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A few weeks ago the eighth grade students of PCDS took a trip to the beautiful island of Catalina. We settled in at Howland's Landing CELP camp. Over our stay in Catalina we did many things like hiking, ropes course, kayaking, team building activities, snorkeling, and tide pooling. In our snorkel we saw many different varieties of fish in the different environment. We also did a night snorkel where we explored bioluminescence and the different types of fish that are nocturnal, like lobsters and shovelnose guitarfish. During our snorkels we saw the different fish in rocky and sandy environments, which was what our lab group chose to do research on. Our lab group chose to research and investigate the types of fish in the rocky reefs vs. the types of fish in the sandy bottoms. Our lab group mapped the diversity of fish on sandy and rocky areas using My World.

While we went kayaking we also took pictures and notes on the different types of fish that we saw. To collect the other data on the different fish and to put images in My World of the different fish, our lab group also used Internet research. For the research on fish, we used http://www.google.com to look up different web sites that would help us. Another helpfully web site that we used was http://www.mbayaq.org/efc/efc_kelp/kelp_cam.asp. We also used http://images.google.com to look up pictures of rocky fish and sandy area fish. For our map on Myworld, our group found pictures of different fish in the different environments. Some of the sandy bottom fish that we saw and researched are bat rays, shovelnose guitarfish, sea cucumbers, California halibuts, leopard sharks, kelp bass, sardines, and we also saw brittle stars on land but still alive. Some of the fish we saw and researched on the rocky shores were lobsters, garibaldis, senoritas, hermit crabs, opaleyes, sheepheads, other types of crabs, pacific sardines, rockfish, and sea urchins. We researched each of these fish's feeding habits and their habitats.

During the course of our project, our group had very little difficulties. Another difficulties, was looking for fish and finding them. I think next year kids should take notes about what they see and do when they get back to the cabins. Throughout the research there was some things that we guessed might happen in the case of an El Nino coming. One of our guesses was the fact that fish might move around and change environments or climate. The fish might like the sand areas better because they are more out in the open and they are more refreshing and less hot. However, they might also like the rocky areas better for protection against bigger fish that show up because of the El Nino. The rocks would make it easier to hide and take cover. The fish might also moved anywhere else for better food in case the El Nino took away some of the fish's resources. Plants and animals in the ocean depend on the climate around them, just as much as an plant or animal our the ocean would.