Shannon-Point

Sea Cucumber - We saw this Sea Cucumber in the laboratory. The sea cucumber was laying flat in the bottom of the tub that it was submerged in, though when touched it would react rather quickly and move around. Sea cucumbers are scavengers.

Nudibranch - We also saw the Nudibranch in the lab. The Nudibranch was crawling around in its tub of water. Nudibranchs are carnivores.

Shore Crab - We saw this shore crab while tidepooling. This crab was scuttling around like crazy as soon as we found him, and here he is crawling on our classmate Maya's hand. Shore crabs are scavengers and will eat dead matter.

Chiton (Dead) - We found this dead Chiton while tidepooling. Being that it was dead, it wasn't doing much of anything when we found it. It was just rotting upside down and smelling awful. Most chitons are herbivores, but some species are omnivores or carnivores. I believe this to be a gumboot chiton, making it an omnivore.

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I had a great time on this trip. I have been dealing with a foot injury which made things less fun after tidepooling for a while, but after my anti-inflammatories kicked it I was right back to having a good time. My favorite part of the trip was our time spent on the ship (I stood on the bow whenever we went fast), but specifically, while doing our research we were visited by a harbor porpoise. We were all too enthralled to get out our cameras, which was a shame, but seeing it even for a quick glimpse is something that I will never forget. 

I can't really say that anything we did during this trip changed my perspective on the coast. If I were to make any note, it would be that while I knew that we had a wide range of species living in the Puget Sound, I didn't know very many of them besides the wildly popular, common knowledge animals. Seeing some of the less known animals was cool (here's looking at you, Sea Pen).

My question is this, what can we as people do to preserve this habitat for future generations? Seeing that porpoise is something that will stay with me for the rest of my life, how can we help to ensure that future generations will have that same opportunity?