I’m Jai Sanchez and I’m spending my summer in Santa Barbara, California studying marine and coastal life at UCSB/the REEF (Research Experience & Education Facility). The REEF is part of the Marine Science Institute’s (MSI) education and outreach program. The REEF is dedicated to teaching everyone about coastal biology, marine life, and how to preserve ocean life. Since the REEF is a part of MSI, we also study and conduct research. One of our current research experiments is how heat waves may affect the red urchin’s development of their gonads, commonly known as uni. Uni is a multi-million-dollar fishing industry in California and is sent all over the world.
An anemone I saw tide pooling
Part of the beach walk with Tech Trek
This Monday started TechTrek week. TechTrek is an opportunity for young rising 8th graders to explore and navigate different STEM careers such as forensics, marine science, engineering and robotics, and aerospace. Each camper is assigned to one group based on her interests and that will be her core class throughout the week, although the girls all get to participate in different activities together. Scott is the marine science class’ core teacher. I started my day off with Fern (our shark aquarist), and two of our volunteers, Jackson and Kelsey. Our job was to feed the fish and prepare food for Wednesday’s feeding. Food prep consists of cutting, mincing, and dicing different foods for our tanks. Then, we either thaw or freeze the prepped food so it is ready to be fed to the animals. Following food prep was lunch and I met Scott at the DLG (De La Guerra) Dining Commons. Afterwards, we took our forensics class to the REEF where they were split into two groups for different rotations. The first group explored the REEF and got a hands on experience with our touch tanks. The second group went down to the beach for a lovely beach walk. We explored different mysteries of the ocean like vent dwelling octopi. There was a seal lion washed up onto the beach that smelt horrible so the girls and Scott talked about what could have killed the seal. I suspected domoic acid, or DA for short. We continued throughout our day to give each group a tour of the REEF and a beach walk. Between rotations Will, Amelia, and I had a great time trying to catch lizards. Scott also wanted us to spend some time in the Santa Rosa classroom while he elaborated on reef ecosystems.
Tuesday was a short day. We started the day off in Santa Rosa classroom where the marine science class worked on brainstorming different projects. Then we moved down to the REEF to allow the girls to see what animals we could work with. The Tech Trekkers could only choose invertebrates because conducting research and experiments on vertebrates like sharks or fish is very tedious, takes lots of time, and requires special permits. Gianna, Maggie, Julia, and I then moved onto other aquarist tasks. Since we fed the previous day, it was required to siphon the tanks to retain pristine waters. Gianna also cleaned the kelp barrel.
A common dolphin
Wednesday was boat day! A group of REEFers (including me), Scott, and Tech Trekkers ventured out around Santa Barbara’s coast. The main purpose of the boat ride was to whale watch and catch zooplankton and phytoplankton. Despite the extremely foggy conditions, we saw two giant humpback whales, hundreds of common dolphins, two bottlenose dolphins, seal lions, and lots of birds. We stumbled across a massive feeding frenzy where all sorts of marine life gathered to munch on anchovies. After we docked the boat, we went to lunch at the DLG again. Lunch was followed by another core class. Unfortunately, classes were canceled because of a schedule change and I spent the rest of the day shucking for mussel samples with Sophia.
A chiton
On Thursday, the morning started off with more TechTrek research projects. We spent the morning coloring and looking at our plankton samples under microscopes. Later Fern, Maggie, Will, and I did some food prep and fed the fish. Their diet mainly includes chopped up fish, ulva, and mussel tongue. Later, Daisy and I went swimming at Campus Point where we found lots of different seashells and a sand dollar. We also found a small hermit crab wedged under a rock. After swimming, we went out and looked at tide pools. There were lots of different snails, algae, crabs, and anemones. We also saw these weird looking creatures that Fern identified as chitons. They’re a type of mollusk. Unfortunately, my phone broke the night before so I did not have any photo documentation and I had to get a new phone. My dad and I met Scott for dinner at gogo sushi on the pier.
From left to right, Josie, Marine, me, Diasy, Allen, and Gianna
Friday was my last day of my internship. I originally had plans with Will and Amelia to kayak on the ocean, but unfortunately both of them were exhausted by the end of the day and forgot their swimsuits. To celebrate the last day of TechTrek, we hosted a beach day. We split the campers into three groups for each rotation. The first rotation was surfing lessons where Scott, Sophia (the lifeguard), Marine, Daisy, Josie, and I launched the campers into waves and taught them how to surf. Will and Amelia were in charge of the campus tours while Gianna and Allen covered the REEF rotation. After we cycled through all the rotations, the REEFers were free to use the surf boards as long as we took care of them and returned them at the end of the day. Unfortunately, by this time most of the waves in our area weren’t cresting anymore and didn’t make for good surfing. That didn’t stop Gianna, Josie, and Marine from trying though. Allen, Daisy, and I are still new to surfing and decided to swim and mess around on the boards instead. Afterwards, we all met up at the DLG for some good old fashioned dining hall dinner. Dinner was amazing and we all had a good time. Unfortunately, it had to end at some point and I said my goodbyes to all my new friends.
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