The End of the Deer Island - Seascape Kayak Course

 The Bay of Fundy Saga Part 11: The End of the Deer Island - Seascape Kayak Course

The last expedition would be today. We awoke to the smell of scrambled eggs and possibility. Today’s kayak trip was a foggy and difficult one, but we got through it nonetheless. We finally made it to the harbour, loaded our things and collapsed onto whatever was nearest. Goodbyes were said as we left Seascape for the Huntsman.

After arriving from Deer Island, we spent the better part of the afternoon trying to remove the stink that had latched onto us since we first stepped foot onto a beach. After about half a dozen 30 minute showers, we smelled like pride, swagger and Nivea For Men. In other words, we were ready to hit whatever nightlife St. Andrew’s had to offer. The excursion began with the option to either play mini-golf or frequent the local playground. This was followed up by a visit to a local pizzeria featuring our first taste of meat in five days. As we got back to the Huntsman to finish our pizzas, we got word that we were to wake up at 4am in order to board the bus. We took it upon ourselves to stay up all night and get about three hours of sleep. The wake-up filled the halls with moans and groans as we continued our snoozing on the bus.

As the ride gained mileage, the mood improved and we broke out into song many times with such hits as Bohemian Rhapsody, Gangnam Style and I’ll Make a Man out of You. When we arrived in Montreal, Ms. Lynam, Mr. Grier, Mr. Deegan and Mr. Pruneau looked visibly dazed and confused at what had just happened to them during the last ten hours. Echoing what my colleagues mentioned a few days ago, I look back on this trip without tears, but with dreams. With some friends, a kayak and a dream, anything is possible. Dream on.

Fin. 

Everybody hey. At the beginning of our day, we awoke to a really wet morning. The appearance That it had rained made us want to snooze for another hour or so but it was time to get down to the Lab. We all gulped down our breakfasts began the trek to the lab. The walk down was really hazy from the dense fog that surrounded us and made everything seem to disappear as the distance between objects grew. When I remembered the sight of what we where going to be dissect this morning I still smell the terrible scent of the fish that we needed to explore. We finished the lab we rushed off tho catch the fairy to pick up the others at deer island. The fairy ride was nice and the sight of where the kayaking place was, was even more spectacular. I learned the story of an old fishing house that was condemned because of its lack of structural integrity. The story is a bit too long but to shorten it, It was and old man's fishing storage house that he left because he was too old and the house and everything in it left to rot. I personalty felt like a kid in a candy shop because I love to fish and to see all this old fishing gear was a really cool sight. Hope to see that place again next year.

By: Mathew de Marchie

A Final Word

Bonsoir a tous, ou bonjour a tous selon l'heure et la journée où vous allez nous lire!

Les deux dernières journées nous ont permis de reconfirmer a quel point nos quatre néo-biologistes sont demeurés impliqués a 100% pour chacune des activités tout au long de la semaine. Madame Lynam et moi sommes très impressionnés par Alex, Matthew, Mathew et Paul. Ces derniers ont fait une excellente première impression a madame Lynam qui en était a sa première semaine a ''Selwyn House'' et ont placé la barre très haute pour ses autres étudiants qu'elle aura la chance de rencontrer dès lundi.

To follow up on my last entry in the blog, yes my four brave boys all came out with the bats and all the other unknown noises in the forest and slept under their shelter by the camp fire. This afternoon, we (the 6 of us at The Huntsman) all took the ferry to Deer Island to go meet our friends the kayakers from their return of their journey at sea.

Tout au long de la semaine, les garçons ne l'ont pas mentionné lors de leurs différentes communications mais depuis la deuxième journée, un groupe de jeunes de 5e et 6e année de St-Louis, Missouri a partagé ce magnifique environnnement dans lequel nous avons passé la semaine. The four of them showed tremendous leadership by leading some games at night with them and they really impressed their three teachers as well as Ms. Lynam and I. They were also asked by one of the teacher to help them plan a prank on two of the students as it is a tradition when they come here every year. The whole set up that they put was impressive and led to a successful act.


We will be passing the blog to the students for them to conclude on what was for Ms. Lynam and I an amazing week with the diversity of the marine environment but most of all, quatre étudiants qui nous ont impressionnnés énormément!

A demain après-midi! See you tomorrow afternoon!

Jean Pruneau

Hi everyone,
We had a rather interesting day as we started off the day to a spot of whale watching.
On this trip we saw 3 different types of whale up close and personal ( Mink, fin and harbor porpoise)
It took a while for anything to happen but eventually the whales revealed themselves to us, but for this to happen we had to make a sacrifice to Inyamiyami (The god of water and all things in it) . After this heart warming experience we took ourselves off to the lab to do an experiment which was aimed to see how much weight it would take to remove a sea star or sea urchin from a glass container.
Now we are retiring to the camp firm to watch horror films and spend the night.

Day 3

Hi everyone,

Today we went down to the lab first thing in the morning were we did experiments on the turn over time of a sea star and of a sea urchin. The idea of the experiment was to see how the size of the sea star affected its ability to turn over from its back to its stomach. After do this to the sea stars we then used sea urchins which was much slower at turning over. We then worked on our group projects. After lunch we went kayaking where some of us got a bit wet well others got a bit more then some. On our adventure we saw a seal and we raced across the bay - The 4 Huntsman boys

















Ce soir autour du feu, les garçons nous ont révélé la vérité sur leur niveau de bravoure! Hier soir, nos 4 braves Gryphons ont regardé des épisodes de Sherlock Holmes et l'écran de leur ordinateur les ont fait sursauter a plusieures reprises.

We did set up two shelters by our fire to sleep outside tonight with the bats that were enjoying our camp fire with us. I am anxious to see if they will be more brave with the bats than they were last night in front of their computer screen!Tomorrow's blog will let you know!

From ''Bilingual New-Brunswick'' and like my grand father used to tell me before going to bed:
''Bonnne nuit, bons rêves, pas de puce, pas de punaise!''

(Stephanie Lynam et Jean Pruneau)

No Tears Only Dreams (Group 2)

Day 1,

Today was sunny and warm, the perfect weather for learning to rescue flipped boats and other such kayak techniques, ultimately we did not have a full day of activity since we also had to make the trip up here from the huntsman museum. We did manage to fit in a lot of learning about the local geology and marine life. We also enjoyed rock skipping and a late night trip to check the election results (we were slightly disappointed). Overall day one was great and we look forward to the rest of  the trip.

-Benjamin Bedard

Day 2

What's that's sound that's the sound of torrential downpour on our tents, the very same that woke many of us up in the middle of the night. luckily i needed to wake up at 6:45 to make french toast so i just decided to wait it out. The rain continued to pour on our heads for the majority of the day so we spent it inside the seascape lodge learning how to plan trips and playing cards. after we ate lunch which was soup, cheese, apple and kiwi. we found that the rain had moved on so we decided to try out our new leadership skills and went out on the water we did 14 K (k standing for kilometer) and returned to our lovely abodes (aka tents), so far all has been well no tears only dreams, can't wait for the rest of the trip.

-Yan-maurice McNiven

A lot of rain, but even more smiles!

Good evening from rainy St. Andrews! Although the weather was not on our side today, as you will see from the pictures below, the boys were engaged and eager to learn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The good news, more so for the kayakers, is that the rain seems to have come to an end. We are looking forward to a nicer day tomorrow as we head out onto the water to test our kayaking skills in the afternoon.

Good night to all - Stephanie Lynam

The morning started off waking up to the unpleasant sound of rain. After a quick breakfast we scurried off to a beach looking for worms. We spent fourty-five minutes looking for a variety of worms. Much to our dismay, the rain drove us out and we quit early, heading back to dry off and go to the lab, where we studied the specimens more closely. Our task was to make an identification chart in which we could identify and class all the various types of worms. After our lunch (chicken burgers), we returned to the research facility, and we were give a one hour tour of the museum section of the building where had a hands on experience with the different animals in the bay of fundy. After that, we went back down to the lab, this time to study the indentification of invertibates. We were each given five different sea animals and told to class the into their respective categories and species. We were then guided to the lecture room, where we were showed a fascinating documentary about the different squid of the pacific ocean. After the film, our attention was captivated by a sign that said "surgeon tank". We discreetly split off from the teachers and went to investigate this giant jar of huge fish. After a good twenty minutes of playing with them and valiant efforts to flip one of them, we walked back to the lodge. After dinner, we are going to have a presentation about whales and sea birds.

Good night from the teachers



Un bonsoir du Nouveau-Brunswick...

Mon matin a commencé en autobus avec un premier arrêt a Indian Point où nos quatre apprentis biologistes et madame Lynam sont allés a la chasse aux trésor dans la zone intertidale. J'ai poursuivi la route avec les apprentis kayakistes a bord du traversier pour Deer Island où nous nous sommes rendus sains et saufs.

A mon retour a St Andrews, mon groupe de néo-biologistes était fin prêt pour leur premier voyage en mer. WOW!!! C'est incroyable ce que l'on peut sortir de l'eau en si peu de temps!

Collecte de plancton pour le laboratoire de la soirée, prise de données de la température de l'eau, de la salinité, de la profondeur de la visibilité, notre mission semblait de plus en plus scientifique.

We even brought a bird onboard to release it at sea. After the release came the catch of the day! A net full of creatures that we counted and measured for scientific purpuses. When we came back to shore, the boys were anxious to start writing their blog as they had so much to report.

The first night lab gave us the opportunity to see through the microscope lense some of the creatures we collected earlier. We had over an hour of discoveries and amazement!

From all of us out here... have a good night sleep! (Jean Pruneau)

This is not tonight's moon but a copapode: zooplankton.

Day 1!

Hi everyone,

Starting off our first day here with a 8 o'clock breakfast, we were all eager to start the day off. Once we were all on the bus the first group was dropped of at the shore line and the second group took a ferry over to the other side of the canal where they would be dropped of to start their adventures on Deer Island. The group that was dropped of at the shore line was given the task to find certain marine wild life that was hiding in the rocks and in the ground since it was low tide. This was very challenging since non of the members of this group had never done anything like this and did not know where to look at the beginning of the search. This quickly turned into a search t find the biggest crabs on the beach which we would find under large flat rocks where there was families of crab. After our search was over and many different species of animals where found we had to take what we had and make the long walk back to where we are staying. With buckets filled with the variety of species big and small. Can't wait for the rest of the day.

 

 

Alex and Matthew 

 

After Lunch, (soup and grilled cheese, followed by chocolate chip cookies), we went down to the docks where a fishing boat was waiting for us. We started by putting down two small nets with jars at the end into the water, with which we collected plankton. Later, we collected information such as water visibillity, salt, and temperature. The seamen then threw down a larger net, used for fishing. We collected fish, crabs, and lobster. Most of that went back into the sea.

-Paul

 

 

On Tuesday evening, we all went down to the lab to examine the water samples we collected with the nets earlier in the day. The net that has the very small holes allowed us to collect the much smaller Fido plankton which we observed on the microscopes with allot of interest and astonishment. The main reason that we where astonished to observe such things is because there where so many different types of microorganisms in as many shapes. The different organisms that we where observing where interesting and drawing them as we saw them is not as easy as one would think either. The lab was lots of fun and look forward to dissecting the

few fish we caught though out the trolling experience.
By Mathew de Marchie



Aloha from St Andrews!

Hi everyone,
Salutations from the beautiful province of New Brunswick, in exciting, bilingual Canada. After 12 hours of driving, deciding where to eat for lunch and finally eating lunch, we have finally arrived in St. Andrews on the bay of Fundy. Pulling into the Huntsman marine research center was a relief after a bus ride that sometimes turned a bit unruly and downright fetid.
Returning as a veteran to St. Andrews, I hope to reminisce the great memories from last year and simultaneously discover and explore new areas of the region that we have come to know as "the place we saw that great white shark eat a porpoise" for those who had the opportunity to be here last year. Who knows what surprises will be waiting for both groups this year!
Anyway, its already been a great time for the 3 hours that we have been here after we participated in a quick game of flashlight tag upon our late arrival at 9pm local time. The whole group is prepared to take on their various activities upcoming in the week ahead, and I think I speak for everyone in saying that we are all extremely stoked to get started!
We should be blogging every night or so and we hope to keep you updated, I know it may be difficult for those camping out, but we will see how it works out.
Good night from Huntsman,
Jason Miller