Goodbye to Snails to Whales... But not forever!

            I thought that ES 141, From Snails to Whales, was a great class, right up my alley: a class I thoroughly enjoyed. Although I have visited Boston Harbor many times, ES 141 was extremely enjoyable.

            The ocean has always fascinated me, ever since I was a young child. I think that the ocean is an amazing place, full of mysteries to be solved and creatures to be understood and studied. This class helped me to more fully understand the mysteries of the ocean, more specifically the organisms that are in the Boston Harbor. I saw many different organisms than I had and had not seen before and learned much more about them. The organisms attached to the different docks and beaches are truly remarkable, and I know that I have only skimmed the surface of the organisms that are around the Boston Harbor.

            I truly enjoyed this class and I am sad that it has now ended. I learned more about a subject which I truly love and my mind has become expanded greatly. Not only are the things I learned fascinating and fun, but the people I met were amazing and I hope to stay in contact with them. On top of the merits of the class subject, the highest point of all were my classmates. True gems, all of them! Be sure to keep in touch! I already miss you guys!

Day 5 - Public Hearing

Today, July 24^th, we went to the Downtown Waterfront Municipal Harbor Planning Advisory Committee public hearing, where we viewed four separate presentations for different area property planning ideas. The four projects that we talked about were the Boston Marriott Long Wharf, Long Wharf, 255 State Street and the New England Aquarium. On each project, there is work to be done (hence why there are proposals being made to enhance/change the different areas).

Starting with the Marriott Long Warf Edge Activation Project, it was interesting to see how different the property’s original plans looked compared to the actual standing building and area that we have today. There were compromises made from the original plans to the new ones. A couple of the compromises that stuck out to me were: the original plans were much more open, allowing for more green areas than there currently exist on the Marriott Long Wharf, which consists purely of Columbus Park, as well as originally the “Harbor Towers” were going to be four different buildings, whereas today there are two towers today, but each is the height of two of the original towers. But, it was this Marriott that brought activity to the harbor and started the booming community that is there now. But, it still has a ways to go. The Eastern half of the Marriott has nothing exciting or inviting there. There is northing that would draw people in to come for a visit or just go check it out. So by putting in some investment, we can fix the Boston Marriott and make it an even better place to visit/go to. Some of the improvements include: wrapping the waterfront end with inviting uses such as three to four retail/restaurant spaces, extending Faneuil Hall Marketplace retail “Main Street”, as well as improve the Boston Harbor Islands and the traffic and visits that they generate. The Marriott is trying to make the area a more attractive place. Putting in the public bathrooms in the lobby was just the start of the renovations. This was an important step in the right direction. Connectivity is an important key part of this area. Keeping everything connected allows people to go all over and visit lots of different areas. For example, millions of people visit Faneuil Hall each year. It’s an important and exciting place to learn new things, shop and eat lots of different types of food. I believe that the improvements proposed for the Marriott Long Wharf are good ones that would help the Wharf in general and make the place a more exciting place to go to and visit on a daily and non-daily basis.

The next property/project was Long Wharf itself. There is a nice long boardwalk there, but it has always been a rule that no one (vendors or stores or anything) could be placed on the boardwalk, so all these different vendors and stores were on the sidewalk, cluttering it up. It made it a hazard with everything on the sidewalk. So, two vendors got moved to the boardwalk, which cleared up the sidewalk a little and made it easier for not only the vendors but also the visitors to the boardwalk on a daily basis to walk around and see the different wares that are available for purchasing. Another improvement that the people would like to be made is that a restaurant be added to the end of Long Wharf Park. This would attract not only more people, but also more businesses to use the Long Wharf as a place to visit and see what’s going on as a “happening place”. Lastly, they would like to open up the wharf and allow more green in the wharf. As I said earlier, there is really only the one park: Columbus Park. The rest of the wharf is not cluttered; it’s just not an open green park that would allow allows for different types of relaxation and fun. I believe that this is a good plan, and that opening up the wharf will allow more people to enjoy the wharf on a daily basis and make it a desirable destination for not only visitors to Boston but also Boston natives.

The third presentation was on 255 State Street. This is currently a 12-story office building that is 97% leased out. On the first floor there are two restaurants and an ice cream shop. This allows for lots of public used and lots of people to enjoy the building. But one thing that needs to get remedied is that it is dangerous to cross the street because you can’t see the cars that are crossing the street because you have to look around the trolleys that are coming and it is difficult to see around the trolleys that are coming around the bend. Overall, these people were very concerned with climate change and wanting to make improvements to the building and the street as well as making sure that the climate is kept in mind and that the impact is not a big one to the climate.

The last presentation was on the New England Aquarium and the improvements they would like to make. The Aquarium does realize that not only did they just conclude a huge enhancement to the Aquarium that it will be a while until the next one occurs. The new renovation that the New England Aquarium is suggesting is cleaning up the front of the aquarium mainly. The Aquarium sees 1.3 to 1.4 million people a year. One of the things that the Aquarium would like to do is to make the Aquarium actually be recognizable. It currently just looks like a normal random building. But, if a painting of something aquatic (say an octopus or a sea jelly or something) would alert people that the building is actually the aquarium. Another thing is that the Aquarium would like to make more outdoor uses in the plaza, especially because there is only shade for a couple hours a day. Another big idea is the parking lots. Though it is easy to get to the Aquarium via the T, many people drive to the Aquarium because they have a lot of bags, or big families, and it is just easier to drive in. The Aquarium is aware of this and wants to make parking easier and more convenient for everyone. They also want to open up the view to the water so that people can actually enjoy the view of the beautiful Boston Harbor. I believe that the renovations that the New England Aquarium wants to make are very good, and it is good that they see that it’s going to be a while, especially considering it’s going to take 20 to 30 million dollars for the new renovations.

Overall I was very impressed to see that people are taking time out of their busy days to participate and give their opinion on what happens to the harbor around them. I’m glad to see that people are aware of the issues in their community and that everything can always be made better and should be made better. It is the constant improvements that make the world a better place. It is the involvement of the community that will allow these renovations to occur and will allow the Wharf and harbor to become a better place and more desirable to many Bostonians and non-Bostonians. I love the wharf, but I can’t wait to see the good renovations that are going to occur to make the wharf an even better and more exciting to be at.

Day 4 - Lovells Island

We started early day because we wanted to see as much as we could as well as get in some good fishing. We started at the dock next to the John Joseph Moakley Courthouse, where we got on the Boston Belle at 8:35am. As we began our journey, we noted the surroundings. The water was calm and bluer than the previous two days. This was because the sky today was much more clear than previous days. So the bluer and clearer the sky, the more blue is reflected off the water to give the appearance of bluer water.

Around 9:00am we arrived at our first fishing spot. We were close to Castle Island, and fishing in about 42-46.4 feet depth. Everyone that wanted to fish was given the opportunity to fish. Soon the boat was covered with fishing rods and a plethora of fish. The most common fish that was caught was the Black Sea Bass (Centropristis striata). We caught a range of sizes, from about six inches to about fifteen inches long. I learned from Captain Charlie that black sea bass are hermaphrodites, meaning that they are born as females and grow to be males. They start as “blonde” females and are turquoise, brown and black in color. These females are lighter (more brown) when they are in the light as well, and black when they are on the bottom of the ocean because of the reduced amount of light that penetrates down. The coloration of the young females is really interesting and allows for a good transition of coloring for these females and allows them to camouflage themselves really easily. As the black sea bass transition from female to male, their coloring becomes darker, to totally black when they are full males and they also grow a lump on their head as they get bigger. Interestingly enough, about 20 years ago, when Professor Berman was fishing in these same areas, he would only catch three black sea bass. Whereas today we caught bunches of them. This changed about three years ago when the black sea bass became more abundant. Now they are very common, which shows that they are migrating to the Boston Harbor. This is likely because the water here is getting warmer than it used to be, so they are moving to the new feeding/breeding grounds. Here we also caught some smaller fish, Bregals (a pearly/brown color) and sea perch, as well as an Atlantic Mackerel (Scomber scombrus). Now what we did with the Mackerel was interesting. We took the Mackerel (a silvery gray fish with a white belly) and put a hook through its nose and used it to catch bigger fish.

While en route to our next fishing spot, Professor Berman took a fifteen inch black sea bass and dissected it, to show us about the inside of fish. This black sea bass was just changing into a male, which was very interesting to see. When dissecting the stomach, we saw that there was a small shrimp in its stomach (recently eaten). We also learned that black sea bass have small and thin scales. In order to eat the skin of the sea bass, you would have to remove the scales because the scales are not edible like the skin is.

We then arrived at our second destination, which was between Long Island and Spectacle Island. This area is a fish safe haven. There are cement pyramids that were put together like Lincoln Logs that protects the fish here. After we learned that, the fishing again began. Again, the boat was full of sea worms and fishing rods. It was here though that Antoine hooked a Striped bass (Morone saxatillis). We got it out by pulling it up close to the surface and then catching it in an actual net. Which was cool to watch. This Striped bass was 30 inches long and covered in sea lice. Sea lice are only found on fish in open water. So this showed that the bass must’ve been in open water and it was just coming into the Harbor to feed. Here again we caught a lot of black sea bass (which we put back in the water)

We then continued on to Lovells Island, to explore the tide pools. We got to the tide pools at 11:30am. Low tide today was at 10:50am (according to a time table), so we got to the tide pools just past low tide. We actually started looking at the tide pools around 12:20pm when the tide was coming in. Doing the normal general observations, I noticed that the water was cooler and less transparent than the water closer into Boston itself. The beach here was very rocky, with rocks ranging from pebbles to cobbles (there were some larger ones too) as well as some sand. But after swimming for a bit (which was extremely refreshing and very nice), I began to explore the tide pools. I found many different species here. First, there was a lot of the bright green algae (which marked the high tide level) as well as rockweed, which was larger here than at the Barking Crab (observed the other day). There were also a lot of barnacles here. I was able to tell that these barnacles were the Northern Rock Barnacle (Semibalarus balanoides) because when you looked at them closely, they had a very scalloped edge, which is the major difference between the two types of barnacles that are found in Boston. One of the other really common organisms that I found were Periwinkles. These periwinkles (small snail shell) were very dark in color, ranging it seemed from brown to black. This showed me that these are the Common Periwinkle (Littorina littorea). There were also some hermit crabs as well as other crabs in these tidal pools. There were lots of little tiny baby Green Crabs (Carcinus maenas) that I could identify because of their intense green color. There were also a couple Asian Shore Crabs (Hemigrapsus sanguineus), which I could tell because of the reddish color of the shell along with the red spotted claws and banded legs. There were also lots of different shore birds (and seagulls of course) flying around the beach area. Finally, there were a lot of Steamer Clam/Soft Shell Clam (Mya arenaria) shells, but only shells. The reason that we only found shells is because clams live in the subtidal zone, and tide pools are in the intertidal zone. So the shells were left over from some animal’s meal and moved by the waves and tides.

After having lunch (in the shade!), we went further down the beach to our second tidal pool area. Before getting there, Professor Berman asked why there are fewer tunicates on Lovells Island than there used to be. This is because these tunicates start swimming, smack into rocks and then attach themselves. But, they can be knocked off and things can keep them from attaching. Storms are also a big reason of why there are fewer. But, besides the same organisms as in the last tidal pool (hermit crabs, rockweed, periwinkles, crabs and barnacles) but we did see some tunicates. Because of the bright orange color and colony living as well as flower shape, I identified this tunicate as the Orange Sheath Tunicate. This is one of the tunicates that we found at the Barking Crab the other day as well.

After finishing in the tide pools, we walked back to the Belle. But along the way we found a few terrestrial snails. We had seen some snail shells before while we were on the beach on the rusty old wheel (or whatever it was). These shells were broken open and we were unsure as to why. And what exactly these shells were. Upon seeing the live land snails we discovered that these are terrestrial land snails, not periwinkles as originally thought. Upon even further investigation we discovered that this snail had a stripe on its shell, a darker black stripe than the rest of the snail shell, which was a lighter brown and creamy color. When I was researching these snails, it seems to be be a white lipped snail. We then headed back to the Belle to head back to the docks.

On the way back we dissected the large striped bass aught earlier today. Captain Charlie started by slitting it down the backbone and creating two filets (one from each side). We could tell this bass was a female because there was a lot of roe in the fish. Also, in the stomach of this bass there was some shrimp (shrimp seems to be a common food for these bass). Overall this dissection was very informative. We also learned on the way back that Flounder, in this case Summer Flounder or Fluke (Paralichthys dentatus) start with their eyes together at the top of their head, but then the eyes migrate to either the left or right side of their head, creating virtually two different species of flounder – right eyed flounder and left eyed flounder. Oh, and I also got to drive the boat part of the way back... That was so fun!

Our final question is how are Lovells Island and the docks at the Barking Crab similar/different? It seems to me that they are very similar. There are similar organisms in both areas, making them seem very similar. But, there were more plants at the dock than on the island. This could be due to increased wave action on the beachfront than on the bottom of the dock. However, in my opinion, neither the docks at the Barking Crab  nor Lovells Island is necessarily more diverse or healthy. Both the environments are diverse and very healthy, they’re just different. There will be different organisms that are on the docks because the docks are closer to a large population of people whereas Lovells Island gets more wave action. But that doesn’t make it any better or worse.

Overall today was a wonderful day and I can’t wait for the adventures that are to come! I have had so many remarkable experiences so far, I can't wait for them to continue. Swimming today and looking at all the fascinating creatures was definitely the major highlight of the day. I also loved not only being on the boat, but driving it. That was my other major highlight.

Day 3 - The Docks

Today we spent the day wandering around the harbor, looking at different sites, analyzing the habitat and the life that was present therein. We needed to fully understand the area that we were looking at. The first thing that we had to keep in mind is that this area of the harbor sees a lot of human traffic. So, there will be trash and signs of human activity. If you look in the right places though, those signs are harder to see and truly allow life to thrive. I’m not saying by any means that the sites we looked at were in bad shape or that the bay is extremely polluted or anything of that sort. I’m saying exactly the opposite. Though we take care of the Boston Harbor extremely well and keep it very clean, there will still be signs of human traffic, things that we can’t erase. But organisms learn to adapt and learn to thrive in the environment they have available to them.

The first observations we made had to do with the general environment. The date is July 14, 2013. The temperature was in the 80’s (Fahrenheit), and there was little to variable wind (much to many people’s dismay as we walked along the harbor). Now, looking itself, at our first site at Long Wharf at Christopher Columbus Park, behind the Marriot Long Wharf along the rocky seawall, the water was fairly clear, allowing us to see about three to five feet deep. We started at this location at 9:55 am. Today, low tide (one of them, as Boston Harbor has semidiurnal tides) was at 10:04am, so we were pretty much looking at the water at low tide. After making those general observations, we were then able to look deep into the harbor and observe the life that was present and make observations. So, the setting is a rocky seawall with a small rocky beach with rocks ranging from pebbles to cobbles along with some sand. The first thing that was recognized was this plant-like seaweed on the shore. It was brown/black in color and seemed to be on a lot of rocks that would’ve been covered by seawater during high tide. We soon learned that plant is what is commonly known as Rockweed, or Fucus vesiculosus. One of the unique features of rockweed are the small “poppers” that are present on the plant. These poppers are actually air bladders. We also learned that rockweed is a sign of good water quality because rockweed doesn’t grow in extremely polluted areas. We also saw some green leafy seaweed and some reddish/purple seaweed. These all were in the water, with some on the beach as well. Something that we only saw outside of the water a bright (and darker) green mossy material. We saw this at other sites as well and more clearly saw the two different colors. These two colors do not mean that they are two different species though. These might be the same species, just one gets more sunlight than the other, therefore one is a lighter green and the other is a darker green. This looks to me to be some sort of green algae. While we were looking at the site we also saw a couple crabs, and then a seagull, which proceeded to eat these two crabs. Now the crabs were too far to specifically identify what species they were but they were most likely either green crabs or Asian shore crabs based on the reddish brown color. The seagull was more specifically a ring-billed gull (Larus delawarensis), which is a common medium-sized gull. Also, along the beach there were a lot of different shells, most commonly blue mussel shells and clam shells. The way I was able to tell that the mussel shells were blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) is because of the elongated ovular shell and dark blue/black/purple color. Blue Mussels are very common in Boston. The clamshell was harder to identify because of how far away we were, but my best guess would be that it was a soft-shell clam, also known as an Ipswich clam (Mya arenaria), which are common in the area. After this introduction to detailed observations, we moved on to our next site along the harbor.

We then moved on to something called a “Switchback Dock”, which is a floating dock that has two access ramps on it. One is better for high tide and the other is better for low tide. The ramps make it easier for handicap-able people and people with strollers to get onto the boats for cruises and such. The ramps move up and down as the tide raises and lowers the dock. While we were here we made observations again. Here, the general environment hadn’t changed (same weather and visibility conditions as before), but what I noticed was different is that the water bottom seemed more clay-like or muddy. While here we saw some of the same things as earlier, but also some different things. We saw floating rockweed, the same reddish brown seaweed as before, green algae and some crabs. The main difference here was that there were barnacles (small white hard organisms that attach themselves to hard materials, like rocks and such) and a bright orange organism that we had not seen before. But, we weren’t really close enough to be able to tell exactly what it was. Maybe we would see it later on in our journey.

As we continued to walk along the harbor we saw a group of five molting Mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos), two chicks and three males. They didn’t seem to be fazed by our presence at all. We then continued to walk around the wharf and on the South of Long Wharf, next to the Frederick L. Nolan Jr. boat we fed a large Striped bass (Morone saxatillis), which was really fun to see. As we continued to walk, we not only saw more things in the harbor, but we learned about the buildings on the harbor as well. For example, we learned that Harbor Towers is the last building that was built on the harbor that doesn’t provide a public use on its first floor (like a restaurant or coffee shop or something). I found that very interesting. We also learned what the intertidal, subtidal and benthic zones are. The intertidal zone is the area that is above water at low tide and under water at high tide. The subtidal zone is the area that is always submerged, even at low tide. The benthic zone is the bottom-most layer of the ocean.

The next major place where we stopped was at Rowes Wharf, where we looked at the pillars under the dock as well as a rope that was covered in life. On the pillar that my group chose, the top of it was covered in barnacles, but because we are so far away it is difficult to tell the exact type. My guess is that the barnacles were the Northern Rock Barnacle (Balanus balanoides) as they are very common. But, I don’t know for certain as I was too far away to look at them close enough to make an accurate prediction. It could have been both types of barnacle that are common to the Boston Harbor. While here we also saw live blue mussels attached to the pillar along with more green and brown algae. Again, the orange organism was seen here. There was both orange and a pale yellow organism here. While I was too far away to observe it closely, I was able to determine that these two organisms were Tunicates. Later I was able to finally identify the specific tunicate types that were present.

We then continued around Rowes Wharf (seeing some sea stars on other pillars we walked by) to look at rope that is attached to the floating dock, but has been lowered into the water to allow organisms to flourish here. On this rope there were lots of blue mussels and more of the orange tunicates and brown algae. This rope was very compacted, but shows a diverse community within the water. Every year more organisms add on to the rope, and after roughly two years of being in the water, the rope would be too heavy to even lift out.

Finally, we continued on to the docks at the Barking Crab. This was the last site that we visited this day, and the site where we were able to finally get up close and personal with the organisms we’ve been seeing all day. On the plastic underside of these docks, there is an abundant community of marine plants and animals that thrive here. Many of the same species that we had all been seeing all day were present here as well, but it was much easier to officially identify the organisms around us. First, there was some reddish/purple (red algae, Grateloupia turturu) seaweed along with the bright green leafy seaweed we had seen before. This green seaweed looks an awful lot like lettuce. Interestingly enough, the actual name is sea lettuce (Ulva lactuca). It really looks like the lettuce that you can buy in the store. Along with those two seaweeds, there was the same brown algae on he dock that we had seen before. Attached to the side of the dock were many blue mussels (both alive and dead). But, when pulled the mussels off of the edge of the dock to closer examine them, there were little, what seemed like bugs, that were crawling all over it. These were not bugs. They almost looked like mini crawfish. In actuality these were what I believe to be Red-Eye Amphipods (Ampithoe rubricata). These little amphipods were a grayish, brownish green in color and extremely small. There were tons of them too. They seemed to be a very common species on this dock. They had two really long antennae that were about the same size as the body (which is really small in general), 7 legs and two larger claw legs at the front. This to me matched the Red-Eye Amphipod description. There were also these flatter organisms (again insect sized) that were floating around. They were a blackish brown color, with seven legs and two antennae. This to me seemed to be a Northn Sea Roach (Ligia oceania). These also seemed to be in abundance and were floating all around. Finally, I was able to identify and closely look at the two different types of tunicates that we had seen earlier. The orange tunicate was a larger shape, with small little colonies all grouped together. When you closely look at this tunicate, it looks like there is a clearish jelly that encases these flat smaller orange flower shaped organisms. This is what is known as an Orange Sheath Tunicate (Botrylloides spp.). The yellow tunicate was very similar except the flowers were yellow and more spread out, still in a colony though. This is a Golden Star Tunicate (Botryllus schlosseri). Finally, while we were at the dock, Professor Berman caught a crab. We were able to identify the crab as a Green crab because of it’s darker brownish green color and slightly bumpy shells towards its face. We were also able to identify it as a female because when you flip the crab over, it’s underside had a broad triangle, which indicates that it is a female. Males have a much smaller triangle, that is more line-like. Now though Green crabs are thought to be native, they are actually an invasive species. But, they have been in the Boston Harbor for roughly 300 years, so it’s hard to differentiate the Green crab as a non-native crab.

Overall it was a fun filled day with lots of discoveries. Being able to be up close and personal with these intertidal and subtidal organisms is very fun and I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Day 2 - Harbor Cruise

Today, as a class we took a Harbor Cruise of the Boston Harbor Islands. This gave us our first look at the bay and the different wonders that we will be looking at through this class.
We started out at Long Wharf North, meeting outside the Mariott Long Wharf, where we took our first look at the actual ocean water. We looked over the side of the dock into the "dirty" water, where we learned that Boston Harbor has a semidiurnal tide (meaning two high and two low tides per day) as well as a nine foot high tide. As we looked at the water, Professor Bruce Berman asked what living thing we saw most of. Now, in the water, there was nothing but kelp (or so it seemed). But in actuality, the living thing that we saw most of was humans. We are everywhere. And it is us humans that have shaped the Massachusetts Bay to what it is today.
We then began our Harbor Cruise, seeing the Finger Wharfs/Piers, such as Commercial Wharf, Fan Pier, Long Wharf, etc. These Finger Wharfs are little juts into the harbor that look like fingers (peninsulas). We soon learned that this is the "City of Neighborhoods." All these neighborhoods are so close to each other, and yet everyone seems to think that they are more separated that they actually are and far away! East Boston is just across the harbor from South Boston, and yet to Bostonians that seems like miles and miles away.
As we went down the Boston Inner Harbor, we discussed why Boston's harbor was so appreciated. It was (and still is) appreciated because it is a deep, protected harbor. The Atlantic Ocean's right next door, but there's that little bit of space between the two areas and that comforts a lot of seamen.
The bay itself was sculpted out by huge glaciers centuries ago, that left the islands and other large rocks behind ("drumlins"). There were originally more islands than the 34 (or so) that presently exist, but the rising water level has covered them and reduced some into just small tops of rocks that now just peek through the ocean surface. Also, three islands were absorbed and combined and used to make Logan International Airport. (A very interesting fact I didn't know until today!)
As we continued next to Fort Independence, we saw Deer Island, the wastewater treatment plant that is 10 stories tall, where sewage is broken down so much that it becomes potable. Since Deer Island is part of Winthrop, the town gets to paint the plant whatever color it wants, so right now it is a cement grey color. Who knows what it will be next year at this time. While we headed in the direction of Deer Island we passed Spectacle Island (named as such for looking like a pair of spectacles) and went around the Head of Long Island. Also, we saw the Brewster Islands (outer Brewster Island, Middle Brewster Island, Great Brewster Island, etc…) off in the distance, past Lovells Island (home to Boston's only nude beach). These island haven't been really touched by man, so they are home to many intriguing species, such as the largest bird in New England (the Ibis I believe). Before we got to Lovells Island, we passed a Day marker in the called Nixes Mate. The story behind Nixes Mate is that it is supposedly where pirates have been hung in the past and there was a famous pirate by the name of Nix who was hung there and made the marker sink into the ground, so now only a little shows above the surface. We then passed Lovells Island (where we're going on Monday) as well as Gallops Island. Now Gallops Island was opened for a short period of time, before asbestos was found on the island. So now the island is closed. We finally stopped at Georges Island, where Fort Warren is, as well assome popular beaches.
While here, we learned that Quincy Bay has some of the fasted moving water because the water goes against the wind in that bay. We then departed from Georges Island and went through Hull Gut, passing Peddocks Island. Peddocks Island is long island and will probably split into three separate islands soon due to erosion and the rising water levels. After going through Hull Gut we passed through Hingham Bay, where we passed Nut Island. Nut Island used to be the second sewage treatment facility for Boston, but the pipe connecting it to Deer Island was cut off, so Nut Island is no longer a sewage plant island. Nut Island is connected to Houghs Neck, which is where public subsidized housing is. Problem with this housing is that there is really no public transportation and there are few to no resources there as well. So it makes it difficult for people in need to live there. We went through Weymouth Fore River to the Quincy Fore River Shipyard, where we went under a moving bridge (which is raised mainly for natural gas tankards). We also went by the SS Salem, a decommissioned World War II naval cruiser. We soon turned around and headed back the way we came to Georges Island and then back to Long Wharf. Along the way we saw many cormorants (not sure if they were Great or not). Cormorants are one of the only birds that have feathers that will get wet. Also, wherever cormorants are, there are likely to be lots of fish (specifically herring and striped bass).
Overall, I thought this was a informative expedition and good introduction to the bay. I had a lot of fun, as I typically do on the water, and I learned a lot about the bay that I didn't' know before! I can't wait to see what the next adventure is!

Karissa Vincent - Day 1

Hello!

My name is Karissa Vincent. I am currently a student at Wheaton College in Norton, MA. I am double majoring in Geochemistry and Music and double minoring in Arabic and Theatre. I am planning (and hoping) to go to Graduate school for a PhD in oceanographic research. The ocean is my thing. But, I have a wide variety of interests and do lots more than just study and swim.
I am originally from a tiny town in New Hampshire that I am fairly certain no one has heard of it's that small. Though I am from a small town, I still love the big city too. When I was young I went to Boston quite often, so I am familiar with the Boston streets.
I am taking this class because frankly, it looks like a lot of fun. I mean who wouldn't want to do an intensive oceanographic course in the Massachusetts Bay? It also gave me something constructive to do this summer besides work.

I have always loved water. I grew up on a lake, so ever since I was a baby I was in the water. Being launchind into the air out of the water by my parents is among my earliest memories. And as soon as I could walk, I was jumping in that lake myself. I was fascinated with everything that went on under the water's surface. The animals that live the under the surface, the different life cycles and processes that are going on, it all fascinated me. I remember the first time I went to the ocean with my parents I fell in love. It was something I'd only read about in books and it was so much better in real life. Running across the beach to jump into the waves and hearing the gulls and the waves crash just filled me with a joy that few things in life can duplicate. Since that first day of jumping in the ocean, I have seen that being under it and SCUBA diving is even more amazing than I could ever have imagined. Ever since then, the ocean has become one of my passions and one that I plan on pursuing for the rest of my life. I want to help save this amazing and fleeting resource that we have. The ocean is an amazing place, full of mysteries, and few people truly realize this. I hope that I can help the populous see the breathtaking commodity we have in front of us, and the necessity for preservation and conservation. In short, I love the ocean. It's where I feel at peace. Being under those waves, 30 meters down, I just feel at home. With the wonders that will never cease to amaze me and the comfort of the ocean around me, there's nowhere else I'd rather be.

The task today was to perform an experiment to see if water drains clockwise or counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere. To do this, we broke off into groups and gathered around a sink. There, one person put his/her hand over the drain (as there are no stoppers), filled the sink up with water, and then removed his/her hand to watch the water drain out. In my group, we did this experiment twice. The first time, we did not fill up the sink as much as we did the second time. After the first initial fill, we all thought the water looked to be going clockwise. We then repeated the process, filling the sink up higher and again determined that the water flowed clockwise.
In reality, there is no one specific way that water will rotate when it is drained out of a sink. There are a lot of factors that go into determining which direction the water will flow. As stated on snopes.com "Toilets and sinks drain in the direction they do because of the way water is directed into them or pulled from them. If water enters in a swirling motion (as it does when a toilet is flushed, for example), the water will exit in that same swirling pattern; as well, most basins have irregular surfaces and are not perfectly level, factors that influence the direction in which water spirals down their drains." This is because of something called the Coriolis effect. The Coriolis effect basically makes it look like the water is going down the drain in a rotated manner, when in fact it is going down straight, just the Earth's rotation and gravitational pull make it look different. Now, does this mean that water in the Southern Hemisphere (Australia for instance) flows the same? Seasons are flipped, so one might think that the water would drain opposite as well. This is not the case. As mentioned in Scientific American by Thomas Humphrey, water will drain the same just north of the equator as well as just south of the equator. So, there is no difference. Also, water doesn't always drain clockwise or counterclockwise. It depends on the size and shape of the vessel (be that sink or toilet) as well as the water's motion and other outside factors.

Sources:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-somebody-finally-sett
http://www.snopes.com/science/coriolis.asp
http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/coriolis.html
http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/glossary/coriolis_effect.html