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Kelp Info

Kelp Forest Animals

On October 17, 2005 fifty-eight students and several teachers from Phoenix Country Day School set out on a scientific expedition to Catalina Island. Catalina is one of the Cannel Islands off the coast of California. It lies just twenty miles from Los Angeles. The purpose of this trip was to gather scientific data about Catalina, the kelp forest, and the many creatures that call the kelp their home. Meanwhile, in Long Beach, California, Daniel visited the LB aquarium. He visited three sections of the aquarium to learn more about the animals that live in the kelp forest.
Upon returning to school, students paired off and chose questions to answer with their group using the data collected on the trip about the kelp forest. Daniel and Michael chose to further investigate one of the four properties of nature, everything is connected. We wanted to find out, in more depth, what made this particular saying true.

On our trip, we collected data using numerous methods. We snorkeled, kayaked, and tested water from a pier. This gave us lots of diverse data, such as the salinity, turbidity, depth, temperature, and ph scale of the water. We took roving diver fish counts, giving us a good idea of what and how many animals were visible in the kelp forest. We also used quadrates to count the number of invertebrates and pants per square meter. All this data was taken back to PCDS for this and other projects. Daniel interviewed several volunteers, who gave him valuable information into the animals that inhabit this environment.

PCDS students undertook this activity to greater academic understanding of an ecosystem which has had minimal contamination and destruction by man. Furthermore, this gave them an opportunity to practice real science in the real world. The data collected on this trip will be pooled with that of other schools. Every year, when the PCDS eighth grade goes to Catalina, they will add their data to ours. Year by year it will grow into a large set of diverse data. Soon, students and scientists alike will be able to see highly accurate depictions of changes over time in the kelp forest.
There were several difficulties involved with this undertaking. For one, Daniel and Michael were not in contact, and could not coordinate their plans. PCDS only had one week on Catalina to gather as much information as others have gathered in months. It is truly amazing that this group was able to get so much data in such a short time. Since this data was collected so quickly, upon returning to school much of the data was hard to discern. A small portion was totally useless. This is another problem involved with gathering so much data in such a short time. In some instances, data collection was not consistent, due to the large numbers of different people participating. Another problem involved was that this data shows only a small time period. If some extreme abnormality occurred during this time, all the data will be inconsistent with usual goings on at Catalina.

Daniel’s information, which was gathered in a controlled enviroment, would be uneffected by an El Nino year. If data was collected on Catalina similar to this data during an El Nino year, there would be very pronounced differences. The Channel Islands’ location means during an El Nino year, southern flowing cold tides will reverse, forcing a hot northern ocean current. This would have dramatic effects on the eco system. Many fish would leave the area in search of cooler water. Invertebrates incapable of leaving or dealing with warmer water would receive many diseases and possibly die out. Kelp would have fewer predators, and consequently thrive. The very face of the kelp forest would change.