Monday, July 25, 2011

Under the Dock at the Barking Crab

On our first day of true marine habitat exploration we went to the Barking Crab. We began our day exploring the inter-tidal zone on a falling tide. The low tide was at 11:30. At the inter-tidal zone I noticed to different species of animals; blue mussells and barnacles. The barnacles were small and white, while the mussells were larger and were mostly submerged in the water. The vegitation was a species called rock weed; which was green and had tube like root system that stored water. Professor Berman pointed out that Rock weed was an indication of nutrient rich water.
The second place we explored was right next to the inter-tidal zone yet was not considered the inter-tidal zone. Here we looked at a barge that had alot of green and red fuzzy plant like stuff. I discovered that the green fuzzy plant was called sea lettuce. The only animal life in this zone was a group of white barnacles.
As we walked past the Sea Aquarioum we looked at a zone that was deeper and closer to the harbor. Here there was no vegitation and only barncles along the sea wall. I noticed a Cormoran diving for bait. We hypothesised the reasons why there was no sea weed along this location, but around the others. I think that there is a lack of sun light in that specific location. It was still a falling tide.
The next zone of exploration was along the federal courthouse dock. The water was clear and we were still on a falling tide. Here I noticed more of the Rock weed and more barnacles. The barnacles here were smaller than the other locations. They were still white and had a similar patterns and shape.
The last place of exploration was the docks at the Barking Crab, here the tide was low and the water was clear for about three feet. This zone was the most bio-diverse and held the most species of animals on the trip. Here there was three different species of vegitation including the rock weed and sea lettuce. However there was still the red branchy like plant that I could not identify. In this plant there was a collection of different shrimp like creatures including ones that looked like stick bugs. They were long and skinny with multiple leg and antenas. The other creatures were small shrimp looking thing ranging in color from light brown to almost black. There was two different sea ananeminies. The one I first discovered was small and light in coloring while the other was larger and had and a darker skin. There was a orange coral like animal which we identified as a tunacit. It was growing along the dock as well as on the blue mussells. Prof. Berman used the sabiki rig to catch a Herring and small Mackeral. As we were leaving the dock someone spotted a redish pink star fish. There was also larger barncales growing on the mussells and dock pilings.

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