Trafton Elementary school, from Arlington, WA, planned their Expedition around the question: Are there more plankton where there are more phosphates? This led to their Hypothesis: There will be more phytoplankton where there are more phosphates.

Phosphate, and its nutrient cousin Nitrate, occur in the marine environment naturally, and are needed for plankton to grow and reproduce. With too many phytoplankton, comes too much growth; water may appear cloudy, the color of a mass of phytoplankton in an area. This is called a plankton bloom. Students were interested to see if more phosphates in the water would mean more phytoplankton in an area.

Day 1 of 3

The moment students donned their red (Wind watch) and blue (Water watch) lifejackets and climbed aboard, the Carlyn was a buzz of energy and excitement that was to last for the next three days. No amount of really cool plankton, amazing stargazing, wonderfully wind filled sails or delicious deserts (made by the students, thanks!) could dampen their energy reserves!  Students learned to navigate, use and deploy science sampling equipment and to work with the sails, all the while knowing they would shortly have full control over the vessel and the equipment they would use  to collect and analyze data.

Day 2 of 3 (Click to view cruise track image)

The students departed from Camano Island State Park early this second morning of the Expedition, leaving the island they had dubbed ''Jellyfish Island' for the numerous Lions Mane jellies that had washed ashore and were left stranded as the tide receded. They were to return the next night though, as their studies focused in Saratoga Passage, from Everett, including Holmes Harbor, as you can see in this cruise track image, science sampling station #4 was conducted in Holmes Harbor. Here the students found a zooplankton that could not be identified using the plankton ID books in Carlyns' library, and there are many! Like true scientists, they came up with a name for their very own zooplankton , describing where it was cuaght, and their pleasant surprise at capturing a plankton that was not in the identification guides'- Carlyn unexpectous.

This night, and the previous, the students who slept aboard anchored in Elger Bay, just south and east of the tip of Camano Island State Park. Follow the red line (cruise track) in the cruise track images to count the number of tacks that Carlyn took. Slight maneuvering tacks appear less pronounced than larger maneuvering tack

Day 3 of 3 (Click to view cruise track image)

By day three the student scientists were not only a buzz with energy, but ecstatic about their new roles of captain, scientist, navigator, helmsman, cook, field researcher etc.

During each of the watch meetings conducted while students were aboard, the students kept tabs on their data, noting whether or not it was in support of their Hypothesis prediction. They found low levels of Phosphate in all but one sample site, a spot north of Camano Island State Park called Fish Point, where they found 0.3 mg/L, as compared to 0.0-0.1 mg/L,  of phosphate for all other sites. Fish Point also came in with one of the smallest zooplankton abundance volumes,  20 ml. This, and other pieces of data led the students to reject their hypothesis, but their analysis did not end there. They determined that other data would also help them to understand what effects phytoplankton and zooplankton populations in the water. They found that  temperature, salinity and available sunlight all influence where plankton will grow and thrive.

As the students navigated Carlyn into Everett Marina, they were thinking about their plankton, Carlyn unexpectous. Their adventures on 'Jelly fish Island' where they hiked in complete darkness, roasted marshmallows on the beach and learned of nigt adaptations of land based and water based creatures.