The eighth grade at PCDS of 2005-2006 went to Howland's Landing in October at Catalina Island. This island is part of the Channel ISlands off the coast of California. At Howland's Landing there is a camp called Catalina Environmental Leadership Program (CELP). where we stayed. On Monday through Friday (17th-21st), we spent our time with counselors from this program looking at the surrounding environments. There was snorkeling, kayaking, hiking, a ropes course, and composting. In the snorkeling and kayaking, we mapped the kelp forest with a GPS amid observed it. There was much to record including turbidity, salinity, temperature, depth, and the fish in the water. We took counts of the fish in certain areas and took pictures. The measurements for the other observations were taken with tools and put to use for future people to see. This trip was an excellent chance to record and observe the kelp forests. With all the data, there are many questions that can now be answered. In our lab team, we are researching how the fish, water, and kelp relate. What kinds of fish live in the kelp? If there is more kelp, is there more fish? More of a certain kind? Why do certain fish live in kelp? When the fish fluctuate, does the kelp? Questions of this nature are what we were trying to solve in our work. To answer those questions and many others, we turned to the collected data from the trip. Roving diver fish counts, random collections of a number of fish in an area, helped determine when, how many, and where the fish are. GPS points were taken of a rough outline of the kelp forest off the shore of Howland's Landing to help us map it. The snorkeling pictures were also taken to understand the type of environment. The fish count was done when we went snorkeling and the mapping of the kelp was taken while we were kayaking. Those two main pieces of data will help to answer these questions.One main conclusion of this project was as we suspected. The more kelp the more able it is to sustain more life. Therefore more kelp, more fish. The kelp acts as a big city for the fish and the bigger the city the more fish can belong there. The type of fish that live in the kelp are many. Nearly every fish listed in the above map is included. The larger creatures, bat rays and horn sharks do not live in the kelp. Garibaldi and goby are main fish in the kelp forest. Also sheephead, kelpfish, and rock fish tend to mostly life in the kelp. The kelp can cover a large area with housing and even some nutrients for the fish. Our data and map proved what we had originally expected. Some links on this page also back up our information. This project should always gain improvements. If we were to return to the island, we would take more data. Also, we would probably return in ten years to compare stronger differences. In looking back we think that most information was collected well and we have little to worry about in its accuracy. The only minor difficulty is some of the information was not very detailed, making it near useless, therefore it cannot help much with our project. For future reference, the only comments we have to make are to be specific and to listen. By listening to the counselors at camp, we learned a lot to go along with this project. Overall, this project has a lot of potential success with few restraints. A different climate can throw off the whole project as on a delicate balance. To change the average temperature affects what kinds of fish live in the area, how much kelp there is, how many fish there are, and even where the kelp grows. In an El Niño year, our team would have gotten an inaccurate set of data. El Niño tears up some kelp and warms the water making it harder for the kelp to grow. Fish like colder water because of the nutrients. If there is less nutrients in the water then there would be less fish in the water because they don't like it. Therefore an el nino year would have made the data inaccurate but this year was a normal one making our data accurate.