<p>
	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}Dannielle-Favela-3-Place_Snakelum Point-300pxl(2).jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 176px; float: right;" />Humans are land dwellers. Our reference points, our expressions, and our spatial perspectives all reveal that we consider land our &ldquo;home,&rdquo; and we have studied the biology of land well. Marine systems, although they cover most of the Earth, are not places where we live. But they are the abode of millions of unique species; the exact number and types is still being discovered.</p>
<p>
	Au Sable&rsquo;s offering in Marine Biology provides a fascinating introduction to the species and systems that comprise marine life. Offered in the coastal environment provided by <a>Au Sable&rsquo;s Pacific Rim Campus</a>&nbsp;on Whidbey Island (Washington), Marine Biology provides opportunity for firsthand study of marine creatures, especially in the intertidal realm prevalent on the Whidbey Island coast, the eelgrass communities of adjoining shallow water zones, and marine communities associated with the island communities of Puget Sound. These biological systems, which can be studied firsthand at this location, provide students with examples of how to comprehend broader concepts and theories of marine community structure, population management and exploitation, oceanic microbialization and marine biogeochemical cycles and processes.</p>
