The weather on Friday was sunny and windy on the
boat. Around the time of 10:30, the tide was coming up, because you can see in
the picture, the wood fences near our boat shows it has 8 visible pieces fences
we can see. Charlie showed us the top two pieces are dry and clean which means
they probably never under the water. The third piece is mostly covered by fresh
green moss which means it always reached by water but it barely goes under the
water. But the 7th piece which is next to the water has a lot of
seaweed growing on it. It means that it has its most time under the water every
day and water plants even grow on it. It means at that moment the water was low
and the tide was coming and the fences would be covered by water.
As soon as the boat started, Bruce, our professor,
started to tell us that we will catch some fish and observe them, and then we
will go to the Lovells Island. He first showed us sea worms, which are grate
bait for fish. After research, I found that the sea worms are Clam Worms (Nereis Virens). This type
of huge nasty worm can be as long as 21 inches and 0.5 inch wide. It has long
round bodies with many tiny
orange legs (Parapodium) on the side. Its back is dark green as beneath is
light red or orange. It has so many segments that I can’t count. From the guide
book, it says it has 200 segments! It usually stays in sand or mud on the
bottom of protected water or brackish estuaries. Interestingly, this worm bites
people since it has tentacles, mouth and black jaws; we can see it twists its
body and uses its mouth to bite the person who is holding it.
On
the way to the Lovells Island, we stopped at one area and used the clam worm
to fish. The first fish we caught was a Black
Sea Bass (Centropristis striata). It is about 15 inches long. It is mostly
grey with beautiful blue or green color on the top of its spine. It has sharp
striped dorsal fins which are almost connected to the caudal fin (black with
white spots on it and white edge). It also has one pair of anal fins and a pair
of pelvic fin and pectoral fins. Its upper lip is dark blue or grey as the
lower lip is white. It is very surprising
that sea basses are born as girls and later in their years they will turn to
boys. The first black sea bass we found is just about turning female to male.
From the website of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), I
know black sea bass are omnivorous that it feeds on invertebrates, squids and
other smaller fish. I also caught a black sea bass. But because it hasn’t
reached its maturity, I had to release it.
Also
my classmates caught two smaller fishes of same type and they are about 8
inches long. It has a huge mouth which compares to Flounder’s mouth or Black
Sea Bass’ mouth. Its body is really thin. It also has huge eyes with a yellow
circle outside and a black eye ball inside. On the upper part of its body, it
is grey with dark brown spots on it; the color started to fade while getting
close to the belly and finally it turns out to be silver-colored. Its tail and
fins are dark grey or green. So also from the NOAA website, I found this type
of fish is Silver Hake (Merluccius
bilinearis). It is interesting that the Silver Hake usually stays on the
bottom of the sea which is sandy, muddy during the daytime and comes out during
midnight to feed on semi-pelagic predators.
The
final fish species we had caught is the Atlantic
Striped Bass (Morone saxatilis). As soon as I saw the strips on its body,
the big belly, long and huge size of it, I know it is Striped Bass. From the
professor, we know we cannot keep the striped bass shorter than 28 inches. So
when the TA caught the striped bass which is 23 inches, she had to put it back
to the ocean. But when another classmate finally got the one which is 38 inches
long, we kept it! That Atlantic Striped Bass is so beautiful and huge. It is
almost as long as a human being and I think there is no problem that a fist can
fit in its mouth. The upper part of the fish is dark grey or green with black
strips all the way down as the background color fades to white.
On
the way to the tide pool, we saw the wrack zone between the land and the ocean.
It is the place where the highest tide hits the beach. We saw just by the
ocean, there are rocks, sand, dry seaweed and then grass by orders. The dry
seaweed was brought up by the tide and left on the shore.
First
thing I found here is something looking like sea snails. This soft creature is
living in the dark brown or grey spiral shell with waves along it. It is about 0.8 inch. The inside body structure of
the snail is as same as one snail we see in the garden. But in additional, it
also has a piece of operculum which protects it from drying out or being eaten
by other predators. I found them all over the rocks in the
saltwater in the pools. After I looked them up, they are actually Common Periwinkles (Littorina littorea).
From the Hichhikers' poster, it says it has"shells usually dark, transverse black stripes on tentacles, poorly developed sutures on whorls"They feed on diatoms and algae which attach on the rocks.
I also saw a green worm when my classmate flipped over. It is similar to sea worms with smaller size. It is really greenish and crawled on the rock. I think it is Green Paddle Worm ( Eulalia viridis). It can crawl over the rocks as I saw on the shore, and it also can swim. It is about 4 inches. long.
http://snails2whales.blogspot.com/2010/08/lovells-island_17.html
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