By: Aliya Koshalieva

Media-Production Editor

On Nov. 1, Los Gatos High School students enrolled in AP Biology and AP Environmental Science embarked on the annual Catalina Island trip. They flew to Los Angeles and took a ferry to the Catalina Island Marine Science Institute (CIMI). The itinerary for the weekend included conducting marine biology research, doing island ecology-related labs, hiking, and snorkeling.

The trip started at 5 a.m. on Nov. 1 with the students meeting at the San Jose Mineta International Airport. After a flight and a bus ride to the Catalina Express port in Long Beach, the students endured a two-hour boat ride to Catalina Island. Senior Yanis Malhotra described the boat trip as “absolutely horrible,” saying, “I almost puked three times on the way there and then twice on the way back.”

Things improved considerably after landing at Toyon Bay and receiving a warm welcome by CIMI staff, students snorkeled and swam in the bay with their instructors. “Snorkeling was very fun. We saw a bunch of fish and sharks and kelp. It was really cold, though, and the wetsuits helped a lot,” said senior Boden Ruvane.

Later that evening, students dove back into the ocean for the famed night snorkel. “I saw some bioluminescence for the first time in my life and it was just a really fun experience. We all had flashlights, and I felt like I was in a spy movie in the water. So that was really cool,” said Malhotra.

The next day, students participated in lab rotations, half doing marine biology-related labs and the other half doing island ecology-related labs. “My favorite lab was probably the plankton lab because we got to look at the microscopes and see all the little plankton and bugs swimming around because they’re in little drops of water,” said Ruvane. “It’s crazy because if you think about it when you’re drinking seawater on accident while snorkeling, you just eat a bunch of bugs.”

After a round of labs and lunch, all students went on a two-mile hike to the top of one of the island’s mountains. Ruvane described the view as beautiful: “We got to echo and practice screaming. We yelled pumpkin, pretty loud, and then it would echo off the mountains.”

One of the highlights of the trip was the squid dissection. When asked about it, senior Katherine Darbinyan recounted, “The squid dissection? Where do I begin? They made us dissect the squid with our bare hands. We had no gloves and no utensils, just straight digging in them.” Darbinyan recounted.