February 26, 2014
Yesterday, my day began by getting all dressed up in my waders.
I was the person in my group sent to retrieve the scavenger traps from the Hopkins river (I was just tall enough). These traps may sound sophisticated but they were just "soft drink" bottles with their tops cut off, inverted and zip tied together. Bait was place in them before they were sunk, so my job was to get them out of the water and count all the critters we found. We dumped the contents into a tray so we could see them better. 
As you can see was caught many snails and a fish. There were also some amphipods and worms that were visible up close.
The next part of the field trip took us to Shelly Beach where we began our scavenger hunt of organisms. We were assigned to groups and given a list of organisms we had to identify and find. Shelly Beach is also where the dead whale washed ashore and has been decomposing for almost two years. There isn't a lot left.
Exploring the tide pools was my favorite part of the day! There were so many starfish, anemones, and other cool animals to look at. There were also many beautiful shells from snails. Here are some of the pictures from our tide pooling.
After a few hours we took our lunch break. Us American's decided to have a nice friendly competition of get the rock in the soup can. Five minutes into trying we almost gave up because no one had made it, then I sunk the lucky rock. I was excited. I think the Australians just laughed at us.
This is the view of the beach as we left to head to the lab.
I could spend hours there just taking photos of everything in the tide pools and, of course, collecting some gorgeous shells!
Off to the lab we went... to count over 1,000 amphipods, lots of isopods, and various insects. It was a very long afternoon behind the microscope. We were rewarded with a free dinner put on by the Res (residence hall). I thought it was chicken tacos but was told later it may have been lamb. Whatever it was, it was good and I was hungry.
The rest of the night I joined in some 'get to know you games' and hung out in the uni bar/ lounge. It was a lot of fun. I learned that rednecks here are called bogans and they live up north. Australians also like to listen to American's talk because we have the cool accents. So everybody had a go at each other's accents and I was told my "g'day mate" was "cute." I am not sure what that means... I also had my first Australian beer. It tasted like beer. Overall, it was a great night with lots of laughs!
This morning was the best yet! Each group was required to have a least one person snorkel in "Pea Soup" at Port Fairy. I have no idea why they called it Pea Soup because it was very blue water. I was the only one in my group to take and pass the snorkeling test last week so I got to get suited up. I was SOOOO EXCITED!
I was grouped up with Sean (UWW) and Kettle (Deakin, Elijah is his first name but everyone calls him Kettle). Both are really cool guys. Kettle was the only one wearing gloves so he was the rock turner over, just in case there was something that could sting us. And he found some pretty awesome things and I took some awesome photos, if I do say so myself ;)
Sean also found some cool things...
And then I found... by the way I was super excited about the sea cucumber because we thought we wouldn't be able to find one. I just happened to turn over the right shell!
We were the group that stayed in the longest. I was COLD! I was so cold that when I was trying to get out of the water at the beach I kept falling over because I couldn't feel my toes really well. I decided right then, I need to invest in a hood so I can trap more of the heat in my body when I go in the water. I probably should have gotten out sooner, but I wanted to look at everything!
Here is a short clip of me following a fish... sorry it is choppy but it is the ocean. Now you can see why I wanted to stay in forever.
After we were all back on the bus we got to go to a boat club house and eat. There were also hot showers there so I took advantage of that. We got debriefed on our marine biology field trip and then began our marine and coastal ecosystems field trip. This field trip we will be looking at plankton, sediment, and I not sure what else yet. Anyway, we collected plankton today. I was in the second group to go out on the boat into the South Ocean.
It was a lot of fun. Then my group went to the beach to collect there. I put on waders since I had already taken my suit off and everything, but they had a leak in them and I hit a hole so I got soaked anyway. After all the science stuff was done, Evan and I went for a short swim. The water was 19 degrees Celsius and was much warmer than what I was swimming in earlier. We were then labeled the "crazy Americans" by our instructor. I told him it was warmer than the water off the coast of San Diego... he was surprised and said that Australians would never go in that cold of water. I guess I will still be one of those crazy Americans to him for the rest of the year. Oh well, it was worth it... the water did feel warm!
We returned to uni with a bus load of hungry "kids" (I am one of the oldest). There was free food again. Sausages, onions, and bread. We walked in there like a pack of hungry dingos. After we all were full we slowly left the building to clean up. The rest of the night I spent cleaning my equipment and clothes and getting ready for tomorrow.
It has been a very busy two days but they have been incredible. I don't know if I can even call this school I am having such a great time. How many people get to say that they 'have' to snorkel for their class (or unit as they are called here)? I can't wait to see what I 'have' to do next!
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