Seaweed, striped bass, crab cakes, oh my!

Long-Horn Skeleton Shrimp: These guys were by far the creepiest and most common thing I encountered under the dock. Their long spindly bodies seemed to find their way onto every piece of seaweed, empty mussel shell, and stationary submerged object. When picked up out of the water, these shrimp would lash out their tail section, revealing their long red tinted form and "grasping appendages." (National Audubon society Field Guide to North American Seashoe Creatures, Meinkoth) I was able to match pictures I took to pictures in my guide book, which also stated that these creatures can be found "on seaweeds, hydroids, and sponges from the low tide to water line" along the Atlantic Coast. (Meinkoth)

Orange Sheath Turnicate: The mysterious orange things! I found this colony of orange clusters at the first dock we visited. The smaller clusters were less than an inch long while some of the bigger ones I spotted appeared to be about 5 inches long. They were attached to the underside of the docks mixed in with the sea lettuce.

(Golden) Star Turnicate: This black and white colony of ovular organisms was found in the brackish water near the dock by the Barking Crab. The defining characteristic that helped me determine this was a Star Tunicate was the white star like pattern at the center of the black jelly-like spheres, which matched up with the finding in my field guide. The description of this animal stated that they are found in brackish water, attached to pilings, seaweed, and other solid surfaces. This animal did not move on its own when removed from the water and after a few minutes began to perish from being out of the water, shrinking from its original form.

Sea Lettuce: The long, translucent, wavy leafy green that appeared similar to real lettuce is called sea lettuce. This plant can be found free floating in the water or attached to rocks and docks. Although I could not find this plant in my field guide, according to the Rhode Island Habitat Rehabilitation, "sea lettuce is often found in areas of exposed rocks and in stagnant tide pools" and "grows in both high and low intertidal zones." This source also explained that a large presence of sea lettuce is an indicator of nutrient saturated water since this plant thrives on sewage runoff and pollutants.

Rockweed: Rockweed was scattered throughout the pier and wharf structures we visited today, attached to rocks and walls that were stationary but not completely submerged under water. This seaweed was brown at the base and had clusters of 5-8 stems that branched off into lighter greenish yellow air pockets. These pockets allowed the plant to float at the surface and adjust its position with the receding tides so that it remained at the surface of the water, closest to the strong rays of the sun.

Blue Mussel: This species of mollusc was more commonly found hollowed out, attached to seaweed or turnicates and crawling with different varieties of tiny baby shrimp. My group and I found a live baby mussel and larger mussel attached to the pier by the Barking Crab. It was shiny blue and ovular in shape. We opened it up with a knife to reveal a pale yellow squishy organism with a muscle like body part running along the seam of the shell.

 ____________

Last year's photo of the underbelly of the harbor docks appears to be much less green than the sites I observed today. I see many colonies of Star Turnicates scattered throughout the area, which indicates that this site must be in brackish water. In all of the photos I have taken and seen of the harbor today, there was a thin, possibly 2 or 3 inch strip of green algae running along the edge of the docks where they meet the water. Unless the algae simply doesn't show up in this photo, it would appear that more has grown over this spring/summer season. In addition, there are large clumps of brown, black speckled algae like plants connecting everything on the dock, causing this section to jut out farther than the rest. There are also large shells mixed in there which might account for the volume of the section. Overall, this sample of last years growth seems less green but much thicker.

Please identify yourself...

I was very surprised to discover the diversity of organisms living on the floating docks of Boston Harbor.  This is some of what we found and tentatively identified:

1) Rock Weed - flat; broad; bladder-like air-filled sacs on the ends; Y-shaped forks.

2) Star tunicate - flat, star-like system; common in our area; whitish outline with clear or brown interior

3) Sea lettuce - bright green, ruffled, single broad sheet; common in brackish pools

4) Blue mussel - smooth bluish-black valved shell; violet inside; common in brackish water

5) Skeleton shrimp - pinkish-red; multiple segments; mantis-like claws; can stretch or collapse; tiny legs on final segments; abundant on fouling organisms

6) Orange sheath tunicate - number of orange stars compounded into a squishy mass; lives on docks

7) Northern rock barnacle - common in intertidal zone; plates are furrowed; white

8) Striped anemone - orange with numerous white tentacles

9) Spongomorpha - greenish-yellow; ropy and tangled

Much more that I was unable to identify:

A high-res picture of what we saw near the Barking Crab (very similar to the image on Blackboard of what others saw last year):

Docks of Boston Harbor

Today, we found many sea creatures under the docks. We put them in a jar and after lunch we tried to analyze them as much as we can. First, I thought it is difficult to find 10 species but at the end we threw away some of them. Here is the list of our group's list:

1. Grinelll's Pink Leaf: it is brown purple color, it has wavy shape, it is soft and thin
2. Sea Lettuce: it is green, thin and soft
3. Brushy red weed: it looks like a root with red and pink color. I think our weed is the variant of Brushy red weed.
4. Red Beard Sponge: Although the name is red but ours is yellow. 
5. Blue Mussells: It has black and dark brown color and oval shape, the inside of the mussel is white.
6. Horse Mussel
7. Sea Peach: We couldn't get any sea peach but we took the photo. It looks like a heart and it has orange shape.
8. Spongemorpha: I think it is grass. it has green color and sticks on the rocks.
9. Golden Star Tunicate: it has dark green color and it has white dots like stars.
10. Smooth Skeleton Shrimp: they are little and tiny animals.
11. Orange Sheath Tunicate

Gotta See It to Believe It!

Today's activities at Boston Harbor were very proactive and required lots of engagement. I had the experience of a lifetime; never did I think I would ever search for sea organisms in large bodies of water...multiple times. It was another hot day, but we got through it. We began our journey at approximately 10:30am and we noticed the tide had begun to fall. We observed the water for species at Rowes Wharf and the Barking Crab Dock.

Organisms discovered at the docks:

1) Star Tunicate - also in large colonies, white, ring-shaped from being submerged in water

2) Brown Seaweed - 

3) Bivalve Mollusks (Colony of Blue Mollusks) - several colonies observed at both Rowes Wharf and Barking Crab Dock - smooth, black/blue, hard shell

4) Purple Sea Urchin - seemed multicolored at first (grey, black, purple visible), spiny

5) Spongomorpha - 

6) Smooth Skeleton Shrimp - thin, about 1" in a length, very squirmy, pinkish-reddish color, slimy

7) Sea Squirt - a rope with diverse groups of organisms attached "fowling organisms"

8) Sea Lettuce - leafy, green

9) Periwinkle -the WTF is this orange stuff. Circular and felt squishy

10

We also caught a few good looks at some Striped Bass, one which appeared to be about 28" long. We saw lonesome male duck at the beginning of our tour waddling on the rocks before getting into water. We saw two black diving birds, Cormorants, at Gate 3 Dock of Long Wharf while we were throwing bread into water to attract any potential fish in the area.

The image of the dock on the Blackboard site does seem very similar to how we saw it today in person. However, the only difference is there seems to be a much more diverse culture of organisms living in the water. The only speculation I could come to about why I believe this as true is due to how very different the winter has been this past year (2011 into 2012) compared to (2010 into 2011). In 2010, there was much more snowfall than 2011. I came to the conclusion that the more snow led to the greater number of species dying off. Due to the fact that winter this past year was not as bad, organisms were able to survive and reproduce earlier.

Seaweeds, Tunicates, and Sea Squirts

Hi all!  My group found many specimens for today, but we couldn't identify them all!  Here's our best shot at twelve of the specimens.

 Found in both locations we stuck our hands into the water, these creatures are mussels.

 On top of one of the mussels, this mucous-y yellow residue is harder than it looks.  We believe it's a boring sponge.

 After many detailed readings, this brownish-when-wet, pokey yet rubbery specimen was determined to be graceful red weed.

 This creature was ovalish and originally looked to be covered in snot.  We peeled back this layer to reveal a darker brown, almost black covering.  We finally cut it in half and saw it's inner orange tubular shape.  We believe it to be an orange footed cucumber.

 This orange slimy thing is an orange tunicate. 

 This was snapped at the aquarium in the seals' habitat.  The pointy ball of spikes near the ground is a purple sea urchin.

 The creatures that squirted out the water are known as sea squirts.

 The skeleton shrimp were crawling all over this Bowerbank's Halichondria and mussel.

 This grass-like, stringy green mess was determined to be soft sour weed.

In the upper left, the small, crinkly, almost moss-like specimen is spongomorpha and the sea lettuce is the green lettuce-like specimen in the middle of the picture.

In the picture of the dock from last year, there appears to be many more species than this year.  The overall width of specimens on the dock is much wider, and there are many more colors of species than I saw today. My first guess as to why this may be different is that Emily (the person who let us onto the docks at Rowe's Wharf) mentioned that parts of the dock had been recently scraped.  Perhaps last year they did not scrape the sections as often, or at all.

-Danielle

On The Docks

It was another hot day in Boston as we set out to explore what lives beneath the docks people walk on each day.  There were many different species that call the docks home, some were easy to identify while others caused me to look at the organism, then look at my book, then back again, repeating this process over and over.  You could spend a great deal of time looking at all the different forms of life that reside on the floating docks, and just in the short few hours we spent searching, ten species tallied up rather quickly.  Here is what I was able to come up with...

(My handy cap comes in technology so if you're looking for a picture blog you've come to the wrong place.)

1. Typical Rock Weed- Attached to the rocks and has pods at the end of each strand that when popped release a clear gel.

2. Stripped Bass- Unfortunately this fish was not caught, however I would have loved to stay and haul that sucker in.

3. Sea Urchin- Had I been in charge of naming this I don't think Urchin would have been the name to choose.  It is a round creature that contains many thorn looking objects coming out.

4. Irish Moss- A redish looking seaweed that has branch looking shapes on it.  When you Google Irish Moss it seems more of a healthy plant than anything else.

5. Orange Seathe Turnicate- My first guess was fish eggs, second guess was a sponge and I never actually guessed it to be a Seathe Turnicate.

6. Blue Muscle- Likely the most abundant thing I saw today.  They were attached to everything we observed, some were no longer in their shells while others were.

7. Zostera Marina Linnaeus- A grassy looking seaweed that is flat and long.  It has the same design as a very long blade of grass.

8. Skeleton Shrimp- Whenever you pulled off a large chunk of seaweed, muscles and whatever else was attached, skeleton shrimp were small praying mantis looking creatures that lived in the mud.  Funny looking critters if you watch them move around.

9. Barnacle- Which are the tiny white objects that are attached to every pillar or rock in the water.  They are sharp on the top, and don't even bother trying to take one off because they are stuck on tighter than anything.

10. Sea Lettuce- Green, salad looking plant that just drifts with the tide.


Those are my ten species that I identified.  I'm looking forward to tomorrow and spending the day on the island!

-Clark

Hello again Harbor & Sea Comrades,

This morning we began the field trip with a lecture on the Boston Harbor ecosystems by Professor Berman, his passion makes the more interesting and informative. He spoke about the main inhabitants of the Gulf of Maine, the different sea species and their migratory habits.

It is so nice to know that we have  a law  called  chapter 91 of our great Commonwealth that guarantees the public access to the natural treasures of our seacoast. I learned that the area between low tide-high tide is in the people's ownership and no private proprietor can stop you, kick you out, nor egoistically enjoy the beauty of the coast because if his or her financial power. Thank you for the Obstructionist  Art if that even qualifies to be called art. Not only science but i am learning about law...I think this is very important. I am glad you shared this with us Professor.

Again the tour began along the harbor at 10:30, the tide was receding in the left dock of Marriott Long Wharf which is  a man made one with concrete and large stones. the Fauna and Flora there consisted of a lonely bachelor duck who seemed to be in bad mood, shape and state. I observed two different types of seaweed, Rock weed and dark green weed sharing that corner of the harbor with floating oil and what seemed to be polling.

Directly in Front of the Chart House Restaurant, Professor Berman had a pleasant surprise for us which he was diligently preparing for the last 2 weeks, that's what he said and I totally believe him. We spent a good time there with our fellow tourist enjoying the cool striped bass picking on bread provided by Mr.Berman. The fish looked healthy and I really was imagining a grill next to me as I would cooked it for all of us.
There were green seaweed on the sides of the floating and built in docks, orange peaches, mussel's and clams, also there was a native Boston Cormorant a very smart bird that's trained to fish for humans in the Far-East and Macedonia. We then proceeded to the New England Aquarium where we spent  little time with the happy seals, a purple sea urchin, sea whip of different colors, rough hallow weed and what appears to be barrel weed(cactus like).
Then we continued our tour along the floating dock off the Boston Harbor Hotel, a very pleasant lady named Emily welcomed us there. To me that was the most interesting dock, because I was  able to grab stuff with my bare hands and use China's golden magnifying glass.
The living organisms to naked eye were amazing, never knew the complexity and beauty of life as I have today.
I am so glad for this class, because now I know and understand the meaning of we are the Custodians of Nature and if we do not act as a people to protect those who can not speak up for themselves,efend themslves , then shame on us.
I am in love with harbor and of course  those dedicated activist whom we should thank for this clean and safe harbor. I am not blowing Mr.Berman's pipes, but you are a hero, of mine at least.

To the final question of a list of what I discovered in the docks:
1. Sea Lettuce or Ulva Lactuca, ruffled or lobed sheets, usually unattached

2. Spongomorpha, it is filamentous in ropy tangles.

3. Dumont's Red Weed, Dumontia incrassata.Coarsley branching, axis and branches hollow and twisted at ends.

4. Micruran Nemerteans, Micrura species. A worm, head grooved lenghtwise, mouth on uderside round. No eyespots.

5. Pink Shrimp, also known as Penaus duorarum.first three pairs of walking legs have small claws.

6. Mantis Shrimp also known as Squilla empusa, short carapace, mantislike claws, 3 pairs of weak walking legs.

7. Hairy Hermit Crab also know as Pagurus arcuatus.

8. Purpil Sea Urchin, Arbacia punctulata.

9. Little Cockle

10. Blue Mussell

11. Yellow skinny shripms.

I am certain that there much more than this.  I did not find much of a difference between the dock's photograph on blackboard and the actual docks we have visited today. Although the rope pulled out from the Boston Harbor Hotel's dock was much richer, fuller and busier with organisms.

Good Night and thank you all,

Amine.

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.

Under the docs in Boston Harbor

Today we had an interesting day looking under the docs at Boston harbor. I never thought that we could find so many of sea species under the docs. My group and I found some amazing species of every shapes, size, colors that lives under the docs.

Here is the list of species that we found:

 Grinnell’s pink leaf : my group description (brown, wavy, soft and jelly)

      Sea lettuce : (green, flat, thin and soft)

3       Brushy red weed : (orange pinkish, looks like a root and at the bottom it has a little head)

4     Red beard sponge : (yellow, thick, feels like a sponge)

5      Blue Mussel: (oval shape, black and dark brown, it has a white pearl color inside.

6     Sea Peach : (orange, it has a heart shape)

7     Spongomorpha : (it’s green and looks like a grace)

8     Orange sheath tunicate : ( orange and round, it has little star shapes inside)

9     Golden star tunicate : ( brown and darkish green, it has white dots)

1     Smooth skeleton shrimp : (it is a little tiny shrimp and it has no color)

I didn’t see a lot of difference from the doc that I saw today and the picture of last year. The doc that I saw today has more mussels than the doc from the picture.

boston harbor observations

If it is asked me what are the plants and animals that I saw today in the harbor, I would say grass, bird and fish. Since it is not a sufficient answer for the course content, I will try to differentiate them. And after summer term, they will go back to their classification; grass, bird and fish.

Firstly, we again tried to understand whether sea level is rising or falling. We look at the rocks whether they are wet or dry in order to understand the sea level is rising or falling. There, we saw rockweeds and we had chance to look closer and we saw that there were water bubbles on the rockweed.  We saw a fish that is approximately 27-28 inches tall. We threw bread to see those fishes. Also, in the same location we saw cormorants, one of them was black and the other was white. One of them dived in the water to find food.   

Then, we stopped by the aquarium and there was a sea urchin located at the bottom of the aquarium. It couldn’t be seen clearly because of glass and the distance but its color was dark, probably purple or black.

After that, we went to the harbor and we observed the species that we can see on the surface or near surface. Sea lettuce and seaweed existed almost everywhere we observed. Their color was mostly green, brown or a mixture of them.

Also we saw white barnacles on the pillars. After sunset, they open and eat planktons in the water, but under sun light they are tiny white creatures, I didn’t guess that they were living organisms at all.

We walked along the harbor and we had opportunity to observe living organisms in different parts of the harbor. In one of those parts, we saw mussels behind the seaweeds and sea lettuce. They were black and were embedded to the other organisms, or I saw like in that way.

Finally, I can count skeleton shrimps which surprised me, it looks like plant but they started to move after we put them on the wharf. They were tiny creatures and I guess they had a few legs, their color was light yellow. There were orange parts near those shrimps but I couldn’t understand what it is.

To compare with the previous year’s posts, I can say that there are very similar results. The reason of it may be the sea level did not change much from year to year, or there weren’t any extraordinary events that affect the variety of living organisms in harbor.

Alper

DOCK BOSTON HARBOR (THIRD CLASS)

Today we arrived that Boston Harbor at the Aquarium at 9:00AM. The professor gave us a lecture outside of the Marriot Hotel. The professor was giving us the lecture when a security from the Marriot Hotel come to tell us that we were not supposed to be there because it was only for Marriot Hotel’s customer. The professor talk to him and later in the day he explained that it is a public space and that may be the reason why the security man did come back.

We start out walk thru the Boston Harbor rails by making few stop to observe the species that lives in the tides lines. First we stop at the place in the Aquarium were we took out boat yesterday and the tide was high this time. The professor says was may be around 9’ and it started to slow down a little bit because I was able to see some rock that were wet. Our homework for today was to observe the species write or draw about it, and at the end we discussed our observation and we identify our species with our guides book.

After lunch we eat we our group member to discussed our observation and identify them.

1)   Species had a pink and brown color. It looks like a romaine lettuces, it was soft, jelly when touched, and thin. We discuss with our team member and it was hard to find the same design in our field guide.  We decided that it look more like the Grinell’s pink leaf. I decided to double check with the information at Blackboard and it mention that at Boston Harbor it also has Irish Moss. This plant is similar to the Irish Moss. (plant)

2)   The second species is a green color, it is also a plant, and it has a lettuce shape, and is soft.  As a group and with the help of the guide we decided that it was a Sea Lettuce.

3)   Third specie is color orange and purple, it look like rotes and have head that were round at the end of the branches of the root. As a group we decided we were focused if it was a Brushy Red Weed or a Club Hydroid. I went home to look at our guide again and look at the information at Blackboard. We were not even close to the name of it. I find that the name was Crumb of Bread Sponge. I read the information on our guide and it seem that is very common in Cape Cop.

4)   The fourth was color yellow, it was thin, and it was sponge and had different branches. As a group and with the help of our guide we decided it was a Red Beard Sponge. In the guide it is mention that this sponge is one of the most common and recognizes sponges in South of Cape Code.

5)   The fifth was a clam, it had almost an oval shape, dark brown in the outside, and in the inside the color was white and blue. As a group we decided that it was the Blue Mussel. In the information at Blackboard it mention that blue Mussel are part of Boston Harbor.

6)   The sixth species was color oranges; it looks like a heart with two arteries.  We look at our guide and decided that it was Sea Peach.

7)   The seventh species was color orange; it looks like small circle with a point on in the middle. We decided that it was called Orange  Sheath Tunicate after looking at our guides.

8)   The eight had a dark green colors, it has the design of a flower that were next to each other. It also has color whites as branches. This is name Golden Start Tunicae. I read the guides and this kind of tunicae is found at Boston.

9)   The nine is a little shiny shrimp that it was very skinny and it was hard to identify. We decided that it names was Smooth Skeleton Shrimp.

10)                  The last one was color orange, it covers by a clean and jelly that protect the inside. As a group it was hard to identify and we find it was closer look with the sea pork. I can home to look more into the guide and in the blackboard information. It found that it was name it Sea Lace or Lacy Crust on Kelp.

I took a look at the pictures on blackboard about the Dock Section. It seem that it had a lot of species in one place. I don’t know if this photo was taken at the place were our professor show as a group of species that are together under water. It seem likes today we have more species if this it is the same place. I think that this is because as people keep taking more care of Boston Harbor species are living healthy and coming more freely to the Harbor by immigrating. 

My day with Seaweed

Today we spent the day at the docks, mostly lying horizontal, and looking at what we found attached to these docks. I was surprised at what we found! I will try to list some of the moments that stood out for me most. I was surprised to discover that when I plucked a piece of the dark leafy green seaweed off of the dock, it actually had tons of little tiny critters squirming around on them. These little critters looked like worms at first, but at a closer observation, you could see legs and almost antennae. I think they might have been vary young shrimp or maybe lobsters. Whatever they were, they had a prehistoric look to them, almost like they could have been tiny dinosaurs. Another cool moment was plucking off the mussels, also attached to the docks, in clusters, they too had tons of these squirmy things feeding off of them. It almost made me want to eat the seaweed- it looked so nutritious! I guess it was also pretty neat to discover that when you look closer and then, even closer, there were many different kinds of species of seaweed, contrary to what i assumed upon my first glance. There are Kale- like looking seaweeds, flat-ripply looking seaweeds, coniferous tree-looking seaweeds, spongy-mossy seaweeds, red seaweeds, furry -red looking seaweeds, and two-toned seaweeds, and then the very first seaweed we looked at when we started, had
bulbous ends that, when you squirt them, show they contain a clear gel-like liquid. Yummmmmmm!

We started our investigation at about 10, and we could see that the tide had already started to fall. The wind was blowing NorthEast, bringing in what looked like either pollen or maybe oil in swirls upon the water. We observed two diving birds......who knew that supper was just down below. I would say another highlight was when our classmate pulled the rope out of the water ( she was strong) and we observed clumps and clumps of fowling organisms clustered heavily along the rope and moving in all different ways. The ocean produces interesting choreography- even seaweed undulates. Another stand-out moment was when Professor Berman  through, first whole wheat bread out to the surface of the water, and then white flour hotdog buns...apparently striped bass prefer junk food cuz they went for the white flour bread. WOW! And they were BIG- approximately 28 inches long.

So now i will attempt to identify specifically ten of the many different species we saw today:

1.Rockweed- this was the dark leafy seaweed that had the sacs at the end filled with the clear gel.

2.Golden Star turnicate- this was the seaweed with purply white dottie flower looking pattern on it

3.Periwinkle- these were the orangy bulbous looking things

4. california mussels ( i am guessing this is the type of mussel we saw mostly- smooth and black on the outside

5.minnows- cute little buggers

6.Orange Sheathe Turnicate- that was the orange mysterious corally- looking piece

7.sea lettuce- looks just like what you would think- green and flat and leafy

8.spangomorpha- i beg your pardon....

9, green seafern- at least that's what i am guessing- because it was seaweed that looked like a fern, the plant

10. Longhorn skeleton shrimp- isn't this what those tiny little squirmy critters were?

Under the Boarwalk

Although I was late to class today, I did get to pull up some of the things living under the docks near “The Barking Crab”. The rest of the information I got was from my teammates telling me about their expierence and showing me pictures.

1. Sea Lettuce- This I found under the dock of “The Barking Crab”. I think it is a piece of Sea Lettuce, but am not convinced because the piece was about 4 inches long and string-like with many small groves on the sides. It looks exactly like something I have seen in seaweed salad and tried to look that up but didn’t come up with anything.

2. Golden Star Tunicate- I found this on one of the Mussel’s. It was squishy in texture and covered about half of the Mussel, containing “star-like” blue shapes all around that look to be about a ¼ of a centimeter.

3. Smooth Skeleton Shrimp- These seemed to be everywhere! They were small, maybe also a ¼ of a centimeter, they looked transparent with a skeleton inside. They moved all over my hand and also, while attached to the mound of stuff I pulled up stood straight up and constantly curled their bodies back and forth.
4. Sea Lettuce and Blue Mussel

5. Rock Weed

6. Orange Sheath Tunicate- I wasn’t able to see this personally but from a photograph my group took I am convinced, after looking in the Audubon Society
Field Guide, that that’s what this “Orange Blob” is.

7. Mackerel- Saw this fish when the very nice man showed up his bait.

It seems as though there were similarities and differences between what the group saw last year and what we saw today. In the post, “The Mighty Mighty Starfish” by Marriam, they also saw Blue Mussels, Orangs Sheath Turnicate, Sea Lettuce and Skeleton Shrimp. Another group saw something called “smooth burrowing” on the Mussels, which I didn’t see today. Also, in a post by Murat Arsia, their group saw the Sheath Turnicate, but the one I saw was blue, and the one they saw, in a picture on his post was orange. I’m not sure as to why we saw different things than the other group. I speculate that the weather, the temperature, or storms may have brought different things to the docks that we saw this year.

All pictures are courtesy of Chris and Brenda, my group partners.

-Liza Zipursky