Pacific Northwest Field Course!

The Florida Tech Biological Oceanography class “Pacific Coastal Environments” is hosted in the Pacific Northwest by the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology (OIMB) of the University of Oregon.  The goal for this course is to expose Florida Tech Biological Oceanography students to the organisms, habitats and environment of the Pacific Northwest, which is a key location in the scientific literature, but dramatically different from Florida.  Many thanks to Craig Young, Ph.D. and the faculty and staff of OIMB for accommodating our visit!

We stayed in the “Invertebrate Dorms” and one of the cottages, and our lab was in the Research Building.

The instructor and the male students stayed in a cottage and the TA stayed in the guest apartments.

There were opportunities for some recreation, but not a whole lot of time, as our schedule was beyond full!

The laboratory sea tables continuously flowed with the cold seawater drawn from the local bay at high tide, enabling the Florida Tech Biological Oceanography students to load the table with critters collected from the local environments for laboratory study and observation. The labs endearing design was published in the journal Architectural Record in the 1980’s and continues to endure and inspire.

The dining hall provided many excellent meals and even accommodated the vegetarians of Florida Tech. The cooks were great! The Biological Oceanography students also took away meals at times in order to eat on the road or in the field. The office staff and the faculty and students of the lab were very friendly and accommodating.

Across the street from the lab, where they keep their boats in the boat basin, is the public aquarium which is being built and will be part of OIMB when it is completed sometime in the next year. The Biological Oceanography students from Florida Tech were pleased to know that their octopus will be the first display at this new aquarium.