Ahh.... Now about my Field camp!

What an amazing five days! I met so many of my classmates and professors on a completely different level. We collected data for four different research projects and when not working, we did a lot of playing.




When we met on campus we were separated into seven groups of ten that would be our core group for the next five days. We all loaded into our given Kambi (van) and headed off. George was my designated group leader, I didn't know it at the time but I really lucked out in being placed in his group (though his driving was rather questionable). What a terrific leader!!!!! We arrived at our camp at the Geelbek Environmental Center in the West Coast National Park on Wednesday the 23 of March.




The center was beautiful, George got us to there early so we could have our choice of sleeping arrangements. We each picked out our beds and got settled in. Turns out the camp used to be a stable, and we were basically staying in what used to be the stalls, not a bad place to be a horse. There were several bunks in each room, and it definitely had the 6th grade science camp feel.












After exploring a bit and a nice dinner, we got to bed at a reasonable time. It was going to be an early start the following day.


Our first day of data collection was for a research project on the effects of wave action on the rocky shores. This project is basically looking at weather all rocky shores constitute just one type of habitat, or if there are different types of rocky shore, all of which need conservation. So, we got up at about 6:00 had breakfast and headed for Cape Columbine. We looked at several transects and quantified species percent cover for all of the organisms present. We then took a sub-sample of each species in order to find their relative biomass.

So, that was the first day. It was a really great bonding experience in that we really had to watch out for each other as the waves came crashing down on us as we took our samples. We all ended up pretty wet and cold so George broke out the chocolate and we were easily appeased. We had lunch on the beach and spent the rest of the day at the camp playing Frisbee and enjoying the sunshine.

The next day of data collection was for the conservation of the fish in the West Coast National Park.

Basically, we went out onto the lagoon on a beautiful day and fished in areas where people are not allowed to fish. It was a great project not only because the findings might be really important, but after we were through dissecting our specimens we got to eat them. This project kept our whole camp very well fed! I didn't actually catch any bony fish, but I did catch four juvenile shy sharks.


Saturday's data collection was for the Langebaan NaGISA Seagrass Survey. This projects aim was to contribute a data set from South Africa to the global NaGISA project, the aim of which is to compare sea-grass communities on a global scale. On addition we were looking at how sea-grass affects the structure of the community and how the apparent decline in sea-grass abundance is impacting the Langebaan system. The sampling site was at Klein Oosterwaal beach, also a great site for lunch! After the collection, we went back to the camp to undertake the tedious task of separating and identifying the many many organisms found in our five transects of the areas. What a lot of work that was!!!

Sunday's data collection was for a project in quantifying marine debris. This was basically a glorified beach clean up. The beach was beautiful!! 


All of the data collection went really well, and I learned a great deal due to the vast amounts of knowledge stored in good ol' George's head. That man knows so much!!! He was really fantastic, constantly feeding us chocolate and fascinating bits of wisdom. We were so spoiled. We really mastered the art of eating way too much and napping just about anywhere our heads could land.

The nights at the camp were really great. Each group took turns cooking the meals; we certainly did not go hungry!! The night my group cooked...well lets just say the rest of the students missed out on a wild party in the kitchen. Every night after dinner we had a speaker who talk of their given research, and then...the merrymaking began. There was lots of card playing and a beverages consumed. The campfire talks lasted well into the nights. We talked politics, biology, future plans, and of course the jokes flowed. I laughed a lot and made some really wonderful friends. The rest of this semester is going to be phenomenal.