Catching Up on Their Studies : Aspiring Marine Biologists From CSUN Get an Up-Close Look at Sea Life in San Diego Bay

“Up, up, up!” shouts Prof. Larry Allen of Cal State Northridge, rousting his student crew from their darkened bunks aboard the research vessel Yellowfin, afloat on San Diego Bay.

After shaking off sleep in the damp morning air, the seven marine biology students will spend the day up to their waists in cold water, dragging nets along the shore and sifting through the collected muck to catalogue small fish and other marine life.

For aspiring marine biologists, research aboard the Yellowfin--a vessel owned by the Cal State University system--provides an important dose of field experience and is an integral part of CSUN’s effort to offer more hands-on programs to students.

In the past five years, the CSUN marine biology faculty--although landlocked--has procured $1.8 million in funding from groups including the California Department of Fish and Game, the National Marine Fisheries Service and California Edison Co.

The agencies hire the university to conduct field research for them.

Cheryl Baca, 24, an undergraduate environmental biology student, said she “likes the hands-on experience . . . just seeing it and doing it” because it offers a much-needed break from lab work.

The Navy hired CSUN to conduct the San Diego Bay study of fish and plant life last October. The student researchers spent four days in different sections of the bay, collecting samples with hand-drawn nets and a device nicknamed the “cube o’ death.” The cube is a meter-square open-ended box placed in shallow water. Poison is then thrown into the box and whatever marine life floats to the top is collected.

The 80-foot Yellowfin has the ability to collect specimens in deeper water. It is equipped with a special trawl that can drag up yards of seaweed along with animals like stingrays, sea bass and flounder.