coastal science camp – Page 2

Coastal Science Camp at the Gulf Coast Research Lab

sc-1562 — Dip netting in a small estuary.

As you may have guessed from the previous posts about waterspouts and the dolphin, we’ve been on the Gulf coast for the last few days. Specifically, we were visiting the Gulf Coast Research Lab‘s Marine Education Center for two days for our end-of-year trip.

It was excellent. The weather was perfect; sunny with lots of cumuliform clouds for shade but little rain. However, the what really made the trip work was that we had a good, interesting, and varied program, directed by an excellent instructor, Stephanie T..

sc-1717 — Stephanie T. pointing out the finer points of piscine morphology.

For reference (to link all posts about the Coastal Science Camp):

On the first morning, we started off dip net sampling in an estuary, then did some sub-surface collection while watching waterspouts, and finally trying our hands at seine netting before walking back to the research lab, and observing longshore drift, along the artificial beach.
After lunch, we spent some time in their classroom identifying organisms we’d collected in the morning, dissecting squid, and having an overview of the geography of the region.
On the second morning, we took a pontoon out to one of the close islands (Deer Island) to collect garbage and observe the beach biota and sandbar geomorphology. On our way back a dolphin decided to surf in the wake of our vessel.
We spent the last afternoon fishing.

View Coastal Sciences Camp, Gulf Coast Research Lab in a larger map

Dolphin

We weren’t looking for them at the time, and later when we were looking for them we didn’t find them, but on our trip back to the GCRL-MEC a dolphin decided it wanted to play in our boat’s wake.

It would jump through the face of the bow wave. Usually horizontally, but vertically once or twice.

Dolphins usually travel in pods of up to a dozen or so individuals. This one, however, was alone. We’d seen it earlier, while we were walking on the beach and picking up trash. The dolphin may have been playing or eating, but it was certainly scaring the small fish. A couple birds took advantage of this to make their own catches, with near vertical dives into the gently rolling waters of the sound.

It was wonderful to observe.

sc-dive-1946 — Bird caught in the middle of a dive, just before it splashed into the water.

Waterspouts

sc-waterspout-1635 — Two waterspouts seen over Ocean Springs.

As we waded through the Mississippi Sound, doing the Sting Ray Shuffle, sampling for benthic fauna, we came across these two waterspouts. Our guide, Stephanie, from the Gulf Coast Research Lab’s Marine Education Center, said they’re not that common.

They’re quite elegant.

Fortunately, they were very far away.