Written by Ashley Hedrick and Zoe Wolfe   

After our stay at the Rough and Tumble Lodge, we loaded into the bus for the last time and headed toward Kaikoura, our last stop as a group on our South Island journey.  While on the road, we made a few pit stops, one of which was at a bakery where many of us bought delicious treats (including Matthias, who got a cream-filled donut to celebrate the end of his period of veganism).  Once we reached Kaikoura, we said goodbye to our wonderful bus driver, Clem, and were introduced to our hosts at the Edward Percival Marine Field Station.  Our resident advisors were Paul and Becky, marine biologists working for Canterbury University.  After a brief break for choosing bunks, we all gathered for a quick lesson on intertidal ecology.  Paul gave us a broad overview of the levels of the intertidal zone and preached to the magic of tide pools, which we would soon explore and become familiar with.  He also took this opportunity to introduce a few possible research ideas to get us thinking about what we wanted to research during the remainder of the week.

The main focus of our stay in Kaikoura was to devise, carry out, and present mini research projects on some aspect of intertidal ecology.  We all split into small groups based on our interests in the various project topics and quickly got to work coming up with questions, hypotheses, and experimental designs with the help of Paul, Becky, Chris, and Ikumi.  Since most of us were somewhat unfamiliar with working in a marine ecology setting, we relied heavily on the advice of the marine biologists and the experimental designs we read about in various research articles.  In a surprisingly short amount of time, though, the groups were off and running with projects in mind.  While some groups created lab experiments that could be carried out indoors, others decided they would venture out during low tide to take surveys and counts of designated experimental plots.  Even though it was our first evening at the field station, everyone was ready to get out the next day to begin performing the experiments.

Before we got to work on our research the next morning, however, we had a visit from a member of Kaikoura’s district council, a group of professionals dedicated to creating and running environmental and sustainability programs in their area.  The district council that presides over Kaikoura has made great efforts to make the city a Green Globe community through “Earth Check” programs.  These programs focus on zero waste, intensive recycling, reusable materials, carbon reduction, and establishing marine reserves.  The efforts of the district council seem to have had a positive impact of the area and have been well received by the community.  It was inspiring to see that environmental preservation and sustainability have become such a focus in Kaikoura and gave many of us hope that other communities could also successfully get on board with such programs.

To pass some time the following morning until the tide was low enough for us to carry out our experiments, we received a talk from Chris Smith about some of the research that he has been involved in on harvester ants as well as other side projects that he has been a part of such as metagenomic studies and slime mold studies. Once his talk was complete our group of 14 scattered to different areas along the coast that were best suited for their studies and we did not reconvene again that day until the tide returned. For many of us it was a great first day and we were looking forward to doing more in the days to follow. After spending such a long time away from our traditional methods of learning, being able to actively solve problems was a breath of fresh air.

Close to midnight that day Paul invited those who were interested to go on a midnight walk through the shore since the tide would be out again. A large group of us geared up with headlamps and joined him and were able to see some amazing creatures that were not as prevalent during the day. Some of the most memorable things we saw were huge sea stars, wandering anemones, and duckbilled limpets which are curious invertebrates whose soft velvety mantel grows to cover its small white shell. It was great to have Paul there to tell us all about the sea creatures that most of us were very unfamiliar with and it was a great chance to become more comfortable with the location and environment that we were studying in. Although many of us could have stayed out until the tide forced us back, we were all rather exhausted from our first day of work and chose to go to bed at a reasonable hour.

The next two days passed in a blur with groups working on their different projects and analyzing their data to create a presentation, but after many stressful hours everyone was finished and ready to present results. All the studies done were very unique and creative. One group consisting of Bailey Heinzen, Taylor Boucher, and Emily Sells looked at interactions of butterfish and bull kelp. Adaobi and Heather tested the tenacity of a specific seaweed (Hormosira banksii) and Zoe looked at how tramping on that seaweed could alter the biodiversity of what lives under it. Abby and Jessica examined how snails avoid different types of starfish and along those same lines Ashley and Chris studied how amphipods steer clear of anemones. The largest group consisting of Joanne, Brent, Cole, and Hanna looked at the differences between sea life living within an area protected from commercial fishing (Rahui) and an area where commercial fishing takes place regularly. Overall we were all very pleased with how our presentations came together and were very relieved to be done with what felt like a miniature finals week.

During our three days of intense work we were however lucky enough to go on an albatross sighting tour. Albatrosses were not the only things we saw though. We saw little blue penguins bobbing on the surface taking a break before their next dive, fur seals rolling around, and dolphins jumping through the air and playing in the wake of the boat. Overall it was a great trip and tons of fun to see so much life in the oceans.

Kaikoura was a great time to get back in school mode, but it eventually came to an end and we all parted ways on the morning of the 22nd to enjoy a well-earned spring break.