2011 Making Waves Summer Camp!

The Sitka Sound Science Center offered a summer camp for grades 7 – 9 from May 31^st till June 10^th this year. This camp allowed students to explore marine biology, fisheries, and marine mammal science through fun, hands-on experiences. During the first week the kids learned basic laboratory skills, went kayaking, explored nearby beaches, and even got to snorkel with Coast Guard rescue swimmers.

A few days into the camp I joined in on the fun and worked with three wonderful counselors including one of the AMSFCC funded interns, Taylor. The second week included activities that ranged from combing beaches to cleaning whale bones. The kids caught fish for the center using a beach seine and enjoyed scooping up the fish, releasing the ones we couldn’t keep, and identifying them all. They learned about Humpbacks and scientific communication. They also had their own mini Ocean Science Bowl competition and even got to explore some little caves. They also got to play some games including a version of Marco polo to explore how echolocation works and a hatchery game that included water balloons.

Campers spent their last few days at camp participating in a few cultural activities and cleaning whale bones. The students were lucky enough to help out Dr. Shannon Atkinson in the process of starting to clean the bones of a juvenile male killer whale that washed up on a nearby beach in the spring. The kids worked on getting the ribs, skull, and vertebrae cleaned and did an amazing job even though they didn’t enjoy the smell. Work on the skeleton will continue during the next few months and once completed, the rearticulated skeleton will be on exhibit at the Sitka Sound Science Center.

The camp was loads of fun and got the attention of the whole community! You can find tons of pictures from the camp in our photos and on the Sitka Sound Science Center’s Facebook page. Also listen to a cool broadcast about the orca skeleton that was aired on Raven Radio.

Before and after of one set of vertebrae that were cleaned.