Prentiss M. Brown Traveling Seminar Program

Each year, we designate one of our Honors courses as the Prentiss M. Brown traveling seminar. This program enables students in that seminar course to participate in a 'hands on / minds on' learning experience off-campus with the instructor of the course. Our first such seminar trip took place between the Fall 2005 and Spring 2006 semesters, when Dr. Jeff Carrier and his class Great Issues in Science Course "Florida for sale" traveled to the Florida Keys, Everglades National Park, the Orlando area to examine resource utilization and management as part of the objectives of the course (Dr. Carrier is renowned for his research on shark conservation in the Keys). During the Fall 2006 semester, the seminar Great Issues in Science "Biodiversity, Conservation, and Development", led by Dr. Dean McCurdy, traveled to Nova Scotia, Canada for a 5-day trip to explore conservation and management issues in marine and freshwater ecosystems. Below is a short summary of some of the highlights from this trip.

Fall 2006 Conservation Trip to Nova Scotia, Canada

Day 1: August 31, 2006

In order to get everyone to Nova Scotia in one day (11 students + 3 instructors), we had to split up into two groups. The first group arrived in Halifax in the afternoon and enjoyed a group dinner, explored a beach near the city, and took a ferry ride across Halifax harbor at sunset. The second group arrived in the evening and then everyone drove together to our hotel in New Minas, Nova Scotia (about an hour from Halifax, on the Bay of Fundy side of the province).

Students explore a beach near Halifax, NS.		Crossing Halifax harbor at dusk.

Day 2

This was a busy day! We left the hotel in the morning, ate a quick breakfast, and then drove south along the Bay of Fundy coast of Nova Scotia. Our first stop of the day was Digby - the scallop capital of the world! Students spent an hour exploring the town and talking about the biology, history, and politics of the fishery with local residents.

Port of Digby, NS.		Students chat with a fisherman at Digby, NS. These photos were taken at low tide (at high tide, the boats would be level with the dock).

After visiting Digby, we drove down the Digby Neck - a series of islands connected to each other by ferries. We eventually reached the southernmost island, Brier Island, where we grabbed lunch and ran to catch our whale-watching boat which took us out into the open Bay for a 3-hour trip. Numerous humpback whales were encountered on our cruise, and several whales breached and lobbed their tails and fins next to our boat. A couple of whales even swam directly under us at one point! The whale researchers who went with us discussed conservation issues related to marine mammals (including the endangered Right Whale). At several points the boat rocked violently as everyone jumped up-and-down simultaneously with excitement and it seemed like the whales intensified their activity in response to our screams of delight. This cruise was a highlight of our trip to be sure. Click here to view a short video taken by a student on the trip (it may take a minute or two to run).

		These were among the thousands of photos taken by students during our whale-watching cruise. At one point we had to duck down in the boat to avoid being splashed by the whales! (in the photo to the left you can see how close the whale is to the boat - a student's head is visible at the bottom of the photo).

Once back on shore from our cruise, we drove straight back to our hotel and quickly changed into formal attire (in under 15 minutes!) for a dinner at the Blomidon Historic Inn with Dr. Tom Herman and Reid Tingley - conservation biologists from Acadia University's Center for Conservation and Wildlife Biology who study endangered turtles.

Students enjoy a meal with turtle biologist Dr. Tom Herman. During the summer, Dr. Herman and Dr. McCurdy work with undergraduate students (including Albion Honors students) on research projects in Nova Scotia. Dr. Herman studies freshwater and marine turtles throughout the world.

Day 3

Our first stop of the day was Evangeline Beach - a major roosting site for shorebirds that migrate through the Bay of Fundy on their way to South America for the winter (it's a 4000 km trip that is made non-stop after the birds leave the Bay). Although the peak migration had already occurred (a time when hundreds of thousands of birds can be spotted at once), we still saw thousands of semipalmated sandpipers and plovers. After visiting the roosting site, we traveled around the southern Bight of the Minas Basin and hiked out on the mudflat at Starrs Point - a remote site where much of Dr. McCurdy's research on marine animal populations and communities takes place. Not surprisingly, the mudflat is very muddy! Although the tide was only half-way out, it exposed several miles of mudflats (which are under as much as 50+ ft of water at high tide; the highest tides in the world). We waded/walked/slid on the mud for several miles and examined lots of marine organisms that live in this community and serve as key prey items for migratory birds and fish (e.g., amphipods, polychaete worms, snails, hermit crabs, clams). Everyone ended up covered in mud!

After cleaning some of the mud off of us (at a nearby shopping mall), we loaded up our vans and took a long drive through the hills to northern Nova Scotia (5-hour drive). Our objective was to reach the St. Mary's River by nightfall so that we could participate in a turtle conservation project early the next day. We stopped for dinner at a seafood restaurant in Pictou (on the Northumberland Straight), so it was well after dark by the time we arrived at our campsite along the river. Wary of black bears, the students quickly started a campfire.

Shorebirds at Evangeline Beach, NS.		Students on mud mud at Starr Point, NS.
The mudflat at low-tide (50 ft below the high-tide mark)		Stuck in the mud. In some places you can sink in to your armpits!
Students observe marine animals living in the mud at Starr Point.		Hungry students try-out local seafood in Pictou, NS.

Day 4

Waking up this morning was easy because the temperature had plummeted overnight and everyone was anxious to start a fire for warmth. The air warmed quickly, however, and after breakfast we broke camp. The scenic St. Mary's river is known for salmon fishing, but we were there to explore the river ecology and study a population of wood turtles - a species threatened by human development. The first stop on our search for turtles was a flooded meadow along the river where Dr. McCurdy's research students (who are also Albion Honors students) had spent 10 weeks during the summer of 2006 attaching radio transmitters to adult turtles. Using a radio receiver (a box that beeps more intensely as you get closer to a turtle attached to a large antenna), we were able to quickly track a female turtle basking near the river. We then traveled to a nearby nesting beach and tracked a large male turtle who lives in the area. Everyone agreed that it was a great experience to track and hold a turtle an animal that we had discussed so much about in class.

The St. Mary's river, Nova Scotia.		Student poses with an endangered turtle.

After a morning of turtle-hunting, we ate lunch on the banks of the St. Mary's river and drove back to Halifax along the Atlantic coast (3-hours). Along the way, we made one final stop - Peggy's Cove. This village of 50 people is clustered on a rocky outcropping that projects into the Atlantic Ocean and is home to one of the most photographed lighthouses in the world. We arrived there in time to explore the rocky shoreline and watch the sunset. Afterwards, we had our final group dinner together and checked into the airport hotel before our flight the next day.

 

Lighthouse at Peggy's Cove, NS.		Village of Peggy's Cove.
Sunset at Peggy's Cove.		Students on the rocks at Peggy's cove.

Day 5

On the last day of our trip we woke before dawn, caught our flight to Detroit, and then drove back to Albion. Throughout the trip, students kept journals about their experiences and completed assignments started on the trip (e.g., construction of a development plan for a rural Nova Scotia county, interview assignments with 'locals' we met on the trip). Several students also completed research projects related to the trip (a research project is one of the course requirements) which included a project to investigate the reproductive behavior of mudflat amphipods and several survey-based projects to assess attitudes to questions about conservation and the environment.

We would like to thank Tammy Jechura (Psychology Department) and Vivien McCurdy (Health Services) for coming on the trip and driving us more than a thousand miles back and forth across Nova Scotia! Special thanks to Renee Kreger for logistical support and to the Brown family for making this trip possible through the PMB Traveling Seminar program!

Fall 2006 Prentiss M. Brown Traveling Honors seminar on the St. Mary's river, Nova Scotia

For more information about the Prentiss M. Brown Traveling Seminar program, please contact Renee Kreger, Gene Cline, or Dean McCurdy.

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