Seattle Science Festival Rocks the Boat
Hi everyone! Julie checking in here, I’m the new Science Festival Alliance Coordinator and I’m so excited to be writing this blog post for a number of reasons. Firstly, I just started here at SFA in May and already I’ve had the chance to meet and talk to so many passionate and excited people that inspire me every day to get in the office and make these things happen. Secondly, I had the distinct pleasure of attending five days of events at Seattle Science Festival that I am dying to share. While there were many events that got me motivated for science, one really stood out above the rest.
June 11th was my last day at SSF and I was scheduled to fly out at 11:15pm. Deciding that I needed a little extra punch to end my fantastic festival experience, I packed up my rental car up and drove all the way to Port Townsend, Washington. Port Townsend is on the Olympic Peninsula about 60 miles north of Seattle and to get there you can take one of the famous Seattle ferries! I had already enjoyed some great local Science Festival events that had featured Washington waters and as I zipped across to Bainbridge Island I mentally went back to a couple of them. I thought about the exciting day I had tidal pooling with the Salish Sea Expedition team up in Ballard meeting and greeting some of our shallow water friends and about the time I’d spent in the Seattle Aquarium for World Oceans Weekend getting to know some of the deeper water residents. Little did I know I was about to have the mother of all festival experiences on the north end of the sound. After a beautiful drive through the Washington countryside, I arrived at the coastal town of Port Townsend, but more importantly I arrived at the dock that Adventuress calls home. Adventuress is a 113 foot, 100 year old tall ship and historic landmark. As someone with a degree in history – it’s always exciting to me to see the intersection of my two passions, and this was the penultimate experience in that regard. Twenty participants plus crew gathered on the decks singing sea shanties as we raised the sails and took Adventuress into the bay. As we sailed out in the cold water, harbor seals frolicked in our wake, and I couldn’t help but feel they were a good omen.
Split into two groups, my group started at the deck railing where we would be trawling for plankton. Dropping the trawl, we cruised around the chilly waterfront and eventually pulled up a number of local phytoplankton including one that is bioluminescent! While admiring our tiny friends, someone in my group asked a question about the shells of the diatoms. Our educator admitted it was a good question, but one that she didn’t have an immediate answer to. With a jolt, I realized, hey, I know that! The night before in the PACCAR theatre at the Pacific Science Center, one of the UW Science Now! speakers taught us all about diatoms! I answered that they built their shells out out of silica! As a group we identified them and discussed their part in the complex ecosystem of the Puget Sound including threats to their livelihood. With our new-found appreciation for the tiny residents of this beautiful place we went back on deck and onto the next activity: testing water acidity.
Starting with water pulled out of the sound, we tested the pH and talked about what is considered a normal reading for the area and what that IMG_0438means. Then we simulated a factory adding in CO2 to the mix by having one of our group members blow through a straw into the cup of water. After about 3 minutes of this, we tested the water again and found that the pH had changed by an entire point. We discussed that while this was a very small body of water being changed by a much larger outside force, over time large factories were capable of producing the same results. We then went back to our plankton friends and talked about how that would effect them and their livelihood and what that could mean for other marine life in Puget Sound. When we came together again on the deck both groups discussed what they had found and ways we can help to reduce ocean acidity ourselves. It was a great activity which was then capped off by cookies and tea below deck and a more in depth history lesson about the Adventuress!
At the end of the day we were greeted by an excitable otter on the dock and disembarked trying to regain our land-legs. The event tied in many of the things I’d learned about during my time at the Seattle Science Festival and to me that’s really what a festival is about – taking many parts and collaborators in a community and bringing them together. I not only learned a lot about the Puget Sound but about the people that live and work there and how they interact with the land. It was a beautiful way to cap off my trip and left me eager for the next festival.
