Fun in the Mud!

Shrimp in the lab

It's the end of our first week at Hatfield and it's been a great one! We finished this week off strong with lectures all about worms and one more field trip to the mud flats in Yaquina Bay. The class was on the lookout for these exciting creatures, and we found some!

Another cool photo from Josh

After we donned our rain and mud gear, we set out for the mud flat and found it's a difficult place to get around. Within the first few feet, people were already getting stuck in the ankle deep mud that soon turned to knee deep mud.

The trek out through the mud

There were many strategies to break free from the mud, using shovels or a friend, but eventually many of us just gave up and started to crawl across the mud. Some adventurous classmates decided to slide through the mud on their backs and found it worked surprisingly well!

Getting dirty in the mud!

It wasn't all just playing games in the much. Not only did we find lots of interesting invertebrates, we also learned about how these organisms, like the burrowing shrimp affect the stability of the mud. It was a great first week at Hatfield and we're looking forward to more exciting adventures to come!

Thanks for the cool picture Ellen!