A Final Post about a Striper not a Stripper!

On our last day of class we had the rare treat of watching Professor Berman fillet a striped bass.  Although the star of the show was supposed to be the bass I found myself wandering around the huge kitchen that the school of hospitality let use use for this class.

Our striped bass was very fresh caught less than 12 hours before it came to rest on these cutting boards.  We could tell that the fish was fresh because of the clarity of the eye and the fact that it still had the glossing coating on its skin which is secreted to protect the fish from the water that it lives in.

 To fillet the fish, Prof. Berman started with making a vertical incision behind the gills, he then took his fillet knife and set it flush with the back bone resting along the rib bones.  He pushed his knife through to the anterior side and worked his knife down the length of the fish to remove the fillet.

 

 

After both of the fillets were removed from the body of the fish Berman went digging around to see if we could find any remains of what the fish had eaten before it was  caught.  Sure enough we did find some white worm like creatures that the bass had eaten before he was caught.  Once we had broken the fish down the fillets were removed Berman proceeded to remove the skin.  After the fillets were broken down they were sliced very thin and served sashimi style with some soy and wasabi.  I was amazed about how fresh the fish was.  It really did smell like the ocean.  After having a sushi scare a mere week below I passed on the sashimi and waiting for the ceviche.  The ceviche was the striped bass marinated in citrus juice.  While the fish sits in the citrus juice the acid actually cooks the fish.  It was very fresh and tangy when I tried it.  Very tasty.

For my experiment I took my piece of the fish fillet home with me and took the simple route.   I got a skillet nice and hot and added a little bit of olive oil.  I simple seasoned the fish with salt and pepper and put it in the skillet for about 3 minutes on a side to be sure an not dry out the fish.  I then removed the fish from the pan and set it on a plate to rest while I deglazed the pan with some white wine to which i added some tarragon herb butter to the wine and melted it down in the wine until it thickened into a nice pan sauce which I poured over the fish.  Simple yet delicious and to think it was caught in what used to be one of the dirtiest urban harbors in the country.

Thank you for a unique and interesting learning experience.

Here a Periwinkle there a Land Snail, but the Snails ain't from here

On July 26, 2012 we had the opportunity to go to Lovell's Island in Boston Harbor during low tide.  It was the first overcast day that we had during the course and it was a bit of a struggle to get out to Lovell's, but the DCR saved the day.  The crew of the Abigale and the DCR were kind enough to send us a boat to take us to Lovell's Island and wait for us while we went exploring.

The beach on Lovell's is a sandy beach.  This was the first sandy beach that we had encountered during our trips.  The sand was washed from the back side of the island to the front side of the island by the power of the sea.  The sand is mostly a dark charcoal gray color and if you look very closely there appeared to be a large amount of broken mussel shells mixed in.  We did note that they mussel shells on this beach had far less fouling organisms on them and a theory was discussed with Professor Burman that the location of this particular part of Lovell's island is located on a channel with a very strong current that may have swept the fouling organisms past this part of the beach therefore leaving these mussels less fouled.  The mussels were of course blue mussels that we have seen at our other locations.

As we moved along the beach it gradually went from a sandy beach to a cobble beach.  There were a number of live slipper shells on the beach and Burman had the privilege of sampling one of these Lovell's Island oysters directly from the shell.  The slipper shells tended to be pale in color almost flesh toned with stripe of lavender here and there.  They would piggy back on rocks as well as each other.  Below is a picture courtesy of Google images. 

As we rounded the bend a great scene of tide pools laid before us.  In the tide pool we experienced much of the same life that we had been seeing at the other locations we had visited.  There was a plethora of hermit crabs scurrying from  here to there and some actually being aggressive towards each other.  They were in various periwinkle shells that ranged from brown or green black to paler shades of peach or white.  In these pools we also came across a colony of tunicates that was much larger than what we had seen at the dock or other beaches.  We also found some sea urchin skeletons, Asian shore crabs and what may possibly be an isopod of some sort. These are shown below.

(Thank you for the images Liza)

After playing in the tide pools for a while and seeing periwinkles that had multicolored shells that ranged from brown, green black, pale yellow and even some light bluish colors.  we went up and took a look at the salt marsh which was more active and green than the one that we saw on Peddock's island because we had just received some rain.  I did notice birds flying in and out of the grass.  On our way to end our journey  we came across some shells of a different color.  How could they get here?

 Once we began walking the path through the woods back to the boat we learned that these shells are from the Grove Snails (found in a previous class blog) and they live in trees.  They are invasive and probably came over with the flora (sumak) that was added to the island by early settlers.

Their shells are lighter in color and much thinner than the marine snails on the beach.  My theory of how they got to the rock is that they are a favorite food of Song Thrushes that can be found in New England during the summer time according to:  The birds of New England and adjacent states by Edward Augustus Samuels.  The birds could take the snails to the rocks to crack the shells and get the flesh easily.


Another great trip in the harbor!  Thank you again DCR and the Abigale!

Water water everywhere, but what if there was not a drop to drink?

I often question my patriotism as an American.  We are horribly greedy people that can be pushy and expect people to conform to our way of government, religions, language etc.  These traits can be found in all of us and I think we often take for granted how privileged we really are.  When asked: "What does clean water mean to me?"  A really simple question that we probably think about very often.  I had to really think about it.

I grew up in Maine on Sebago Lake.  This particular lake is used as drinking water for the city of Portland and other towns in the area.  This region is also known as the Lakes Region.  Looking back now and thinking about how I was surrounded by these beautiful clean lakes and ponds that were used for recreation year round, but not all people are so lucky.  We water our lawns, fill swimming pools, hot tubs, take long showers, wash our cars with clean water that is safe to drink when there are other nations in the world that do not even have clean drinking water.  The frivolous use of a resource so precious in other countries is a prime example of our greed as a nation.

Clean water is essential for so many things in our lives from our own survival to the ability to cook, wash our clothes and dishes, grow food, etc and we just use all we want without thinking about those who are less fortunate.  I admit that I am one of these people and enjoy a long shower (too long of a shower) and will leave the faucet running while I brush my teeth.  When Professor Burman asked this question of us today, I felt kind of disgusted with myself for my lack of appreciation for something so simple yet so important.

Taking this class has not only been fun, but extremely educational and I am sure I will remember more from this class than I have from other classes.  The amount of time, money and energy that has gone into the cleaning of Boston Harbor is astonishing and probably would not have to have happen if we as educated people had thought about how our actions will effect our surroundings and environment.  Alas that was not the case and we pretty much destroyed the harbor, but because of all the hard work of Save the Harbor Save the Bay this beautiful resource has been able to come back to us.  The harbor can now be used as clean water should be used to educate our youth the importance of it and how to maintain it as well as enjoy in recreational manners.  This experience has opened my eyes and will make more aware of how I use the clean water that is so readily available to us.

A Island Hoping Adventure

It was 8:50a when we departed our meeting place of the Marriott Long Wharf Boston.  The tide was high and receding.  During our trip out to Peddock's Island we were able to witness recreational boats zipping here and there along the harbor.  We were also privy to see a lobster boat pulling up traps from the harbor which according to the professor is a $30 million industry in MA.  As we continued along our journey we witnessed a collection of sea gulls diving towards the water feeding on fish that have been forced to the top by larger fish.  The larger fish could be blue fish which shred their food or possible striped bass.  During our trip out we also got to see a fantastic look of the old hospital located on Long Island and a closer look at the purifying plant on Deer Island.  Once we made it to George's Island we immediately got onto a smaller water taxi to Peddock's island.  The route to Peddock's Island brings us through Hull's Gut which is one of the more tricky water ways in the harbor especially if the tide and wind are not blowing in the same manner.

Peddock's Island was initially used primarily for agriculture in the 17th century and became home to Fort Andrew's and was used for military purposes through Wold War II.  Now the island is virtually deserted except for a few summer residences located on the island.  These residences were once owned by families, but now the state owns the land that the houses sit on and upon the passing of the current "owner" of the house it becomes the property of the state.  The island is made up of several different types of habitats.  One is a deciduous forest habitat that houses many of the abandoned federal buildings which then leads down to the beach area.  The beach area is a crescent beach that starts with finer particles to the west and progresses to a pebble beach and then a cobble stone beach.  A theory was raised that this progression in particle size could be because of the shape of the beach and the angle at which the waves hit the beach effects the strength and ability to move the various particle sizes.  The pebble beach was lacking in living creatures, but in the cobblestone section of the beach we were able to see a large amount of amphipods, green crabs and periwinkles.  Unfortunately because of the lack of rain our opportunity to look at a salt marsh was limited as was the same with the mud flats. 

We are being invaded by hitchhikers!!!!

Another beautiful day on the harbor.  Our journey began today at the Marriott Long Wharf in Boston, MA.  It was a lovely 85+ degrees and the sun was blazing bright and proved to agitate my already agitated body with a case of dehydration just after we rounded the aquarium.  Once at Rowe's Wharf and the Barking Crab I had to weigh on my team a little more heavily than I would have liked while I attempted to cool down and rehydrate.  Below are my observations:

Rows wharf/Barking Crab

Mussels – Blue – Smooth black shell, violet interior, sometimes covered with orange “slime”.  Flesh inside is bright orange with a black neck?

Sea Lettuce – bright green, ruffled edges, slimy also a brown version similar to this but much more crunched up

Skeleton Shrimp – everywhere!  Reaching out off from where it is attached in a grabbing like motion

Grinnells pink leaf – attached to pillar covered in barnacles  about 12’’ long ribbon like attached with a small stalk

Periwinkles – orange, smooth, covered with skeleton shrimp looks like a goose berry

Gulfweed Shrimp – very small, gray brown, look like very small shrimp or lobsters found inside of open mussel shells

Star Tunicate – on the back of a blue mussel, golden stars on blue background

Orange Tunicate – Orange, slimy, gray lobes on it

Sea Grapes – light green/yellow looks like a fetus or some sort of creature is inside.

Sea Squirt – attached to rope, light green similar to sea grape, but squirts water in defense

Green Alga – stringy, thin, bright green and looks like sea weed used in an Asian seaweed salad?

The dock picture on BlackBoard does look very similar to what we saw today on our trip; however, the growth looks a lot more dense with a wider variety of life on it.  There are fine limbed brown flora, yellow orange sponge, and what looks like barnacles and many more orange tunicates.  There also seem to be a couple of worms towards the center of the picture.  This could be possible because of the water temperature.  We had a relatively mild winter and have had a mild summer so far.  We were also on docks that had recently been scraped at Rowe's wharf which may have effected what was there while we were looking.  The has been a lack of rain which means the water column was not been shuffled that much making the zones within the column to stay relatively stable.  Although there are similar species in this image that we saw today, it appears that there is a much more dense sample than what we were looking at today.

Hazy Hot and Humid on the Hahbah!

We started our journey on this hazy hot and humid day on the 1:30p ferry from the MBTA terminal at Boston's Long Wharf.  The temperature is a balmy 83 degrees with a light hazy overcast.  The tide is still falling as part of its six hour cycle.  The tide in Boston is a vertical tide because it is so built up the water does not move up and down the beach but it moves up and down the structures that compose Boston's water front.  One thing that really stood out to me was that it did not smell like we were on the water front.  I do remember in the past being in this area and there being a foul smell lingering in the air, but today the air seems fresh and lighter than it did on that day.

Boston Harbor is a protected harbor that was carved by glaciers and its islands are drumlins, or deposited rock and soil from the glacier as it retreated.  The citizens of Boston did not have to use its natural protection very often except against the British a few times, but mostly from pirates.  Its natural shape aids in making protecting the harbor easier that if it were wide open.

As we are leaving the harbor it is a little choppy; however, these wave are not natural waves, but man made from the activity within the inner harbor and close to shore.  Boston is unique in that it does not have a lot of industrial waste because nothing is really made in Boston.   The waste that was and is removed from the harbor is human waste.  250 million gallons of waste was being dumped into the harbor, but now with the help of the sanitation plant located on Deer Island because of the work of Prof Burman and his team we are able to take this waste and convert it into 250 million gallons of fresh water back into the marine ecology system without harming the habitats of the creatures living here.  The solid waste that remains from this process is shipped over to quincy and turned into fertilizer pellets that are used to fertilize golf courses and other areas.

Twenty five years ago this harbor was a mess.  In fact it was considered dead because of how polluted it was.  In the 1950's people began to nice that something was wrong and began to become interested in the environment and people's effect on it.  The federal government initiated the Clean Air and Water Acts.  The Big Dig was a clean air act and all though the air quality is better in the city of Boston it has not solved the problem, but just moved it higher into the air and away from us.  Looking around the harbor you see that the work of Berman's team is clear. There are people on the harbor islands enjoying the space and for instance on Nut Island there used to be a sewer plant that has now been closed and the homes that were once run down are now multi-million dollar establishments.  The water actually looks clean and the air is fresh.  To think that this body of water was dead 25 years ago is fairly hard to believe, but we are lucky to live in such a beautiful area and to have access to such a wonderful natural resource.

Here are some pictures from the trip:

Introduction and First Experiment

Good morning all.  My name is Chris Vaughan and I am a psychology major as well as a database analyst for the medical school.  I grew up in southern Maine and spent a great deal of time as a child on Casco Bay and in Bar Harbor and became very familiar with those ocean coastal areas.  I have now lived in Boston since 1995; however, I know very little about the Boston Harbor.

Last night during our first experiment we tried to determine what direction the water swirled as it went down the drain of the sink.  All of us agreed that the water moved in a clockwise motion.  According to an article found on the Library of Congress' website (http://loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/coriolis.html) the direction the water turns as it goes down the drain has to do with the way the water is introduced to the geometric structure of the drain.  The article also mentions that people would like to believe the Coriolis force affects the flow of water down a drain it is not true because the force is too weak to affect such a small body of water.  This force is cause by the earths rotation and does effect the directions in which hurricanes turn in the northern and southern hemisphere, but unfortunately it does not effect our toilets, sinks, or bathtub drains.

Chris Vaughan