The Ocean Inquiry Project: An Experiment in Puget Sound Education and Research

The Ocean Inquiry Project is a non-profit organization whose goal is to create working partnerships between students and researchers through scientific inquiry on Puget Sound. The idea for this project crystallized when considering the intersection of Puget Sound teaching and research activities.

From a research perspective, the oceanographic properties of Puget Sound are generally undersampled in both space and time. From a teaching perspective, we found it difficult to locate data and inquiry-based curriculum about the Puget Sound estuarine environment. Further, there is a lack of on-water cruise opportunities for students, particularly from the many community colleges that offer oceanographic instruction. A logical connection that fills these needs is a program such as the Ocean Inquiry Project which combines on-water, inquiry-based education with research quality data acquisition.

Are you interested in a trip or using data we have collected?

Contact Us!!

Christian P. Sarason, Program Directorcpsarason@oceaninquiry.org

Frederick (Fritz) R. Stahr, Presidentstahr@oceaninquiry.org

www.oceaninquiry.org

Date Time Num. Location Vessel Institution/Class Instructors07/25/99 6 hr OIP-1 Shilshole Ed’s Girl Seattle CCC Chris Moore07/27/99 6 hr OIP-2 Shilshole Ed’s Girl UW Ocean 101 Fritz Stahr11/13/99 6 hr OIP-3 Tacoma Ed’s Girl Pierce College Christian Sarason02/27/00 2x4 hr OIP-4/5 Tacoma Mary L. Pierce College Christian Sarason05/13/00 2x4 hr OIP-6/7 Shilshole Mary L. Seattle CCC Christian Sarason05/14/00 4 hr (am) OIP-8 Shilshole Mary L. Seattle CCC Christian Sarason11/05/00 2x4 hr OIP-9/10 Tacoma Mary L. Pierce College Beth Norman11/19/00 2x4 hr OIP-11/12 Shilshole Mary L. Seattle CCC Christian Sarason03/05/01 7 hr OIP-13 Salmon Bay C.A. Kane SCCC & UW 101 C. S. and R. Strickland03/09/01 2x4 hr OIP-14/15 Shilshole Mary L. UW Ocean 101 R. S. and Tina Emerick03/11/01 2x4 hr OIP-16/17 Tacoma Mary L. Pierce College Beth Norman04/09/01 4 hr (pm) OIP-18 Salmon Bay Mary L. UW Ocean 102 Richard Strickland04/25/01 4 hr (am) OIP-19 Salmon Bay Mary L. UW Ocean 101 Tina Emerick05/12/01 7 hr OIP-20 Cornet Bay Mary L. Sedro Woolley HS Bev Mowrer

Cruise History

Although there are a number of on-water educational programs in Puget Sound, the data collected are not typically made available to, or used by, Puget Sound researchers. Likewise, although there are almost always on-going research projects, but they infrequently involve students or education. By creating partnerships between students and researchers, we hope to improve marine science education, supplement local research, foster an appreciation for the Sound and ocean, and increase awareness of human impacts on marine systems. Also, we hope to improve the quality and accessibility of Puget Sound research and teaching information to all community members through our web interface at http://www.oceaninquiry.org.

The Mary L., operated by the American Institute for Marine Studies, a non-profit located in Seattle, WA.

Students collect a water sample.

Where ever you go, there you are...

An amphipod who couldn’t escape our nets.

Students interpret CTD readings near Deception Pass.

Figure 1: This map of Puget Sound shows where OIP operations have been targeted to date. Red circles are ambient monitoring stations of either the Washington State Dept. of Ecology or the PRISM project. Blue dots indicate sites sampled by OIP with a CTD. Blue triangles show dive locations.

Christian P. Sarason and Frederick R. Stahr. Ocean Inquiry Project, P.O. Box 23189, Seattle, WA 98102

Figure 2: The color plots above and at left show time series measurements collected by the Ocean Inquiry Project and the Department of Ecology respectively. OIP CTD stations collect temperature and salinity measurements using a SeaCat 19 rented from the University of Washington’s equipment pool.

OIP operations out of Seattle generally return to PRISM 28 as a core of our program; data are shown from eight OIP cruises in the past year. Data are binned into the month of their collection and then displayed as a horizontal time series, with color intensity denoting the temperature. The data from Ecology was downloaded from their web site located at:

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/eap/mar_wat/mwm_intr.html

Filling in gaps in data collection frequency and geographical coverage is one of the scientific goals of OIP, as are smaller and more detailed hydrographic surveys.