Catalina Island Leadership Program

Phoenix Country Day School

Kelp Forest Information Links

Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuaries

What is the Density of the Garibaldi in the Northern Channel Islands to the Southern Channel Islands? Why?

On October 16, 2006, I went to Howland’s Landing on Catalina for the first time in my life. The science trip, sponsored by PCDS, allowed the 8th grade to see an untouched ecosystem of marine and terrestrial life. The program to teach us there was called CELP, or Catalina Environmental Leadership Program. We stayed with CELP for five days, October 16, 2006 to October 20, 2006, and throughout the trip we were taught about oceanography, the four themes of nature, and more. Over the trip, everybody snorkeled, kayaked, hiked, expanded their comfort zones, collected data, and learned. We saw fish, made new friends, and became aware of nature.

Everybody was assigned lab groups before the trip, and each group was to think of a question that could be answered with everything we learned in the trip. Our lab group’s question was modified almost everyday of the trip, but it finally came to be what it is today. It started out as “How does marine life rely on the Kelp Forest?” but the end result was completely different. Now, it is "What is the Density of the Garibaldi in the Northern Channel Islands to the Southern Channel Islands? Why?"

To discover more, we had four snorkels while at the island. During these snorkels my partners and I conducted Rover Diver fish counts of the cove; we helped pinpoint places on the GPS, where the Garibaldi were. During the Emerald Bay snorkel specifically, our group counted 76 Garibaldi alone around Indian Rock (a rock in he middle of Emerald Bay Cove.) Most we saw were hiding under what was left of the kelp forest.

One difficulty we had was that this year (2006-2007) is an El Niño year. If the year was not an El Niño year, then there would be more kelp and fish to study. Instead, most of the kelp forest was gone and most of the fish swam to where the water was colder. Another difficulty was that there is a lot of data collected from previous years, so, our group had to sort through all of that data to find data that related to our question. If we had a chance to return, we would like to go during a normal year and compare the RDFC of Garibaldi from both years.

This year (2006) is an El Niño year, which means that the water temperature and climate is warmer than usual. If this year were not an El Niño year, we would believe a better parameter for our personal research would be available. For example, if it had not been an El Niño year, the Giant Kelp would have still been alive. Nonetheless, we are happy that I had the opportunity to do my project during an El Niño year, because we had the opportunity to learn something different than the majority of other people.