5-4-2023
Speaker: Elaine Chan grew up on Miami Beach loving everything associated with the ocean. A childhood of fishing, diving and boating preceded her Princeton undergraduate degree in Biology, Master of Science in Fisheries from the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science and her marine science career with the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Elaine began her Federal service as a marine biologist specializing in the impact of marine oil spills and collected a law degree from Georgetown University along the way to becoming an environmental lawyer for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Now retired on Camano Island, she joined the SWS Class of 2015 and still enjoys teaching undergraduate Oceanography and Environmental Science and introducing children and adult learners to the wonders of the sea around us. Elaine is a broker and realtor with Skyline Properties Inc, helping friends buy, sell and invest in real estate when she is not volunteering, kayaking, crabbing or camping.
Classs Description: Elaine Chan, Class of 2015, leads you through basic marine biology. She introduces you to marine zonation and the physical/chemical and biological factors that work together to produce the distribution of marine animals and plants in the intertidal zone. She talks about common groups of animals and plants within the intertidal zone, how they are classified and named, and utilizes the laminated EZ-ID marine identification guides (plant and animal).
Recommended
- Marine Species Identification Guide by Mary Jo Adams, Class of 1999, updated in 2021 – be sure to scroll down within each of the five categories: animals, seaweeds, shore plants, sea grasses, and beach mysteries (find scroll bar within chart)
- Today’s PPT as PDF from 2021
- Teacher’s handout for class – download this word doc and print – contains space for adding your own notes
- Intertidal ID Guide, Fidalgo Island from The Salish Sea School. This is a simpler guide to the plants and animals in the intertidal zone than the EZ-ID laminated species ID cards. The pictures are of superb quality and species-specific identifying features nicely pointed out. You may want to print for yourself.
Extra
- News article on seastar breeding research – https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/scientists-breed-sea-stars-on-san-juan-island-in-a-jurassic-park-approach-to-climate-change/
- Article on Taxonomy (naming and classification of species by characteristics) – https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/worlds-simplest-animal-reveals-hidden-diversity/
- https://www.eopugetsound.org/articles/marine-invertebrates-puget-sound – an alphabetical list of marine invertebrates occurring in Puget Sound and adjacent regions
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_invertebrates – this webpage is a global resource rather than specific to the Salish Sea region – interesting for comparing and contrasting
- Jason Toft’s article A Framework to Analyze Citizen Science Data for Volunteers, Managers, and Scientists
