On the rocky shores of Washington, you may have been lucky to spot a creature or two scuttering within the crevices. With many tide pools lining the Washington shorelines, there’s often a plethora of life scattered within and around them. For these intertidal critters, there’s no better place to be than the San Juan Islands.
On May 30, I had the opportunity to travel with the EvCC Marine Biology majors and fellow Marine Biology students on an all-day excursion to San Juan Island. Despite Washington’s usual weather, the day was bright, sunny and at just the right temperature for some good tide pooling.
We hit up Lime Kiln first as it was low tide by the time we docked in Friday Harbor. The trail down to the beach was brisk, but beautiful as you could hear the waves crashing against the rocks. The tide pools were rich with life: sand crabs scurrying between the pebbles, sea slugs clung onto rocks and hermit crabs fighting over a shell to call their new home. Each attendee had an opportunity to witness something unique, even when they were mere feet away from one another.
That’s the experience Ricky Dooley, a biology faculty member at EvCC and our field trip coordinator, wants to cultivate. “Going into the field is the most valuable thing biologists can do. The Friday Harbor Labs and up here is a gem of the world and coming here is really valuable.”
After finishing up lunch at Lime Kiln’s Lighthouse, we drove down to the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Laboratories and split into two groups. I was a part of the second group, visiting the docks and lifting tires with sticks.
The tires, secured to the docks with rope, were almost like mini environments with intertidal creatures clung to the rubber. Red, green, brown and even pink creatures swayed with the waves as jellyfish swam around the tires. Jellyfish are a lot more firm and slimey than you would think. I should know — I got to scoop up a moon jelly! At the docks, Dooley took the opportunity to teach us about the various opportunities the lab presented.
“Us faculty think these things are the best things we can do for our students. If you see it as this far away place that you have no connection, no belonging, no being to it, it’s really hard to imagine yourself being here … Before me, they never did these trips because they didn’t have the connections.”
Once the second group was done visiting the labs, we swapped. In contrast to the more wild environment of the docks, the labs were more controlled. Each tub held different sets of creatures, often of the same phylum.
Originally we were going to Cattle Point Lighthouse first, however we decided to take a hike to Jakle’s Beach Lagoon. Unlike most of the trip where we hiked alongside the beach, this hike was covered in canopies of trees and lush lichen — an indicator of good air quality apparently.
While this is a mainly marine trip, that didn’t mean other animals wouldn’t make their presence known. In the mud, there were hoof tracks not yet washed out by the water with insects crawling on the pitted wood. Some students even recognized the insects, many of them huddling over a particular iridescent insect of interest.
The highlight — or perhaps most embarrassing part of the trip for me — came from Cattle Point Lighthouse. As the lighthouse came into view, an attendee pointed to the tip where a bald eagle perched on top. Some students were skeptical of the bird, not sure if it was real until it ruffled its feathers. Now was a great time for a picture.
My partner and I offered to take a photo of the group: one facing the sea and one facing the lighthouse. The sea photo came out well, but then came the lighthouse photo. We all pointed to the top of the lighthouse, intending to include the eagle. After realizing a horizontal photo would not work for this shot, we wanted to retake one vertically. That apparently was the cue for the eagle to take off — perhaps it was camera shy.
While we couldn’t get the photo we wanted, it did make for a good laugh. That energy carried over to the final stop of the trip: Friday Harbor. We all broke off into our own groups, each exploring the town on our own. My partner and I spent the evening at Downriggers, explored what little shops were open, and ended the day off with a sweet treat.
For two years, I couldn’t get this island out of my head. San Juan was a dream trip I wanted to take and on a random Thursday the opportunity dropped in an announcement.
It’s a little sad that there have been years where numbers come out far less than expected. “For the last couple of years, students have been, for whatever reason, not showing up. We had 45 people sign up and ended up with 33 today. Administratively, we don’t have a lot of support,” Dooley said.
To spend my first trip on my own exploring, learning and having fun with fellow marine enthusiasts was everything and more. I implore anyone who is interested in opportunities such as these to take the plunge. You never truly know what you’ll discover.
