The End of a Great Trip

 

Our week in Puerto Penasco has come to an end, but what a week it was! We started the week with some surveys of intertidal habitats and tidepools, with each habitat having a unique community. We found a myriad of organisms at the sandy shore with rocky reef behind CEDO, including octopus, crabs, fish, sea urchins, sea stars, snails, and lots of sea hares. The rocky shore behind Vina del Mar also had a high abundance of organisms, including apricot sea slugs, nudibranchs, brittle stars, snapping shrimp, octopus, sea cucumbers, and crabs. The students enjoyed all of the habitats we visited, but I have a feeling the Cholla Bay mud/sandflat may have been their favorite. It had considerably less hard substrate, but the animals took advantage of the hiding places that were there. We found a lot of crabs, octopus, clams, and hermit crabs, and even some penaeid shrimp, gorgonians, and a flounder. 

The sandy shore and rocky reef habitat behind CEDO. 


Students tidepooling at the rocky shore habitat. 


Dr. Bennett teaching the students at the Cholla Bay sand/mudflat.


Paloma (CEDO biologist) toured us around the CEDO facilities and showed us some of the endangered freshwater species they help recover. The biologists at CEDO gave some very interesting presentations while we were there. We learned about the natural history of Puerto Penasco, the Sea of Cortez, and marine mammals including the critically endangered vaquita. We also had the opportunity to kayak the Morua Estuary and learn more about it from David (CEDO biologist).  David also took us around Las Conchas to help with osprey surveys. We located the nests and then recorded the number of osprey (adults and juveniles) and activity at the nests. 


Kayaking the Morua Estuary with CEDO biologist David.


Helping with osprey nest surveys on Las Conchas. 


The highlight of our trip was a boat trip to Isla San Jorge, or "Bird Island". It was around a 3 hour trip to the island, and we saw some seabirds, including blue footed and brown boobies. The island is covered in urates from the shorebirds, which gives it the white coloration, and it is surrounded in sea lions. As we snorkeled and dove around the island, sea lions approached us and even nibbled on our fins. The trip also included a sighting of a whale shark, the largest fish in the ocean. A few of us jumped into the water with our SCUBA gear and got an up-close look at the sub-adult whale shark that was around 25ft in length. 


Isla San Jorge. 


The whale shark we saw on our boat trip. 



The group in downtown Puerto Penasco. 



Overall, it was a great trip with lots of field experiences, (mostly) good food, and fun! I hope everyone had as much fun as I did and came away with an appreciation for the marine environment. 

-Whitney


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