The anatomy of the coastline Students get their feet wet exploring the rocky intertidal zone

BERWAGER Reporter tberwager.roundupnews@gmail.com

Students of Professor Raymond Wells’ Marine Biology and Ecology courses get to experience the marine life of the California coast, as well as Catalina and Mexico.

Professor Raymond Wells has been a Marine Biology professor at Pierce for more than 27 years and has worked in the Gulf of Mexico since 1973. In fact, he was one of the founders of the Marine Science Program on campus. Wells’ program has attracted international students as well as students from other states.

“This program kind of is my life,” said Wells. “Every place I go are places that are special to me and I enjoy it.”

Wells’ passion for the subject he teaches overpowers any obstacles he faces while teaching out in the field.

“My position is really physical. I’m boosting people up into boats. I have torn part of my foot from trying to land a boat in waves and not have the boat get crushed with students,” said Wells. “It’s pretty physical. It’s pretty hard on my body. I’ve broken several bones teaching this class, but I’m not ready to give up.”

Wells finished his doctorate in Marine Biology at the University of Southern California. Prior to becoming a professor at Pierce, Wells was an aquanaut, living in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hydrolab. He has around 1,800 hours underwater.

Wells’ Biology 11A students explore Catalina Island kelp forests during the spring semester. Students in Wells’ Biology 11B-C classes, which are offered during the spring and fall semesters, travel to different islands in Mexico to study the marine life in those regions.

During the same two weeks every summer, Biology 123 students travel to the Sea of Cortez in Bahia de Los Angeles, Baja California, Mexico.

Wells’ students leave Pierce with knowledge obtained from the coursework and field lab experiences, and are well prepared for university.

“From here, a lot of my students go to Northridge, which is an excellent program,” said Wells.

Former student and current biology major at CSUN, Jayslen Serrano, had enrolled in all of Wells’ biology courses offered at Pierce.

Serrano mentioned that she was influenced by Wells to apply for a master’s in Marine Biology.

Jonathan Hernandez, a criminal justice and a theater major, has been a student of Wells’ for almost two semesters. He previously took Wells’ Biology 121 course and is currently enrolled in Biology 122.

“I like taking his class. You have to be very concentrated,” said

Hernandez. “He’s a good teacher. I’ve taken him before, he explains everything clearly so it’s just a matter of you paying attention,”

“It’s not my major, but I’m definitely taking this course because I wanted to and I need a lab. I could have taken another lab, but I like professor Wells,” Hernandez said.

Rob Coulter, an agriculture business major, is a current student of Wells.

“They’re my favorite classes. Dr. Wells is very concise and he gives you the information that you need to succeed in the class,” said Coulter.”He lays everything out, it’s all organized in such a way that it makes it very easy to understand and remember.”

Wells also taught courses at CSUN and USC in the past.

During his time at USC, Wells worked in the principal investigator group for a San Onofre Grant for almost eight years. The investigator group included participants from Scripps College, Santa Barbara, and Long Beach State College, who all contributed to the development of Experimental Field Ecology.

“All these different teams working on different aspects of what the nuclear plant does to the environment. Everything except radioactivity, we couldn’t do that,” Wells said.

Before getting a degree, let alone, a doctorate in marine biology, Wells attended California State University, Northridge as a pre-vet major. Now, however, Wells couldn’t imagine a different life.

“I love coming to work everyday,” Wells said. “And on those days when I say, ‘I don’t want to go to work,’ I just kick myself on the butt and say, ‘you idiot, look what you’re going to go do, there’s no better job than this,’ I can’t think of a better job.”