On Tuesday 7th and Wednesday 8th October, nineteen Year 9 and 10 students headed off to the Marine Studies Centre in Portobello for a two-day programme about marine biology.

On Tuesday the weather conditions were suitable enough for us to ride a boat called the Polaris II in the Dunedin Harbour. We were on the boat the whole day, and did some different activities that were led by university researchers. We collected plankton samples from the harbour; used special equipment to find out the weather and sea conditions; and lowered a BRUV (baited remote underwater video) camera into the harbour so we could look at the marine life underwater. As well as being lucky with the weather, we were lucky enough to see some seals and albatrosses from the boat. Tuesday was a very hands-on, exciting day.

Wednesday was spent in the lab. We watched the videos that the BRUV cameras had taken and analysed those, as well as looking at our plankton samples through microscopes and working out what types of plankton we found. We used the information we found to create datasets that we could take with us and use for our own projects.

Overall, the trip was an exciting, fun experience. Thank you to Mr Richards, Ms Berry and Ms Dunn for coming on the trip with us, and thank you to all the university researchers and boat crew who helped organise the programme. We all learned so much about marine biology and are so grateful for the opportunity to attend this programme.