Somona State Inverts

On the weekend of May 28 to the 30th, Sonoma State's Marine Ecology class visited and camped out at Fort Ross Conservatory. This was the second time that I have visited this beautiful place. Fort Ross is one of the most visited by tourists between Bodega Bay and Fort Bragg. Fort Ross is a Historic State Park, that has a rich Russian-era history, that is located 45 minutes from Bodega Bay and about 2 hours from San Francisco. Fort Ross is surrounded by beautiful beaches, panoramic coves and redwood forests that have views of the Pacific Ocean. Fort Ross is a great place to visit because they offer great program, which focuses on hand on outdoor educational marine ecology. There program is primary for middle and high school aged students but it is a great opportunity for college students as well. During our stay at Fort Ross, we learned about California, Stellar Sea Lions and harbor seals. During this presentation, we learned how to be able to identify between them. After learning ...

Carmet Beach If you enjoy marine habitats and are looking for a great place to tide-pool, then you should visit Bodega Bay. Bodega Bay is on the coast of the northern California. Bodega Bay consists of a shallow, rocky inlet of the Pacific Ocean. The bay is used for many reasons because of its marine habitat. For example it's useful for its navigation, recreation, and commercial and sport fishing include shellfish harvesting. Bodega Bay has a series of beaches that are separated by rock bluffs and headlands. Carmet beach is one that I personally enjoy visiting. It is a narrow roc ky beach that is part of the Sonoma Coast State Park. The beach is right along Highway 1, the parking lot has two steep trails that drop down to the beach on both sides. The southern cove is the widest and sandiest, while the Northern cove extends north along a narrow boulder-filled shoreline. On my latest visit to Carmet Beach on March 7th 2017, I encountered a couple of new specie...

UC-Davis Bodega Marine lab is a leader in the multidisciplinary research that aims to solve complex environmental problems in coastal ecosystems. BML looks into addressing challenging questions that include climate change, coastal oceanography, ecology, evolution, conservation, ocean health, and physiology. Since 1920, scientists have studied the environs around Bodega Marine Lab. Since the region around the Bodega Marine Lab is one of the four most productive coastal ocean ecosystems on earth. Scientists were attracted there because of its abundance of sea life that occurs there. The lab includes researchers, visiting scientists, undergraduate and graduate students, staff and volunteers. The Lab is located off California Coast Highway 1. 28 miles from Santa Rosa, 65 miles north of San Francisco and 100 miles west of Davis.  White Abalone: White abalone ( Haliotis sorenseni ) are herbivorous gastropods, they live in rocky ocean waters. While abalone can be found in open l...

Fort Ross Fort Ross has a whole lot of interesting history. There is a unique blend of diverse cultural groups that make up the history of Fort Ross. Some of the groups included the Russians, the Kashaya Pomo, Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo Indians, the Aleutian and Kodiak Islanders, and the Spanish and Mexican settlers. There was also the Creoles, who were the children of Russian men and Native North American women. The resources at the Pacific Ocean, were a huge part/reason for the history of Fort Ross. In the hunt for "soft gold", the Russians settled Alaska. Then later with two primary goals, the Russians migrated to the Pacific coast. The Russians primary goals included to find warmer locations where they would have the opportunity to grow enough food that would feed the Alaskan settlements. There other goal was to be able to increase the range of marine mammals were being hunted. Nationalities such as the Russians, British and the Americans were hunting marine ma...

Have you ever been or do you know of anyone who is interested in learning more about marine ecology? Well, if you are interested, then You should visit Fort Ross. Fort Ross is located in Northern California and it offers an excellent Marine Ecology program. The program is mainly focused on elementary, middle, and high school students. College students and adults are more than welcomed to experience this great program as well. Fort Ross Conservancy's Marine Ecology Program gives the youth an opportunity to learn more about the local marine ecology, while they interact and observe marine species. The students will learn what it is meant to conduct themselves around wildlife and observe the abundant marine life. While learning how to do collections and data protocol. Just how citizen scientists deeply appreciate marine science and nature, they e ncourage the students to focus on marine stewardship and environmental sciences.  The Marine Ecology Program (MEP) was developed because...

Carmet Beach-Bodega Bay Friday 2nd 2016, a cold misty morning was my first time going to Bodega Bay. As I approached Carmet Beach, I got more and more excited to see what I would encounter on my visit there with my Biology Invertebrate class from Sonoma State University. This would be the first time I would actually explore and be so close to many species. The low tied at Carmet Beach, allowed me to be in between the rocks and get very personal with the habitats living there. The rocks were very slippery, so I had to move around with caution. While the sun was blazing on me and the weather was getting warmer as the time went by. I absolutely loved and enjoyed my by visit to Carmet Beach. I saw organisms that I new and seen before and saw ones that I had not seen or heard of before. The organisms that  I saw included the Porcelin Crab (Petrolisthes cinctipes), Striped Shore Crab (Pachygrapsus crassipes), Ochre Sea Star (Pisaster ochraceus), Giant Green Anemone (Anthopleura xant...