Hey All,
Today we switched sites to the nearby Magothy Bay and learned to level with a laser and prism this method is much more efficient in covering broad areas as it is more accurate and therefore can read to a farther distance. Chris and Simon then left with Cat and Scott to cover a variety of sites over the day to gather sample and measure pollution levels along the coast. This took a lot of driving, as they had to visit 15 sites in total some up to and hour away. Back at Magothy Bay, we took Modern Transect Samples with Candace and again recorded the tide.
There was sighting of the rare marsh cat today by Simon, Chris, Cat, and Scott. Apparently, they are about as large as a medium sized dog and very muscular. Unfortunately, the cat bolted conveniently just before Scott could snap a photo this has thrown some doubt on the report but they are out there. Simon reports that they “had lots of fun pollution studies,” we will see what comes out in the lab that we plan to set up tomorrow.
Magothy Bay has the most crabs that any of us have ever seen we are estimating some number larger then the population of the continental United States (300 million). As you walk through the marsh they part like the red sea before you and if you stop for a moment, you can hear a constant whirring and chattering of their claws and mouths. It is something else. There were a multitude of small black beetles like bugs that seemed to be attracted to white, a down for some a plus for others, nevertheless they were out en masse.
Our last level was the longest yet and must have been about a half-mile or so. The prism was nothing but a blur and it took a good twenty tries to get the numbers down but in the end science prevailed. The Sokkia (laser measure) is really something else.
Tonight was “create your own pizza night” and options varied from the “Model United Nations Pizza,” which was something of an international gastronomic mix, to the “Meat Lovers Pizza” complete with last night’s hamburger.



-The Team