Ahoy OCR Community,
The third week of May, we embarked on a thrilling odyssey through the San Francisco Bay as part of our ongoing hands-on Citizen Science Program. In honor of World Ocean Day, I am sharing both my personal experience of the Voyage, and the voices of San Rafael High School (SRHS) students captured in this video, revealing the profound impact of ocean education. We invited two separate classes of AP Environmental Science students from SRHS, along with their teacher, Kent Morales, for a unique learning opportunity to explore and understand the waters of the San Francisco Estuary.
Before setting sail on the Derek M Baylis, we visited their classrooms to present the environmental history of the San Francisco Bay, unveiling the possibilities to be discovered, focusing on acoustics, plankton, and water quality.
As the students arrived at the docks, their excitement filled the air, so tangible that even the most mysterious resident of the Bay Area, “Karl the Fog,” couldn’t help but wave goodbye, mist-ified by their infectious energy.
Under the embrace of blue skies and serene waters, we stepped aboard the Derek M Baylis. The spacious sailboat offered an ideal environment for students to divide into three groups and rotate among our three educational stations.
Our team selected six points of interest for data collection, with each class exploring two shared and two distinct locations. At each stop, Captain’s first mate distributed field log data sheets to the students, guiding them in recording information such as temperature, salinity, turbidity, and depth.
Our plankton specialist, Allison Adams, with SFSU, led our plankton station. After netting the plankton in the collection container (called a “cod”), the students were able to observe them under a video microscope, marveling at the zooplankton and phytoplankton that filled the screen – and learning about the diversity and importance of these minuscule organisms in the waters of their own backyard and found throughout the world. (Copepods, probably the most numerically abundant multi-celled organism on our planet, can be found from the deepest ocean to the water pools collected at the tops of trees!)
After the plankton trawls, our captain silenced the engine, and a separate group would join the “sound station” led by Michael and myself. The students were guided in deploying a hydrophone off the sailboat. We all listened intently, embracing a “mindful minute” where minimal sounds on board the boat were silenced to prevent interference with the hydrophone’s delicate recordings.
We heard the rhythmic “knocking” of sea perches, the chorus of snapping shrimp, the crunching of feeding fish, glimpses of elusive purrs that whispered of potential courting fish, and the noise from boats in the distance which completely drowned out any other potential animal sounds in the area. The sounds that reached the ears of each group of students ebbed and flowed, depending on the location at which the hydrophone was deployed.
The students found themselves pondering: What is the mechanism behind fish sound production? And what messages are they conveying? While we delved into the realm of fish sounds and their purposes, it’s intriguing to imagine their underwater conversations, perhaps revolving around the latest eel grass fashion trends, or the exchange of closely guarded recipes for delectable kelp casseroles.
As the voyage progressed, we regaled the students with recordings of other marine animals of the bay. The extremely loud humming of midshipman transported the students to a time in the 80s when these sounds were disrupting the lives of houseboat residents in Sausalito, when the humming of these inner-tidal fishes sparked wild theories involving the military, sinister industrial projects, and even extraterrestrials.
Amplifying the students’ astonishment, we shared recordings of humpback whales, gray whales, and blue whales. Their first time listening to these majestic creatures left an indelible impression, realizing the incredible distances low-frequency vocalizations can travel in the sea.
