August 1st. 2010.

Hello,

8:00AM- The day started ealy today, as always the boston harbor was so quiet and peaceful in the morning, it was such a beautiful day in every aspect (speacially the weather).
9:00 AM- People started to gather to buy the tickets to get the ferry to the islands.
9:30 AM- Our ferry started to board, there was a lot of people. While waiting in line i got the chance to observed some plants around the wood wharf underneath of where we were standing. i saw a lot of rockweed and some lettuceseaweed in the water. I also noticed a lot of barnacles all over the wood and in the rocks, it looks like a very invasive animal. I took us around 10-15 minutes to get to the first island we visited (Lovells island). A very nice ride in the ferry, everything went very smothly no big waves, the water seemed very quiet. The ferry drivers told us that the movie shutter island (a very good movie) was made in this island, which it was interesting to me to know.
10:00 AM- We landed on the island, my first impression was very good! I like to feel the soft beach sand on my feet, large stones all over the tide of the island and a very pretty view of boston. I also spotted some rockweed around the dock. Some nice rangers welcome us to the island and explain some rules, pretty simple to follow i may say. In our little conversation with the ranger we learned about the tidal pools which as he said they are wet all the time and if they dry out eveything in them dies. The lovells Island is a natural park and everything in it has to stay there, we are not allow to take any specimens home with us, they take very good care of this parks (which is awesome). There places for camping and each of them was numbered. the rangers have their own camping site, very interesting. The habitat of the island: Lots of bird activity, surrounded by trees (a very green environment), surrounded by sand, 9 feet tide, large stones. Island Size:62 acres (source: wikipedia), i could smell the salty water all over the place and i also tasted the water and it did tasted salty. The water clarity in a scale from 1-10 i will give it a 4. The weather was very nice, probably 80's.
While walking to a different part of the island we spotted some fruits (blackberries) in our way, a very sweet walk , i also spotted some fruit that i thought it was "chile pimiento" but it turned out to be a totally different thing that was dangerous to eat as well (Source: Proffesor Berman).
10:30/10:45 AM- We separeted in groups of two in a mission to find some specimens in the water, we were looking for Asian shore crabs as a project. So far was the best experience for me in this course!

Lovell's Specimen Identification:
- Rough Periwinkle (small shells, mostly brown/beige spiral strips, found inside the water), -Hermit Crab (Couldnt really see it because it was inside a seashell and even thou we sang to them it didnt came out), -Green Crab (A small crab greenish/transparetn color with some black spots on his shell, it had 4 legs in each side and two claws) and Asian Shore Crab (Orange color, square-shaped shell, size medium,with brown spots, 3 legs in each side and 2 claws), Lobster (American lobster,” from the genus homarus/Source: http://maine-lobster.com/lobster-types/cold-water-lobster, this lobster was found behind a rock, it was a small babylobster, had legs but no claws and two antenas, the color was like black/browinsh), -Barnicles (Seen in abundance all over the rocks at the tide pool at the island, small , white and very sharp and hard to the touch), -Tunicate-Sea squirt (Shape cilindrical with a big head, color black/white, consistency soft, you can squeeze it and water will come out for it) -Rockweed (Mostly black, branchlike weed found againt the rocks underneath the water or the tide), -Blue mussels (Black/Bluish, with white stains on them, majority of mussles found were closed, didnt had the change to see the mussel itself just the closed shell, hard to the touch), Clams (Mostly white small shells in the shore line, the majority of clams that i spotted were dead probably dried out), Fish (small, white/gray)
The difference i noticed between the specimens at the island and the ones from the barking crab is that the on the island there were more sea animals than at the barking crab dock i examined with my group. The barking crab docks mostly had seaweed and some mussels as a majority, and mini worms inside the mussles.
My hypothesis: In regards to this difference is the deepness of the tide at each sites and how some of the animals found at the island usually hide behind rocks and need a low tide to survive and at the barking crab the tide is very high and there were no big rocks for the animals to hide. Basically, the difference relies on the tide levels at each place.
Snails: There were two different kinds of snails -seasnails and the landsnails- I only observed one type of marine snail. They were small, color brown, mostly found at the end of the tide pool, at a very low tide level, on the sand or in the rocks. The land snails i saw were founf mostly on the trees of the island or in the leaves of the trees, they were small and i found two kinds of land snails one brown/beige and one yellow/brown, both have four anthenas two small ones and two big ones. The difference i noticed between the two was mostly the color of the land snails is lighter than the color of the marine snails and the marine snails never came out the shell while the land snails did and as the land snails walk it leaves a slime trail behind. I also got the chance to observed that the land snails liked to eat the leaves of the trees. The marine snails quantity was much bigger than the land snails. The land snails were very diffivult to catch while the marine snails were all over the tide pool.
-Hypothesis on the relationship between the snails: There both snails, just different types, one lives on the water and one on the trees/land. Both feed off plants, the marine snails feed off seaweed and the landsnails feed off leaves. They are molluscs species.

Types of snails:

1. White lipped banded snail (landsnail)
2. Brown/Black lipped snail (landsnail)
3. Rough Periwinckle (Water snail)
- How those five land snail shells got on the beach near that big rock? I noticed how fast the snails walk because i brought a couple home with me, so my hypothesis is that they walk to the beach and when the tide got high they got wet and since the water is salty it killed them.