April 2021 Tide Bite

Greetings,
The retirement of long-time staff members from our tight FHL community offers a bittersweet occasion; a chance to have a big party to celebrate their service and accomplishments, while knowing we will miss them. 

FHL Tide Bite

March 2021 Tide Bite

Greetings,
A lot of people hate little critters with a lot of legs – one of those primal fears that has some good evolutionary backing. I personally am not fond of terrestrial animals with 8 or more legs (shudder!), but am quite fond of marine crustaceans with their many legs – go figure. 

FHL Tide Bite

February 2021 Tide Bite

A Tale of Two Research Vessels 

FHL Tide Bite

January 2021 Tide Bite

Greetings,
One of the genuinely fun parts of science is when disparate bits of knowledge or previously un-linked tools or techniques come together to let us see novel patterns or explore new scientific realms.  

FHL Tide Bite

December 2020 Tide Bite

Greetings,
Science often progresses like assembling a puzzle out of many pieces. It’s hard to see the whole picture – and we can’t ‘cheat’ by looking at the box lid! Restoration workers, state agencies, and scientists are all concerned about the decline in bull kelp around the Salish Sea in recent decades, and are struggling to understand the causes. 

FHL Tide Bite

November 2020 Tide Bite

Greetings,
Now and then we are lucky enough to have someone ‘appear’ at FHL who is just right to fill an empty niche. Kirk Sato is that person for us. The FHL Ocean Observing system that he discusses below had spent several years in a mostly-finished but not fully functional state, and we had no staff with the time or expertise to solve the seemingly intractable problems that remained. 

FHL Tide Bite

October 2020 Tide Bite

Greetings,
For most people on earth, even those who live near the ocean, life below the low-tide line is a mystery, glimpsed only in movies or documentaries.  Those visuals often focus on “charismatic megafauna” such as sharks, or colorful tropical habitats in clear water, such as coral reefs.  

FHL Tide Bite

September 2020 Tide Bite

Greetings,
Much of the research that goes on at FHL is “basic science.”  We all try to understand how nature works, whether that be genes replicating, brains learning, predators affecting prey populations…but few of us directly address practical problems that beset humans or their societies.  

FHL Tide Bite

August 2020 Tide Bite

Greetings,
We like to focus our Tide Bites on the positive and don’t normally publish obituaries, but this month’s essay is an exception describing the contributions of a long-term islander-labbie, Liko Self, who passed away in late May.   

FHL Tide Bite

July 2020 Tide Bite

Greetings,
It is not uncommon for the FHL Family to include multiple “generations” from one academic lineage.  In many cases one researcher spends time here, eventually sends his/her graduate students, and they in turn may come back as instructors or send their own students!  

FHL Tide Bite