Welcome to the virtual cafe' at Empire Shores!  Here you will find questions posted about 

the field trip with answers provided by our expert panel of scientists and educators.

 

MEET THE PANEL:

Dr. Steven Rumrill, Research Coordinator - South Slough

Ms. Ali Helms, Estuarine Monitoring Coordinator - South Slough

Mr. Hans Klausner, Stewardship Coordinator - South Slough

Representatives of the Confederated Tribes, Coquille Tribe and Grand Ronde Tribe

Ms. Alix Laferriere, Bio-monitoring coordinator - South Slough

 

HERE ARE SOME QUESTIONS FROM VIEWERS AND PARTICIPANTS, WITH ANSWERS BY OUR PANEL OF EXPERTS......

 

Empire Shores Field Trip - Session Two - Eelgrass Monster Faces Certain Doom!!!

 

class: Janine Zimmer-Berg's 3rd Grade, Edison Elementary Eugene, OR

What year was the highest tide in Coos Bay?

 

In recent times, the highest tides occurred in 1996.  That year was particularly difficult for the residents along the shoreline because we also had very high rainfall.  As a consequence, extensive flooding occurred throughout the lowlands.  Large numbers of logs floated into the estuary and the floating logs posed a hazard to boating and navigation.  We also had very high tides in 2004 that resulted in a breach of the Coalbank Slough dike and flooding of about twenty homes.

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class: 7th/8th grade Toledo jr/sr/ High

Can Eel grass grow a different color other than Green?

 

Eelgrass is generally green, however, the young shoots are sometimes yellow.  In addition, many plants appear to be brown.  The brown color is due to ephytes, which are diatoms and microalgae that grow along the blade.  These ephytes contribute to settlement of sediments along the blade and give it its brown color.

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class: 7th grade The Challenger Space Science Center, Columbia, South Carolina

Do some ocean plants give more oxygen than other kinds of ocean plants?

 

Yes - ocean plants such as eelgrass, produce large amounts of oxygen.  In contrast, microscopic ocean plants such as phytoplankton and seaweeds produce comparatively small amounts of oxygen.  However, the phytoplankton and seaweeds are very abundant in the ocean and in the estuary and collectively produce a very large amount of oxygen.

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class: Janine Zimmer-Berg's 3rd Grade, Edison Elementary Eugene, OR

How deep underwater can eelgrass grow?

 

The depth limit for eelgrass is determined by the amount of light that can penetrate through water.  Our native eelgrass can occur as deep as 120 feet in very clear water such as the fjords of Puget Sound.  Dr. Rumrill has seen it at 90 feet.  Normally in Coos Bay where the water is turbid and light does not penetrate very deep, eelgrass only occurs to a depth of about ten feet.

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class: 7th grade The Challenger Space Science Center, Columbia, South Carolina

What plants signal that the ecosytem is being harmed?

 

One strong signal that the ecosystem has been harmed is the appearance of invasive cordgrass.  The appearance of cordgrass in the estuary converts the open tide flats to a salt marsh habitat and it displaces populations of clams, small shrimp and forage areas for shore birds.

 

 

 

The following questions and answers are from Session One 

 

class: 4th grade, Chenowith Elementary, The Dalles, OR 

What is the size of the bay?

 

Coos Bay is the largest estuary in Oregon and the wet surface area is 21 square kilometers. 

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class: Ms. Siegel's 1st Grade Class from Aventura Waterways K-8 Center in Aventura, Florida

Approximately how many animal species live in an estuary?

 

This is a difficult question - because we have not completed a survey of all the species in Coos Bay, our best guess is about 2,000 species of clams, crabs, shrimp, worms, snails, fish and nemerteans.

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class: 944 P.S 3604th grade

*What are the creatures we saw in the microscope? * How do you know which creatures are aliens?

 

The more rounded creature with more appendages was the barnacle nauplius - this is the larva of the barnacle.  The other elongate with longer antennae was the copepod.  Experts can identify species with the larval form, but many times one looks at the characteristics of the adult to idenitfy them.

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class: South Sherman Elementary 5th grade

What fish species is most plentiful in Coos Bay?

 

Sculpins!  80% of the fish in the South Slough and Coos Bay are sculpins and perch.

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class: Millicoma Intermediate Scool Ashcraft's class

Is the European green crab a species that would be good to eat similiar to our local crabs?

 

Yes! The European green crab is harvested routinely in Europe and the species is highly prized by recreational crabbers along the shorelines of England, Ireland and Scotland.  However, the meat content in the European green crab is very small compared to Dungeness crab.  And...it doesn't taste as good, either.  Dr. Steve Rumrill, South Slough Research Coordinator

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class: 6th period Science, 8th grade, Daniels Middle School in Raleigh, NC

Other than balast water, what are other ways invaders get into the estuaries?

 

On the bottom of boats and ships, currents, not effectively cleaning field clothing and footware, aquaculture and intentionally introducing a species to control another - and intentional introduction for harvest or aquaculture.

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class: South Sherman Elementary 5th grade

Is the plankton an invasive problem in Coos bay?

 

Some plankton can be invasive.  Tiny floating plants and animals are the definition of plankton. Examples of invasive plankton are the larval stages of European green crab, purple varnish clams, snails, and a barnacle. 

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class: Mrs. Smith's 4th grade class Ocean Crest Elementary

What is the most problematic invasive species to the estuary and why?

 

Planktonic parasites - an example is isopod on mud shrimp or copopod on sea slugs.  Since these are parasites, many of them destroy reproduction by the host and could cause extinction.

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class: Discovery Middle School

We have had problem with zebra mussels in Lake Erie here in Ohio. Are there zebra mussels in your bay?

 

There are no known zebra mussels in Coos Bay, but they do exist in Oregon.

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class: 3rd Grade, Hillcrest Elementary, North Bend, Oregon

Where can we find a list or pictures of invasive animals?

 

Try an online search for Oregon SeaGrant - they post a photo guide and information about aquatic invasive species in Oregon. 

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class:  Ms. Macko, First Grade, Aventura Waterways K-8 Center 

Do any fiddler crabs or blue crabs live in or near this bay/estuary?

 

No - these are east coast species.

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class: South Sherman Elementary 5th grade

Is it hard to sample plankton?

It can be.  The nets make it easy - a plankton net is typically dragged off the side of a boat, then sprayed with sea water to collect the organisms in the cod end.  They are then placed in a sample jar. 

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class: 3rd Grade, Hillcrest Elementary, North Bend, Oregon 

What types of foods from the estuary did the native people eat?

 

Oysters, mussels, salmon, crab.  Plants include camas, berries and skunk cabbage.

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class: Mrs. Boucher's class, 3rd grade, Liberty Elementary 

Can anything be done to prevent the 'aliens' from catching a ride on the large boats?

 

Absolutely yes - the ballast water can be discharged in the middle of the ocean....which is kind of like a desert....that discharges all of the planktonic stages in the middle of the ocean where they will not survive.  Another technique is to treat the water with bubbles of nitrogen to make the water toxic for the alien species. 

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class: Millicoma Intermediate Scool Ashcraft's class 

Our class studied the Pacific Islanders this year and learned a song called Hoe Anna that they sing as they paddled out to sea. Does your trip have a song they sing as they paddle also? What is it called?

 

The Grand Ronde tribe contributed the fact that there are several paddling songs.  The Changing Song relates to a changing of spirits that helped carry the paddlers along on their journey.  The Frog Song, Prayer Song and Honoring Song all have significance.  Also, when women and girls were the paddlers, the song was the Women's Song and was only sung by women.  These songs have been part of paddling journeys throughout the Coastal areas of the the Northwest.  Many times, paddlers didn't venture far from bays and estuaries, as the food sources and other resources were so rich, there was no need to do so. 

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class: 3rd Grade, Hillcrest Elementary, North Bend, Oregon

How did the natives learn to build the canoes?

 

Out of need, trial and error - and when successful, the technique was passed from generation to generation.  

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class: Dutchess academy of environmental sciences  

Are there erosion problems in your estuary?

 

Yes - Coos Bay estuary is both a source and sink for sediments.  Sediments from upstream wash down through rivers, sometimes killing local species of oysters.  Landslides occur frequently along the creeks and rivers draining into Coos Bay.  In addition, splashdams were constructed in the past and when they were destroyed, they carried large volumes of logs and sediments down into the bay.

 

On the other hand, tsunamis periodicaly  bring sediments into Coos Bay - for example, the most recent tsunami of 1700 brought large amounts of sand into the lower estuary.  The daily flood and ebb of the tide continually export these sediments into the nearshore of the ocean. 

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class: Mrs. Boucher's class, 3rd grade, Liberty Elementary 

Why are some fish moving away from estuaries?  

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class: Mrs. Smith's 4th grade class Ocean Crest Elementary 

What is the most common animal found in the estuary?

 

Microscopic worms!  Their numbers are in the range of billions.  However, the most common large animals are snails, clams, shrimp, fish and amphipods (which are very small shrimplike creatures), 

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class: 3rd Grade, Hillcrest Elementary, North Bend, Oregon 

How many kinds of fish are found in the South Slough?

 

Approximately 80 species - among them are shiner perch, staghorn sculpin and topsmelt. 

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class: South Sherman Elementary 5th grade

What is the climate like in Coos Bay?

The climate in Coos Bay is a temperate maritime climate which means that we are strongly influenced by the Pacific ocean.  Winds generally come in off the ocean carrying moisture.  In the winter, this means it rains a great deal of the time.  From late October until May we get storms that can bring several inches of rain during each event.  These storms come from the south and west and often are preceded by large waves that break along the rocky shores and sandy beaches, sometimes running up cliff faces as high as 50 feet. 

 

An average of 60 inches of rain is recorded right along the coast but as the clouds move inland and cool as they rise over the coastal mountains that average goes up to over 100 inches near the headwaters of the Coos river.  Temperatures are usually between 40 and 60 degrees fahrenheit with occasional snow in the mountains and very rarely on the coast.  

 

Summer winds are typically from the northwest and cause upwelling which moves cool, nutrient rich, oxygen poor water up from the depths to mix at the surface providing good growing conditions for plankton.  This cool water also causes moisture to condense and form fog along the coast.  Temperatures right along the coast are usually cool, between 50 and 65 degrees fahrenheit.  Inland, the temperature rises rapidly and may be over 100 on the east side of the coast range and in the 70s and 80s in the coastal mountains.

 

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class: Shaker Junior High School- Mr Slyer's Class

What year were those pictures of the native americans taken?

 

 

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class: 322 7th IS14 

How long does it take fish to adapt to the climate changes?

 

Adaptation will not be a sudden event.  The populations of fish will adapt gradually during each generation, and it may take twenty to thirty generations for the fish to adapt to small changes in salinity and temperature.  Climate change will likely continue to make changes in the estuary and hopefully the fish populations will continue to adapt in the future. 

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class: Shaker Junior High School- Mr Slyer's Class 

How has the species and the water changed from wen you first got here?

That is a very challenging question to answer.  Native settlers began arriving along the Oregon coast about 5,000 years ago and more recent European settlers began arriving and staying in the area in the early 1850s.  Scientists did not begin to document species and water quality in the Coos Bay area until the 1930's.  By 1974, when South Slough Sanctuary was established, the state of Oregon was beginning to take stock of endangered species such as the Brown Pelican and Bald Eagle because pollutants were causing big declines in the numbers of these birds.  The water quality of the bay was very poor due to unregulated pollution from pulp mills and other manufacturing processes.  Oil and fuel leaks and poisons from paints used on ships and boats were also causing big problems.  Sewage treatment was much more primitive than it is now and stormwater overflow was causing raw sewage to wash into the bay.  

 

Now we monitor the waters of the bay using our science program to determine when problems occur and help contribute to correcting those problems.  The data is available at http://www.estuaries.gov/estuaries101/ScienceData/Default.aspx?ID=289.

 

As for the change in species, we do not have a perfect picture of what species are here now in Coos Bay and it is even harder to know what was here when settlement first occured.  Here is a link to our site profile for South Slough NERR which will help to describe much of what is found in our estuary these days.  http://www.oregon.gov/DSL/SSNERR/docs/siteprofile.pdf

 

 

 

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class: Bedell, 5, Efland-Cheeks

How many different species of animals are found at Coos?

 

 

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class: Discovery Middle School 

What is the Ph level in South Slough?

 

pH in the estuary changes daily and it ranges from 6.5 to 9.0.  The pH of sea water is 8.2.  pH in the estuary is directly related to salinity.  We are concerned about the ecological effects of ocean acidification on pH dynamics in the estuary.  This is an important issue we will research into the future. 

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