Our week started off great with an interesting boat ride down the St. John's River. This was the first time that I was able to learn about sampling techniques and was taught how to execute them. Tuesday  began our 24 hour study which would have been better if the rain had not prevented us from sampling. Wednesday was or chance to relax and go over our data from the 24 hour study and the rest of the night we worked on putting the data into multiple graphs. During our 24 hour study, we used the water quality sampling techniques that we learned on the boat trip and recorded the data ever hour over the 24 hour period. Thursday, was my favorite part because I have never experienced the east coast beaches. I enjoyed walking through the Coquina rocks and looking in all of the tidal pools. During our beaches trip, we also looked at the impact of man made barriers such as jetties and groins. I have known about jetties and groins but I have never had a first hand experience to see exactly how they function on an inlet and on a coast line.
I believed that my least favorite part of this trip was going to be the 24 hour study, however I found it to be relaxing. We would seine for the first hour and check our water quality, then perform two more water qualities on the hour. We ended up having a lot of free time in between sampling a which gave us a chance to sit in some folding chairs and watch the tide ebb and flood. For those of you who have not done the 24 hour study, make sure you have a good  rain coat and a folding chair.

YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLCPFAjdolA