Live on San Juan Island for one or both of these 5-week intensive lab and field marine biology courses offered at UW’s marine station, Friday Harbor Labs (FHL). Located on a 480-acre biological reserve, FHL has access to marine habitats representative of cool-temperate marine habitats widely distributed throughout the world. All courses involve fieldwork, boats, laboratory work, and research mentorship from award-winning faculty.
Marine Invertebrates (BIOL 432, Summer A-term, 9 credits)

Alternating with two lectures a day, students will study living representatives of most major groups of marine animals in the laboratory, and through fieldwork in diverse marine habitats.The course reviews the diversity of animal life in an evolutionary and ecological context, focusing on a comparative study of form, function, and life history. We will review all animal phyla, and also explore diversity within phyla based on available exemplars.
Applications are welcome from undergraduate students, post-baccalaureates and graduate students. Prior coursework in invertebrate biology or animal diversity is advisable but not essential.
Marine Mammals and Seabirds (FISH 492, Summer B-term, 9 credits) Continue reading








Students in this apprenticeship look at the complex physical-biological relationships in the open waters (pelagic ecosystem) around the San Juan Islands. Students build on the work of past apprenticeships, exploring the causes for abundance and distribution of pelagic marine life. This study is important because it tracks long-term changes in populations of plankton, fish, seabirds, and marine mammals in one of the areas judged most highly sensitive to climate change.