Ocean Education Activities

	jump to other activities... Ocean Links Net Gain, Net Effect The Great Round-Table Debate Ocean Inventory: Gifts From the Sea Create a "Flow Chart" Survey a Shoreline Assess Your Pollution Potential Monitor Marine Migrants Conserve a Flyway
Survey a Shoreline

Get to know a seacoast, lakeside, or river bank first-hand. Most likely, your patch of the planet has an area where land meets water that could be a site for wildlife habitat projects. Here's how to make the most of a field trip to a shoreline:

• Before you go, learn all about the life-giving value of shorelines, the problems facing them, and what we can do to keep them healthy.
• Get permission from a landowner or your municipality before visiting a site.
• Discuss safety rules with the rest of your class. Never enter water without permission from your teacher. Recruit older students, parents, or community volunteers to maximize safety.
• Pack necessities, such as sunblock, insect repellent, a first-aid kit, appropriate clothing and footgear, binoculars, magnifying glass, thermometer, tape measure, and field guides to shoreline plants and animals.
• Observe a "coastal code of conduct" during your field trip. Tread lightly on shorelines and avoid trampling barnacles, algae, lichens, mosses, and snails. Leave seaweed and empty shells where they lie (hermit crabs and other coastal creatures need them for protection from predators). Never move living things from one shoreline to another. Leave the flora and fauna in tidal pools for viewing only (just dipping your hand in a pool can have a serious impact). Avoid disturbing shoreline birds, especially when they're nesting, and do not handle bird eggs or wildlife young. Clean up all your trash (garbage attracts predators that eat eggs and nestlings).
• Divide into teams of five or six students, each assigned different tasks, such as surveying animals and plants in a 50-metre stretch of shoreline, evaluating contrasting sectors (possibly one developed and the other wild), or collecting data on a habitat element (food, water, shelter, or space) across a broad expanse.
• Record your observations. Look for signs of healthy habitat and problems, such as pollution and erosion. Sit quietly in a sheltered spot and catch glimpses of shoreline inhabitants going about their daily routines. List species you see, such as sea stars, gulls, foxes, voles, and honeysuckle, as well as any food webs that exist among them. Notice how shoreline species have adapted to their surroundings through coloration, body covering, motion, and feeding techniques and record the data in a table.
• You can also record your observations in poetry, stories, journals, sketches, paintings, and photographs.
• Map the shoreline, indicating where environmental and wildlife habitat projects could occur. Show such characteristics as roads, dikes, bridges, buildings, fences, rivers, marshes, cliffs, coves, forests, sand dunes, and recreational areas.