Harbor Class Lovells Island Ted Williamson

Hello,

Day 3 in the field (trip to Lovells Island) was another beautiful day! 85 degrees, sunny and low humidity. I have been very impressed by the beauty of the Harbor! We identified more harbor islands, including Spectacle Island, Peddocks Island, Georges Island and Rainsford Island a/k/a Shutter Island.

(picture of Rainsford Island)
We pulled into Lovells Island, a 51-acre island, located just north of Georges Island.





It was low tide and we had the opportunity to explore the entire intertidal zone.

We hit the tidepools (always wet) and immediately saw signs of life.

The rocks looked small, but the habitat is huge for the animals we discoved. This is a crab's eye view as I snapped a picture from the shoreline.

We found and captured many animals.

A baby Northern Lobster (Audubon Field Guide)

A Green Crab (Audubon Field Guide)

Sand Lance (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Saltmarsh Snail Shell or a Mottled Dog Whelk (not a large Periwinkle Shell) (Audubon Field Guide)

Small Scallop Shell (Personal Knowledge)

Many different Tunicates

We also discoverd many other animals, including:

• New arrival (400 years) Rough Periwinkes (Audubon Field Guide)
• Long-clawed Hermit Crabs (Audubon Field Guide), some found homes in the shells of Periwinkles and smaller ones found homes in Auger shells (Audubon Field Guide)
• Bruce and another student found and ate a raw Slipper Snail!
• Sea Squirts
• Many differnt plants, including Rockweed and sea lettuce

After lunch we looked at shells that had holes drilled into them. What made the holes?

A Whelk made the holes. This is a term used to identify many types of middle-sized snails. Along with eating algea, snails eat shellfish using thier Radula "teeth". (Britannica)

We then went to land and discovered invasive land snails - Grove Snail (confimed Mr. Brennan's assumption by Wikipedia)

How are air-breathing Grove Snails different from sea snails?

Grove Snail characteristics: Based on "Land Snails of New England" by S. Morse

• Breath air through right side of body
• Need moisture
• Have foot to move and antenae for senses
• No ability to leave shell (tied to it by muscles)
• Hybernates when needed
• Can regenerate lost parts
• Lays approx. 100 eggs based on how their habitat can protect them
• Has many teeth

Periwinkle characteristics based on: European Invaders: Periwinkles

• Breath under water
• Active all year
• Lays 10,000 to 100,000 eggs
• Also eats invertabrates (clams, oysters, etc.)

Saturday's and Sunday's habitats had similarities:

• Both Boston Harbor shorelines
• Similar climate

But the habitats had more differences:

• Different depths
• One had a vertical tide, and the other had a horizontal tide
• Less interaction with human life at Lovells
• No shrimp or micro animals found in Lovells' tide pools?

Thanks.

Ted

Day 2 Post

The greek tailor sez to the greek who tore his pants. Euripedes? The greek replies, Eumenides? Well a heck of a day! The past two days. I was rendering a video and my computer basically blew up.

Here I am trying to catch up with two days of rocous fun and experimentation. I do mean fun and learning, I never had so much fun learning scientific methods. It's actually helped with my other papers I'm doing, (developing a hypothesis). Well back to day two at the Barking crab, this was definately a great time looking at brackish water on or rather under the docks of the Barking Crab. Group two was very prepared with numerous collection tools we were able to measure the depth, temperature, and various specimens underneath the dock with various tools we brought with us.

Our first stop was Long Wharf Marriott

where we observed at least two species of plant on the wall.

Our second stop on our trip along the walkway was at another wall where we did not observe much life growth on the wall and a hypothesis could be that the shade from the surrounding buildings was keeping it out.

Our next stop along our trip was at the Barking Crab. This is where we were able to gather specimens underneath the dock.

This will have to be continued on day 2 post cont. please look for it, thank you!

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.

Day 4 - Lovell Island

This is a picture of the bridge connected to Long Island. I took this on the boat ride out in the morning sometime after 9:30am.

Empty shells found with holes in them.

Barnacles cover rocks in tide pool on Lovells Island around 11:30am.

The shore on Lovells Island, notice the wrack lines.

A Grove Snail found in a tree, yellow shell with cream body peeking out.

Grove Snails also found in the trees more inland on the island, in both brown shell and yellow shell.

Only spot on beach where these empty shells were found.

Mussel of a slipper shell.

View in one of the tide pools (notice how clear the water is) of periwinkles, club tunicate, blue mussels, rockweed, and barnicles.

Today was another glorious day on Boston Harbor! A boat took us out into the harbor past Deer, Spectacle and Long Island. Such a clear day I could see everywhere! We went out onto Lovells Island and arrived sometime around 10:30am. It was low tide so we could see the wrack lines in the sand that show where the high tide reaches up to. It was sunny and warm, I think around 70 - 75 degrees. No humidity. The water here was much clearer than back at the Barking Crab. Part of the beach was sandy and part of it was cobblestones, side by side. We then walked to the tide pools. What a beautiful view and it was very exciting to go exploring with our partner and in groups. Everyone worked so well together sharing what they saw and caught. Helping each other by taking pictures so everyone could touch all the animals and vegetation we saw. I actually held so many more animals then I ever thought I would. There was a difference between today and yesterdays finds along the "shore line" around the buildings built up around Boston Harbor and the docks. I don't remember seeing any periwinkles yesterday. Yesterday I did see the Orange Sheath Tunicate, only in smaller amounts. Today I noticed larger quantities of it and lots of Club Tunicate. This tube-like animal came in different colors, yellowish-gray and reddish brown. I thought it was a plant until I looked it up. I am going to try and attach a video of me showing it squirting. It has a harder outer layer but the inside felt soft and squishy when I squeezed it. I got my information from the Audubon book but also looked at this website. www.mass.gov/czm/invasives/docs/invaders/s_clava.pdf

I think the reason we I saw more animals and plants out on the island is partly because there is less human "contact" out on the island and nature can just do what it should. No humans are building structures in the way and driving boats around. I saw ducks along the Boston shoreline but none on Lovells to eat things that try and live there.

We found a small Northern Lobster, see it once we set it free in one of my videos. Also found were Asian Shore Crabs. Knowing by now that I should question what Prof Berman tells us about the animals and plant life we have been observing, I tried to look it up in my Audubon book. Funny thing is that it isn't in there, so I decided to try the internet. I found this site www.mass.gov/czm/invasives/docs/invaders/h_sanguineus.pdf

Now this site said it was from the Guide To Marine Invaders In the Gulf of Maine. The picture was taken by Salem Sound Coastwatch. Guess it is the Asian Shore Crab. Brownish in color, eight legs and two larger claws in the front of the body. This is also non-native to this area. Incredible that so many things were brought here by humans. I think it would be cool to be able to go back in time before all this invasive species came here and see what was actually native and how where we looked would diff. Something to think about. I also saw Green Crabs which are now the most common crab in the Gulf of Maine. Like the Asian Shore Crab the Green crab is non-native. It is more greenish in color though with beige and blackish markings.

There was some of the Rockweed scattered here and there today but to me it seemed as if it was more concentrated in the intertidal zones I saw yesterday on the man-made walls like the one we saw at Long Wharf and Christopher Columbus Park. I saw lots of barnacles on both days. I didn't get a close enough look yesterday but the ones all over the rocks and some animals were the Northern Rock Barnacle. I looked it up in my Audubon book, it is a crustacea and the reason it was hard to count more than one and get the same number of plates was because when it is so densely packed onto things it's shape can become distorted. There was a much different variety of animal life in the tide pools then we saw in our groups at the docks of the Barking Crab.

After lunch Prof Berman, apparently still hungry, decided to show us all that he would eat the raw mussel from a slipper shell. I posted a video, see below. The shell was small, creamy white in color and the mussel clung very tightly to another shell. The mussel inside had a variety of colors from brownish to orangey. I found this on www.mitchellspublications.com/guides/shells/articles/0013/

Now for the snails I/we all saw. The Common Periwinkle Snail is in the Gastropoda class and is an intertidal species of a marine snail. It is non-native to this area and is considered invasive. It was introduced by humans. Some people actual eat them, although more popular in Europe than the United States. It was incredible to see all of the periwinkles so clustered together in the tide pool. It was 10:30am and low tide when we first arrived. There was an occasional few here and there that must not have been able to move fast enough when the tide was going out because they were stuck out in the air on rocks. Fear not, they will be safe! This black snail has a seal or opercle that seals it safe inside until high tide rolls in and it can be under water again. We had to take a periwinkle and hold it in our hand until it showed us what it looked like. We all took one and because they took their time coming out and showing themselves several of us decided to try Prof Berman's advice and sing, hum or just wait silently until it emerged. I sang to mine, not quite sure that's what coaxed it out but several minutes later out came the opercle attached to a brownish body. There was a tan "foot" that emerged and then two feelers that reminded me of antennae. One really cool thing about periwinkle shells was picking one up and finding someone else was living there, a Long-clawed Hermit Crab! According to my audubon book they are also a crustacea and are the most common hermit crab in the atlantic. One of their favorite places to live is an empty periwinkle shell. Think about it, nature has always been recycling!

Next was the Grove Snail, also in the Gastropoda class. Prof Berman found 5 empty, broken shells around one rock area. Why? I have been trying for two days to figure this one out! I have searched and searched the internet and have come up with nothing. I probably sound silly writing this but I wanted to acknowlege the question and would love to know the answer to this one! Anyone out there know???

We were to go off and find as many Grove (land) snails as we could. Crazy as it sounds, they were in the trees along the path. Due to the bands on their shells some people call them Banded snails. We found the yellow shell, brown rings, or bands, further apart and a whitish body, the same description only the brown lines were closer together. Brown shells with darker brown rings and a grayish/brown body. These snails were a lot lighter than the periwinkles and the shells felt more fragile than the thicker periwinkle shells. I had to look up information and used several sites. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grove_snail and www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Snail

Are the Common Periwinkle Snail and the Grove snail related? In the second site it did say that all are snails are related in the same way that all insects are related. They are very distant cousins. Some of these Grove snails were not as shy as the periwinkle (marine) snails in showing themselves to us. They came right out and started climbing all over both my and others hands. I had a harder time with the question of whether the grove snails were white-lipped or

brown-lipped. As with everything, it depends on where you look but I found on
Lastly, we were asked to find shells with what looked like holes drilled into them. I didn't find any but several people did. (see picture above) I found my information quoted below on

www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Snail#Lifespan that both the yellow shelled and the brown shelled Grove Snails are both white-lipped.

www.encyclopedia.com/topic/whelk.aspx

"Whelk large marine gastropod snail found in temperate waters. The whelk is sometimes eaten, but when food is plentiful, fishermen frequently use it for bait. Whelks are scavengers and carnivores, equipped with an extensible proboscis, tipped with a filelike radula, with which they bore holes through the shells of crabs and lobsters, and a large, muscular foot with which they hold their victims. The thick-lipped, spiral shell has an uneven surface with many protuberances. The knobbed whelk, the largest species, ranging up to 16 in. (40.6 cm), and the channeled whelk, slightly smaller, are both found south of Cape Cod, Mass. In summer the strings of pale, disk-shaped egg cases are common along the shore. The whelk is sometimes mistakenly called conch . Whelks are classified in the phylum Mollusca , class Gastropoda, order Neogastropoda. "
I know the quote above says found "south of Cape Cod". I found another site www.maine.gov/dmr/rm/whelks.html that states the Common or Waved Whelk is also found in the Gulf of Maine. I wanted to find a picture but I found several and since I didn't see any actually myself on the island I didn't want to post something incorrect.

Mary D

Observations from Lovell's Island

Hi Everyone,

Today was our first day getting out to the islands and in doing so we got a look at completely different bio-diverse environment and had all day to explore it. We got right into the tide pools and started to explore. Today I did a lot of things I have not done before - well touched a lot of things I never thought I would. There was so much life in the tide pools and because the environment was so different from the docks at the barking crab the life inside was too. The environment at the barking crab was brackish water and in an urban area - and the tide pools on the island were salt water and more open to the environment with less pollution and people around them.

We went to Lovell's island to do our exploration, although we did also stop at Georges island and Spectacle island just to switch boats and try out Summer Shack (which was also excellent). Lovell's island was beautiful & I cant wait to go back. It was previously used for military purposes and you could see remnants of old buildings and roads, although there are no cars or or buildings in use now. When we got to the beach it was strange to me to see a combination of rocks sea shells and and brick and pavement in the sand - definitely unique.

There were 3 main tide pools that were available to us when we got there. The tide was out and we had plenty of time to spend searching for life in the water. Each tide pool had some unique qualities, as the tide was moving in the pools closest to the beach had the warmest water since they were sitting in the sun longest. The ocean water that was flowing into the outer tide pools made them a bit cooler. The plant life in each of the pools seemed similar except for grass that was growing in only one of them.

Sea Squirt - Squirting

The first things we saw were the crabs - they were moving quickly and large enough to see from a good distance so they were the first thing to catch my eye. There were 3 types of crab that I believe I saw today: asian shore crabs , rock crabs, hermit crabs (I think it was the acadian hermit crab to be exact). We also saw a lot of other plant and animal life: periwinkles , sea squirts - which I found so interesting since they actually squirt water when lifted out of the water, mussels, clams, sea urchin shells, lobster, and tunicate - grey and orange in different areas, this had a hard shell and based on what I learned today contains a jelly substance on the inside, and I found a sea urchin shell but there was nothing alive in it anymore - the shell was very intricate, green and bumpy & it was very delicate and thin.

The periwinkles and crabs were the most common and the sea urchin was the least common since I only saw shells.

Tunicate

After we took everything from the water we broke for lunch and continued our discussion of snails. The periwinkles located throughout the water are a form of sea snail, but as we spread out for lunch someone discovered that there were also land snails on the edges of the beach area toward the trees. These snails seemed completely different to me in so many ways but in order to really find the ways they are different. My theory on how a group of these shells arrived on the rock at the beach is that some other predator - maybe a bird eat the snails and left the shells there on the beach. I did my research at home on how the snails were different and I asked some more science savvy friends of mine as well. The consensus was that the major difference is how they breathe. The appearance of the snails was also different - the land snail come further out of its shell and had longer antenna on its head. They also were more firm than the sea snails but the major difference was the breathing sea snails can breathe in the water and the land snails breathe in the air.

I have identified the land snails I saw as the white lipped snail also referred to as the helix albolabris as it is called in the Land Snails of New England document on the blackboard.

Then we were also asked the question of why some shells have a perfect circular hole in them. In the past I have seen these at the beach and the first time I saw them I thought that maybe there where shells people were making necklaces with that they threw back - obviously not the case - so this challenge was very interesting to me. The wholes are created from predators that are hunting the animals inside the shells. In Massachusetts this is most likely whelks.

See you all on Wednesday for some more exploration!
Katie Concannon

Barking Crab Observations

(Image compliments of The Barking Crab Restaurant)

We went to the Barking Crab to Observe wildlife in the Littoral zone. We observed some intertidal areas along the way to the Barking Crab.

The first Area we stopped at was the area right down by the ferry boats by the Marriott Long Warf Hotel. We looked at this area at around 10:30am. On a scale of 1-10 from clear to murky, the water was around a 3. There was oil on the surface of the water. This can most easily be from the high boating traffic in the immediate area. The water also had a dusty surface to it, which I believe to be pollen that has fallen on the surface of the water. According to pollen.com there was a pollen count of 4.4 which seems to be a good indication that the dust was probubly from this. This first area was observed from an above distance view. We were not able to have a closer view due to the area's inaccessabilty to safe close observation.

There were three main wildlife found at this first area:

We observed there to be these white rough patches. With further investigation, I believe these white patches to be barnacles. Due to the distance of observation, I was not able to decipher which type of barnacle it was, but, given the area, I believe the barnacles to be Northern Rock barnacle because these barnacles are the most common intertidal barnacle in New England.

We also observed green fuzzy-like patches on the walls of the area out of the water. In the water, there was a green grass-like plant waving in the tides. Given that the color of both dry and wet plants was the same color, I have come to the conclusion that they are the same plant. This plant i have determined to be called seaweed. Green seaweed is found in the shallowest zones on the shore and is in the Chlorophyta phylum of the Plantae kingdom. This particular seaweed observed because we were at a distance, I was not able to identify the particular species of green seaweed we observed at this site but later at the Barking Crab, I was able to get a closer look which I will talk about later in this post.

The other thing we observed at this same first area was a brownish branch-like plant. After observation and some research I have determined that these branch-like plants are also seaweed but a different type of seaweed. They belong ot the Phaeophyta phylum. They are common in the intertidal zone of Northern New England. They are dark brown and slippery when wet. Since we were observing from a distance I was also not able to identify the species of brown seaweed. (Some information I gathered about these two seaweeds was found from A field guide to economically important seaweeds of northern New England .)

We moved on to a second area before getting to the Barking Crab. This area was located between the Aquarium and Harbor Tower. We briefly observed the area at around 11:00am.

At this area we observed the same three plants as the first area but at this area there was much less green and brown seaweed and a lot of barnacles. Given that this area was inbetween two very large buildings and the area does not get much sunlight, I believe this is the reason why we do not see as much seaweed as previously. The seaweed needs sunlight to live. We also saw schools of small shiny fish in the water which I was not able to identify at this sight but later in my observations at the Barking Crab was able to assess similar fish which I believe could be the same as the fish observed at this sight.

After this brief observation we moved on to the Barking Crab. Along the way we had the opportunity to run into a staff member from NOAA, which is the National Oceanic and Atmosperic Administration. He was taking measurements to see that the machine which makes tide predictions and measures the tide was still accurately doing what it was supposed to do.

After this brief interaction we continued on to the Barking Crab, our third and final area for the day. We observed the wildlife in the littoral zone starting at around 11:37am. The area was a floating dock in the harbor right next to the Barking Crab. Where I took observations was in the corner of the end of the left dock that was still in the sunlight. At this area we were able to get much closer to the wildlife and plantlife.

Here is what I saw and what I believe it to be:

One thing I saw was a green, slimy leaf-like plant. It was kind-of see-through and attached to the dock in a way that it could wave in the water with the currents. I believe this lettuce-like slimy thing to be something known commonly as sea lettuce. Sea Lettuce, also known as Ulva Lactuca, is a green algae that is both a marine and freshwater algae. They are green because of the chlorophyll that the seaweed contains. These are New England Atlantic seaweed. It is very hard to distinguish between different species of sea lettuce and according to Michael Guiry's seaweed website, there is still a large debate as to the different species status. Below is an image I found of the seaweed and a quick sketch I drew on-site.

( Image compliments of the Blue Ocean Society from http://marinelife.about.com/od/plants/p/greenalgae.htm)

(sketch on-site)

The next thing I observed were little centipedian creatures. They seemed to have an exoskeleton curl up when they are out of water unless they are trying to scurry to safety, water. I seemed to have seen several of these creatures which were very similar in their body structures but different colors. After looking in the Audubon guide book I have determined these creatures to be the sharp-tailed isopod. The guide book says that these creatures grow to 1/2" long and 1/8" wide. The creatures I observed were a little smaller than this which means they are not fully grown. These sharp-tailed isopods come in a great variety of colors including both solid and mottled brown, gray and greenish, which are the colors that I observed. This species is said to be located from the Golf of St. Lawrence to Cape Cod, which is the area we are in.

Another thing I observed was a little shiny fish. This fish did not have any stripes and it was long and thin. With this description I have determined that this is a baby herring fish. Herring are bait fish. They are found in shallow temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans. The Atlantic herring, also known as Clupea harengus , is one of the most abundent species of fish on the planet. (Information gathered from wikipedia and the NOAA).

Another thing I observed which was attached to the sponge-like surface on the dock. It had a body which was very stick-like and it moved out into the water in a motion similar to a digging construction vehicle. From the Audubon guide book, I have determined this long-horn skeleton shrimp. These shrimp are 2 1/8" long and 1/16" wide. They are decribed as being "long, slender, arched and jointed". They can be tannish, reddish or almost colorless. The shrimp I saw was tannish. It lives on seaweed, hydroids and sponges. The shrimp can be found from Labrador to North Carolina. One thing I found interesting is that it is the largest skeleton shrimp in American Atlantic waters.

I also saw these shells attached to the dock. They were black with a little bit of blue on them and the shell was kind-of triangular. From the Audubon guide book I have determined these to be blue mussels, also known as mytilus edulis. Their shells are described as long, rounded triangles that are blue-black to black. They are 4" long and 2" high. The ones that I saw were not this large yet but I saw various sizes which makes me believe that they are still maturing. Blue Mussels can be found from the Artic to South Carolina. They usually occur in dense masses, which explains why I saw a lot of them attached to the dock.

The last thing that I observed was this wierd orange and red flower-looking thing. It had a glossy covering with a harder underneath. It had a dark outer shading with trails that lead to the center where there is also darker. The dark part was a redish color while the light part was orangey. After looking at the Hitchhikers guide to exotic animals, I believe these flower-like things to be a type of Ascidian known as a Star Tunicate, also know as Botryllus schlosseri. It is an invasive species from Europe. It can be found primarily in subtidal areas and it grows on rocks, docks pilings and ships. (Information also gathered from Guide to Marine Invaders in the Golf of Maine). The colors vary from green, violet, blue-black, brown and yellow.

Barking Crab Observations

This is what I found today the Barking Crab:

1. Green in color, about ½ a centimeter in size, and it was attached to a brown leafy plant. When I poked it, multiple legs were exposed. To me, it resembled a shrimp at that moment.
   

   My picture didn't come out that great, so thank goodness I drew a picture. Sorry, not a great artist…..
   

   
    

   Pic:
   

   
   

   A bristle worm, class polychaeta. Peterson Field Guide, pg. 190
   

   
    

2. Clear with hints of tan and brown, about 1.5 inches in length, and the top half makes fast paced movements mimicking dancing. To me it can extend to its full length and then fold into half of its size.
   

   Pic:
   

   
   

   Skeleton Shrimp, class Amphipod. Compared to a miniature praying mantis and can be very fragile. Peterson Field Guide, pg. 229
   

3. Clear and round. When poked with a sharp object, squirted liquid. When we removed the outer layer, or shell, we saw brown, yellow and white worm like particles inside. Seemed to be related to the jellyfish.
   

   
    

   Pic:
   

   
   

    Sea Squirt/Sea Grape, Molgula and Bostrichobranchus species. Peterson Field Guide, pg. 272

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Ted found and gave us a super tiny fish, about 2 inches….Thanks Ted!! It was green and yellow in color with a silver shimmer. A few minutes out of the water, the fish began to change color. It had lost its shimmery glow and the fins turned red.

 

Pic and Drawing:

Baby Herring

 

Plants discovered today:

 

Dark Brown/Black plant also found in the tidal zone on the tidal wall at Long Wharf. Believe it is also a seaweed species:

Could be Black Whip Weed, Chordaria flagelliformis, because it is mostly found in lower intertidal zones in fairly exposed places. Peterson Field Guide, pg. 30

 

Brown plant found at the Barking Crab. Believe it is, once again, a seaweed species:

It resembled a leaf of lettuce. It matches the sea lettuce listed in the Peterson Field Guide under the Green Seaweeds category, but my subject was brown. No mention that that sea lettuce can be found in different colors.

 

Underwater pictures

Hey guys I just wanted to put up a few of the underwater pictures that my group (3) took today at the Barking Crab.



-Luigi DiSisto

Day 3 Three Experience on the Harbor

SPOT 1:
Plants:
The wall had a line of green and black plants. Green plant appears to be Sea Lettuce and I am not sure about the black plant. The plants were in and out of the water as well.
There were also green mossy plants smeared on the wall which appear to be Spongomorpha.

Animals:
no animals were seen at this location.

SPOT 2:
Plants: Black moss against the wall but I am not sure what it would be.

Animals: Here there were some very small black fish swimming in packs around the corner of the wall area. The distance was great enough that I cannot tell what they were.

SPOT 3:
Plants:
There was again a moss substance around the intertiddle zone. The substance continues to look like the other moss substance seen in previous spots.
--Fernlike plant smothered by the insect-like species.

Animals:
--Jelly like substance attached to the Algae that looks like a Barnacle.
--Also, insect-like species that were thriving in the plants.
--Clear squigly fish or species that swam in the water and was about the size of a dime and bends in many forms.

Field Test Observations

Observations :

1^st stop

Within the Tidal Zone

1. Green Substance that grows rocks
   
   1. Prf said that it is seaweed
      
   2. It is stringy in the water
      
   3. Looks like moss
      
2. Brown Substance
   
   1. Branchy
      
   2. Looks dark when out of the water or dry
      
   3. D
      
3. Colony encrusted
   
   1. I do not think shiny
      
   2. Encrusted
      
   3. Looks pores
      

2^nd stop

No substance that is growing on the walls

There was a school of shiny fish

3^rd Stop Barracking Crab

1. Green substance
   
   1. Skin like
      
   2. Leafy
      
   3. Plastic
      
2. Brown substance
   
   1. More stringy
      
   2. And small branch
      
   3. Feathery
      
3. Shell substance
   
   1. Shiny on the inside
      
   2. Blue color
      
   3. Rough outside
      
4. Spongy substance
   
   1. Orange
      
   2. Bulbs on top
      
   3. Smooth on one side
      
5. Stick like creature
   
   1. 3 segmants
      
   2. Walked as though doing somersaults
      
   3. Horns on the head
      
   4. Clear
      

4^th stop Grassy lecture

Picture of the :

1. Orange
   
   1. Encrusted
      
   2. Many
      
   3. Flower like petals
      
2. 2^nd Orange
   
   1. One
      
   2. Bulbous
      
   3. On the shell
      

Hypothesis :

1. I think it is seaweed
   
2. I think it is seaweed
   
3. I think it is Barnacle
   
4. " "Another seaweed
   
5. " "Seaweed
   
6. " "Mussel
   
7. " " Sponge
   
8. " " Shrimp
   
9. " " I think it is a plant
   
10. " " Sponge
    

 

Source :

Alantic Seashore

1. Sponggomorpha
   
2. Sea Oak
   
3. Cup sacer
   
4. Sea lettuce
   
5. Wire weed
   

7 Sea Beard Sponge

Audubon

6. Mussel File Yolida

8. Anthpod Linear Skeleton & Scrod

9. Pacific Star Tunicate

10. Sea Peach

Filed testing day

The next Photos are the real time pictures

Day Three - Barking Crab Observations

Today we spent walking around the waters edge of Boston Harbor and viewing plant and animal life from Long Wharf & Christopher Columbus Park all the way to the docks by the Barking Crab. We looked at the intertidal zone at the area where Long Wharf and & Christopher Columbus Park meet. This was around 10:30am on 7/31/10 and it was sunny, I noticed a difference between the amount of the two types of seaweed found there and the lesser amount found at our second stop at the basin between the Aquariun and the Harbor Towers. Maybe there was less in the Basin due the the lack of sun because the towers are so tall and shade the basin. We then all walked to the Barking Crab, split up into our groups and started to explore underneath the docks. The life I saw growning underneath the docks by the Barking Crab reminded me of a high rise apartment building in the city, only it goes from the dock down into the water. There are different floors, the various vegetation attached to one another. Within the various vegetation are smaller animals living and growing. They all seem to work together to survive. I wonder how well this small world would work if just one of these organisms was taken out of the equation?

Plant Life:

The "top" of the grouping under the docks at the Barking Crab are sea lettuce. They were green in color and smooth in texture and attached directly to them were the Blue Mussel. I got my information from www.noamkelp.com/technical/handbook.html

The next "level" attached but growing underneath the sea lettuce was what appeared to look like a ball of hair or sticks. It was brownish in color but not spiky although it looked that way. When this was taken out of the water and set on the dock, I waited a moment and then noticed all of the Opposum Shrimp moving and "coming out" of hiding withing the seaweed. I have been trying to find out what the name of this seaweed is but, it is not in my Audobon book and the only thing I could find on the internet that was remotely similar was the Rockweed with thin branches and pointed ends. I found it on http://www.salemsound.org/bralgaekey.pdf and it did not say if it grows grouped together.

I feel like a failure with this plantlife. Either I am picking the wrong things to try and identify or I am not that good yet at finding things on the internet. Growing out of the cluster that I found underneath the docks at the Barking Crab were these long green seaweed like plants. They appeared to be attached to the other plant life as if all were living and depending on each other. See the picture above. I would really like to know what it as as it is now almost 2:00am and I still cannot find it.

Animals:

I found several different kinds of animals living within the seaweed under the docks. One was a Skeleton Shrimp. It is an arthropod and some were brownish and some seemed more clear. They reminded me of several different things. Their "jerky" movements when taken out of the water reminded me of a mosquito larvae. It has a very segmented body not quite unlike an insect, only more segments.

Another animal was another arthropod as well. It was another type of shrimp but an Opposum shrimp from what I found in my Audobon book. There were so many of them living in all the types different of seaweed. I didn't notice them while the plants were under water but once I pulled them out of the water and they were on the dock in the air they started "coming out" of the seaweed rapidly.

The Blue Mussel was quite interesting as well. I noticed them attached and hanging off of the green sea lettuce. The larger, older, empty shells seemed to be the place for "baby mussels" to start to grow. They were in clusters on the larger empty shells. In one instance one of my group mates pulled out a large stick like plant eh mussels were clustered all up and down the stalk.

My next animal seemed to be some kind of a jelly like egg. (Please see photo of it all green sea lettuce above.) I have been looking up the life cycles of these animals on the internet and still can't figure out what or who it belongs too. I'm so curious that I thought I would post the picture and see if anyone else could tell me if they found out what it was.

Orange

Last but not least are the two "orange things" found under the docks at the Barking Crab. The first was a spongy like substance that was living on and among the plants. In my Audubon book I found out this is the Orange Sheath Tunicates. In contrast to the greens and browns of the plant life and animals this orange color really stood out. I thought they were a plant but they are actually a group of organisms living and working together. They are also a source of food for some larger animals in the harbor.

Last but not least, God it's late I hope I didn't forget anything! The jelly like substance that was found on some of the Blue mussel shells that looked like it had a Gerber Daisy print inside of it. This I also found in my Audubon book as an encrusting animal. It is the Golden Star Tunicate. It grows in colonies and the jelly like substance it appears to "live in" is actually a thin, rubbery crust.

Mary D

Excursion to the barking crab

My drawing

fingerling herring vs. longhorned krill shrimp vs. skeletal shrimp (above)

rockweed (above)

http://www.worldwidereefs.com/ filamentous seaweed (above)

Just another beautiful day on the boston harbor. Well in the four point channel to be more specific. We started the day in front of Tia's and what I noticed more than anything else was a rock that was still immersed in the water but had a crown of bright green flowing seaweed like substance attached to it that was oscillating with the eb and flow of the water. Upon further investigation I found evidence to support it is the filamentous seaweeds (picture above). At first I was going to report that it was hollow green weed which is similar but has a thicker body and is hollow on the inside, but the description of filamentous seaweed fit better. The field guide describes them as "threadlike, single stranded or branching, range in thickness from that of an individual fiber of absorbent cotton to that of [an] ordinary paper clip." What really changed my mind was that it "{attaches} to rocks or wood in the upper intertidal zone" where I observed it.

The two other plants I encountered were on the dock of the barking crab. The first was some sort of sea weed varietal. It thin paper like branches with a narrow origin which widened and created a sort of Y shape as it got closer to the bulbus heads which had small bumps. It was dark green in color with lighter green bulbs. The field guide mimics my observation and I can safely identify this plant as some species of rockweed.

The third plant was large pieces of water looked like bibb lettuce which were securely attached to the side of the floats under the dock. They're color was an unmistakeable bright teenage-mutant-ninja-turtle green. It's texture was smooth to the touch without being overly slimmy. It was somewhat translucent as well. According to the field guide this is Sea lettuce.

Animals:

The little shrimp looking thing that was about 1.5 inches long seems to be a Horned Krill Shrimp but the field guide says that "microscope study is required to distinguish between species." It is "considered the most common species in the gulf of maine."

The little guy who had his head lodged in the spongy green growth around some sea weed reminded me of coffee swilingly gangly aliens from the men in black. From that detailed description I surmised that it was a skeletal shrimp (that and our group analyzed our observations together and came to that conclusion). I didn't observe very many animals but I analyzed a couple in depth and this guy was one that I wanted to look into so I wasn't going to leave him out of my blog.

Day 3

Plant One Observation: The first plant I observed is close to the color of emerald green, looks leafy, appears to be fragile but feels a little thick as if it could with stand some sort of pressure or force without easily breaking, and lastly, it resembles the lettuce found in the grocery store. I found information about this plant at, http://www.britannica.com/EBehecked/topic/530598/sea-lettuce which states, "a genus of green algae usually found growing on rocky shores of seas and oceans. The thallus, which somewhat resembles a lettuce leaf, is a sheet of cells up to 30cm (12 inches) long and two cells thick and is embedded in a tough gelatinous sheath." This website confirmed my thoughts about what type of plant I viewed to be correct.
Plant Two Observation: Secondly, our first stop, near the Aquarium, along the rock wall I noticed from a distance what appeared to be white shells covering the rocks. I later confirmed this to be called Northern Rock Barnacle. Confirmation confirming the name of this plant was found in the field guide to seashore creatures. Giving a description it states, "1"high, 1/2" wide at base. white. Seen at low tide, coating rocks." The habitat was described stating, "on hard objects; from between high and low-tide lines to below low-tide line in shallow water."
Plant Three Observation: Lastly, I found a reddish-brown plant which i believe to be called red algae. It was found near the Barking Crab, below the dock, and I have not been able to find evidence to confirm my claim.

Animal One Observation: Animal one was very interesting to me because it was the first of its kind that I actually was looking to observe, identify, and not eat. It was a baby crab who was alive, and against its will my group members took turns allowing it to frantically crawl in our hands. It was easily identifiable but the only trick was to figure out its gender. The professor offered us guidance and it was determined that the crab was a female. The dead give away was the triangle shape found clear as day on the belly area.
Animal Two Observation: Animal two was definitely a mystery to me because it was one i've never seen before. it is lip stick red, resembles a shrimp in a sense, has an antenna, and about seven legs. Without a doubt I found a picture of it by accident in my field guide to seashore creatures. This animal is called Scud and my book describes it stating, "olive green or reddish in color, pairs of equally long antennae, seven pairs of walking legs, eyes kidney shaped, and tailpiece longer than wide, with deep cleft in middle." it also notes the habitat which states, "among rocks and seaweeds on open shores and in estuaries; above low-tide line and blow t water 100'deep."
Animal Observation Three: near the barking crab, below the dock, is where a sea of mussels were found. They were easy to identify because a friend of mine loves them while i cringe at the thought of eating one. All that I had observed were cracked open with all types of living things crawling inside as well as outside of the shell. I was also able to find a proper name for this mussel using my field guide to seashore creatures book which showed a picture of a blue mussel and I find it to be a replica of what I saw. My book stated, "its 4"long, 2" high. Long, rounded triangle. Blue-black to black with shiny periostracum." The guide also states, " it can be found attached to rocks, pilings, and almost any solid object; between high-and low tide lines."
Animal Observation Four-Last but not least, the animal that had me puzzled, was long, slim, and looked almost colorless was later found to be a Long-Horn Skeleton Shrimp. A picture of this animal was found in my field guide to seashore creatures and was described as , "long, slender, arched, jointed, tannish, reddish, or without color." My book also states, "the Long-Horn Skeleton Shrimp can be found on places like seaweeds, hydroids, and sponges; from low-tide line to water 7450 deep.

-Kenya Scott