Today we hiked over the dunes on Isla Magdalena to a half moon bay called Bahia Santa Maria. There we saw hundreds of keyhole sand dollars strewn along the beach above the high tide line. These echinoderms, which are purple gray in life, move slowly on their small short spines that look like small hairs on the outside of their test. With their small tube feet, sand dollars can capture and direct food into their mouth on the underside of their bodies.

Beach combing at Bahia Santa Maria was especially rewarding for Ileana Ruperti and Lee Hong Lee. Ileana and Lee are from the High School for Environmental Studies in Manhattan, New York. The girls were awarded a trip to Baja, California through the Lindblad Expeditions Kids-at-Sea program. The Kids-at-Sea program began back in 1993. Lindblad Expeditions wanted to bring high school students out into the field on natural history expeditions under the mentorship of selected Lindblad Expeditions naturalists. Cooperation and combined efforts on the part of NYCHES and Lindblad Expeditions have allowed this program to mature into an invaluable hands-on experience for an average of 12 students per year. There is special emphasis on the amplification of this experience throughout the school through presentations by the students and an integration of field experience into the general school curriculum.