Trip #2: Moreton Bay

Sooo… as mentioned in a previous post, one part of the Marine Environment course involves field trips. We took our first trip a few weeks ago to the Moreton Bay Research Station (LINK). The purpose of the trip was to learn about the marine environments on the rocky and sand shores and conduct a science experiment. Day 1: We arrived around 10 or 11am. 

First, our class did two seine nettings to capture different marine animals. The net was about 50 meters (yeah, the metric system is crazy) and extremely heavy to drag through the water, but it was pretty fun (def. an experience). We caught a good number of fish, including a sting ray, some toad fishes, and quite a few long, pointy-nosed fishes (it was nearly a month ago…don’t remember the names lol).  After lunch, we explored the rocky shores and all the organisms living there (i.e. snails, oysters, sea cucumbers, algaes, star fish, sea urchins, and another ray). That night, we watched an authentic Australian film, Priscilla and the Queen of the Desert (think: To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar but with Australian accents, except this came first). Day 2= Experiment Day… we basically had to conduct the experiment, analyze the result, and put together the results in our day. My group’s experiment was to estimate the population of gobies in the tidal pools. All went well and later that night we all played three very long, but fun rounds of Mafia. 

Day 3: We went on a gorge walk, got some gelato, went to the beach and went home. 

Great trip!