanwhile, naturalist Jane Rudebush and another group of students trawled for plankton from the side of the sailboat. Rudebush came aboard equipped with a microscope and monitor to magnify living organisms of the bay and educate them about the importance of tiny ocean critters like zooplankton, and phytoplankton, which help produce the oxygen in every breath we take.
Michael Stocker, executive director at OCR, was surrounded by students who assisted him in dropping a Secchi disc into the water. “I can’t see it anymore!” kids exclaimed as the disc dropped further into the murky bay. This demonstration allowed students to observe the turbidity of water and educated them about the fact that light doesn’t travel as far in water as it does in air, and for that reason marine life has evolved to depend on sound to communicate, protect themselves from predators, find prey, navigate, and understand their environment.
After observing the turbidity of water, sounds of the bay began playing from a speaker for students to hear. As snapping shrimp, drumming black drums, and grunting midshipmen filled their ears, new ideas flowed through their minds: “wow, fish talk to each other? I wonder what they are trying to say!” one student exclaimed. Another one of the students thought the drumming of one fish would be a cool beat to rap over.
Searching for wildlife off the tip of Belvedere, Tiburon