Students spent the spring living at the UW’s for a 10-week research apprenticeship course. It began with lectures that introduced them to ideas of waves and tides and how they affect particle movement. By the end, each student had completed a research project looking at how shorelines and marine habitats are adapting to the dramatic changes.

“The cruise has been the best part – being out in the field and getting data,” said Hannah Besso, a sophomore in environmental science at Western Washington University. She was among four of the nine students who came from another university, since the credits can be applied at other institutions.

The class spent five days at sea aboard the UW’s research vessel Clifford A. Barnes, helping with an ongoing research effort. They hauled up seafloor instruments, cleaned them and retrieved data before lowering them back to seafloor posts for another season. The group also collected roughly 60 seafloor sediment samples, and about as many along the shoreline, to analyze for grain size back at Friday Harbor Labs. The grain size can reveal how processes are moving particles around in the water, and where the different grains end up matters for plants and animals that live on the seabed.

Most students arrived with some background in environmental science, but that was not required. The undergraduate curriculum included a crash course in geology, weekly field trips, two cruises and an overnight campout near where one of the two dams once stood.

Teaching the course is a huge time commitment, acknowledged lead instructor , a 91̽»¨associate professor of oceanography. But she said it’s worth the effort.

“Bringing what I do to a group of students who have not ever thought about the mud at the bottom of the ocean – it motivates me and it refreshes me,” Ogston said. “It brings me energy.”

The sediment dynamics class has been offered three times before. This year it included co-instructor , a Washington Sea Grant marine scientist based in Port Angeles, who has been monitoring the river mouth and advised students working on projects along the shoreline, his area of expertise.

Ogston and , a 91̽»¨professor of marine geology, have a National Science Foundation grant to study changes to the ocean floor as sediment washes down the newly free-flowing river. They are looking for that might duplicate what can happen during an extreme river flood, landslide or large earthquake.

Graduate students in their research group helped teach the course, give guest lectures and advise the students on their individual projects.

“It’s really cool to learn just for the sake of knowledge,” said Sarra Tekola, a 91̽»¨senior in environmental science. Her project involved calculating how much carbon is being released by the dam removal.

“This is where you get to carry out a research project from start to finish, without the other time constraints of having to take other classes on top of it,” Tekola said. “It’s been an amazing opportunity.”

Julia Dolan, a junior in environmental science at 91̽»¨Tacoma, literally dug down as far as she could into the beach to try to figure out what processes have built up the shoreline during the more than two years since the dam demolition began.

“Planning an experiment, collecting the data, analyzing that data,” Dolan said. “It’s a really in-depth research experience, something you probably wouldn’t get anywhere else.”

Students analyzed their data and wrote up the results before the class ended in early June. Some hoped to submit them for publication. Others plan to use it on a résumé, or to see if they would enjoy graduate school.

Ogston agrees that both the study site and class setting are exceptional.

“Friday Harbor Laboratories is probably the only place where you could do an undergraduate educational experience at this level,” Ogston said. “This complete immersion, where we’re living next to each other and the labs, the boats are right here, the instructors are always available. That couldn’t happen anywhere else.”

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For more information, contact Ogston at 206-543-0768 or ogston@ocean.washington.edu

It’s a landmark trip for the vessel that has spent almost 30 years taking people from the 91̽»¨and elsewhere out to the Sound, the Olympic Peninsula and nearby coasts to make discoveries about chemistry, currents and marine life.

All this from a boat that even its biggest fans admit has serious drawbacks.

The boat was never built to go into open seas, and adding 10 tons of scientific equipment to the stern did nothing to help with stability issues.

“It’s safe; it’s just miserable,” said Ray McQuin, the ship’s captain and supervisor. “Everyone gets seasick.”

(McQuin has a naturally strong stomach, he said, and suffers from seasickness only a couple of times each year.)

The scientists’ berths, two sets of triple bunks that hang from chains, make the undergraduate dorms seem plush by comparison. There’s only one bathroom and shower. And a 100-square-foot room serves as kitchen, dining room, common area and recreational room for up to six researchers (15 for short trips) and a two-person crew.

But most noticeable are the small scientist quarters, which were squeezed on after the fact. The small room is jam-packed during cruises with people, laptops and science equipment.

“It’s very — personal,” said , professor and director of the UW’s School of Oceanography. Others describe it as “crowded” or even “controlled chaos.”

Still, Armbrust has fond memories. “It’s fun working on the Barnes. It’s very hands-on. You can get to your first station in five minutes, in contrast to when you’re working offshore and it takes you a day to get to your first station.”

The vessel was built in 1966 as a U.S. Coast Guard inland harbor tug that spent years towing boats, quenching fires and doing light ice-breaking out of Bellingham and Alaska.

The 91̽»¨acquired the 65-foot boat at a bargain price in 1983 and converted it, replacing the original transmission with one that will go at the slower speeds needed for research, attaching a winch to lower instruments into the water, and adding a science cabin.

“It’s not a purpose-built research boat. There are a lot of compromises, but we get the job done,” McQuin said. “It’s a work boat, and that’s what we need.”

show that in recent years, the Barnes has been out studying nitrogen near Neah Bay, algal blooms, marine food webs, effects of the Elwha Dam removal, and oxygen levels in Hood Canal.

The 1000th cruise will be a series of half-day trips May 7-9 from Shilshole Marina for , an introductory lab course that lets students take oceanographic measurements.

“For oceanography majors, getting out on the water early is really important,” said instructor , a 91̽»¨associate professor of oceanography. “It gives students an idea of both what oceanographers do, and of why oceanography is so challenging: It’s taking limited measurements in a highly variable environment, and trying to piece together bits of evidence.”

The boat’s namesake, , was a 91̽»¨alumnus and professor of oceanography from 1947 to 1973 whose publications include “Circulation near the Washington Coast” and “An Oceanographic Model of Puget Sound.”

The millennial cruise will be one of the last for the vessel, which is nearing the end of its lifetime. The National Science Foundation will decommission the boat in 2016.

“You reach a point – and we’re getting there with this boat – where you can’t afford to keep it running. There are too many repairs,” McQuin said.

Plans are already under way to find a replacement. The School of Oceanography is looking for grants and private donations to fund a new vessel. Jensen Maritime Consultants created a custom design for an 86-foot vessel that would have more than four times as much lab space, carry twice as many people, and include modern navigation capabilities.

“The Barnes has been an incredible resource both for monitoring and understanding Puget Sound, and for giving our students an opportunity to do hands-on research, which is a core part of our program,” Armbrust said. “We’re looking forward to getting a new ship that will allow us to do this and more.”

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For more information, contact Hautala at 206-543-0596 or susanh@ocean.washington.edu.