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Catalina Island Leadership Program

Phoenix Country Day School

Kelp Forest Information Links

Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuaries

Introduction: The ocean is an area that few people have been able to explore. Luckily for me I was one of them. My team, which consists of Will Gridley, Chris Misner, and me, James Barranco had a question that had been on our minds since the beginning of school. We wondered what gobies lived in the water by Catalina Island and why? For you that do not know Catalina Island is in the Channle Islands. We focused on three main gobies the black-eyed, the blue-banded, and the bay goby. We left on October 15th, 2007 and returned October 19th, 2007. We learned many things about the gobies. For example we never knew that they were the largets marine species in the world. That alone makes the gobies one off the most interesting species in the ocean. The gobies are one species that you can't overlook.

Research:

With our research question in mind, we had to decide what our methods and materials to collect our research would be. For our project we decided to use snorkeling and kayaking to collect data. After returning from Catalina we learned some important facts to complete our project.
During the trip to Catalina we went on four snorkels. On our first two snorkels we examined the ocean and got accustomed to snorkeling. We used wet suits and snorkels to be comfortable under water. On the last two snorkels we came closer to answer our question. We used waterproof paper and waterproof pens to record the data that we found while snorkeling. We observed that the gobies like to swim amongst the rocks. We also used a GPS to track the areas where the gobies were found and the perimeter around the kelp beds. We later, transferred the points from our GPS to our map count. We also used cameras to take pictures of the gobies and after uploading the photos were able to look at the pictures and examine their habitats. We could see what depth of water they swam in and how close they were to the shoreline.
While most of our trip to Catalina Island was fun and games, we had to do some work to help us with our projects. On the Catalina trip, we also went on another Kayak with the GPS on hand, and during this kayak we recorded the points along the outside of the kelp beds. When we put the kelp and gobies on our map, we could investigate if the gobies lived near kelp or not. Hopefully these materials helped enough to solve our question .

The ideal water temperature range for the black-eyed and the blue-banded gobies is between 12.9 – 16.6 degrees Celsius. (61.88 degrees Fahrenheit.) The Catalina water temperatures during the month of October average 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Our team needed to know what the temperature was because different gobies like different temperatures.The black-eyed gobies eat crustaceans, copepods, amphipods, and mollusks. They are about 3-4 inches long. All black-eyed gobies are born females and turn male at anytime from 2 to 3 years old. The blue-banded goby lives near central California and the tropical waters of Mexico. The blue-banded goby eats zooplankton and occasionally bryozoans and sponges. They only live about 19 months, unlike the black-eyed goby; the blue-banded goby also changes sexes, but much more quickly. The black-eyed goby and the blue-banded goby both like rocky areas with sandy bottoms with small holes and crevices in reefs. You have learned about the black-eyed and blue-banded gobies, but there is one more goby we researched. It is known as the bay goby. The bay goby lives in southern California and in southern and central Baja. The bay goby likes flat sand, mud, and silt bottoms. It rests on the bottom of the water near small holes because it blends in with the environment. It has tan (reddish, brown), dark green skin. It has dark streaks that run across its bodies. It lives up to about 2-3 years. It likes deep water and can survive in water up to 660 feet deep. The goby is an amazing creature and our team wants to tell you why.
I was very glad that I was able to explore the Catalina waters. I think the information that I found will not only help me, but other scientists also. The Goby is a very small animal, but it is the largest marine species in our ocean today. I found that very interesting and I think that’s what got me interested in them. Hopefully after your done reading this paper you will find them interesting also.

Conclusion: After we got back from Catalina, we had time to reflect on our conclusion. When we were there, we were looking for blue-banded gobies, bay gobies, and black-eye gobies. We noticed a lot of blue-banded gobies. We saw about 32 blue-banded gobies and 2 black-eyed gobies and 0 bay gobies. We believe that the reason for the lack of bay gobies is because bay gobies live in deeper water then what we researched. Also the previous year at Catalina there was very little kelp, therefore the bay and black-eyed gobies may have left to somewhere else where there was more kelp. If we were to go back next year, we think we would see more gobies because the kelp would be fully grown. If we were to continue on from what we have researched already, I would go back to Catalina to see if there were more gobies because of the kelp. Also I would go and snorkel in deeper waters because that is where the bay gobies live. We also noticed that the gobies like to hide under rocks and we noticed this when we were at Catalina because we only saw gobies near or around rocks. When we looking for gobies in the kelp, we wondered why we weren’t seeing any. Then we saw them in rocky areas and concluded that gobies like to live around rocks. To sum up what we have learned, we know that the blue-banded goby is very abundant off the Catalina coast. We know that the black eye gobies are scarcely distributed off the coast of Catalina. Lastly, we found no traces of bay gobies. This quest to find and explore gobies helped us all learn a lot.