Field Studies in Marine Biology- FIO course 2014: Day one and two at UNF

We are now here in Jacksonville, Florida at the wonderful University of North Florida. This campus is one of the prettiest I've seen so far with some really cool nature trails and lakes to fish in. We got settled in on Sunday night and packed up ready for a day at the beach on Monday. Our first stop on Monday was at Ponte Vedra to observe the beaches of the area and the people enjoying them. It was Memorial day so it was packed with people swimming, fishing and tailgating. We learned how some beaches are formed and the advantages and disadvantages of having a jetty. Our second stop was at Vilano Beach in St. Augustine to learn more about the beach. This one in particular had a jetty and had constant dredging which surprisingly effects other inlets down the shore, making them less stable. Spot three was at Marine Land where we enjoyed lunch and saw the Coquina rock formations. These are made from compacted bivalve shells and look really cool, they were even used to build buildings! We took some samples from the tide pools and saw some really neat critters. The next spot was at Summer Haven River where we continued to see damage that storms had done to the beaches and how people effect the land. We also chased an army of fiddler crabs around which was a blast. Our last site for the day was at Matanza's inlet which had been pushed back a substantial amount because of dredging projects at the Sebastian inlet. It's really cool how doing a dredge in one inlet can effect another down the coast but it's also very unfortunate because humans don't think about these things before doing these large dredge projects and how they negatively effect other areas.

Day 2 at UNF
Today we went out on the boats like last week to collect water samples and water quality data. It was a beautiful day on the St. Johns river, one of the only rivers that flows north!! We used the YSI to take parameters such as Temperature, salinity , dissolved oxygen, and conductivity. We also used the secchi disk for a light attenuation depth and towed the plankton net for samples to look at back in the lab. I found some sweet fish bones at the beach by the marina!! Once back at the lab we took out microscopes to look at the phytoplankton in the water samples and also tested the samples for chlorophyll A, color, and fluorescence. I'm whooped after today.

Now its time to pack for our 24 hour survey of the estuary, yes you read correctly 24 hours!!! Stay tuned for pictures of the study and some results. Wish me luck on fishing in my free time.