Field Marine Study of Coastal Ecosystems

2009-07-23T10:08:00.000-07:00

Saw this on the web....sad, but interesting given our coverage of whales in the course. The picture is pretty incredible.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1192028/Pictured-The-largest-animal-lived--tragically-run-passing-ship.html

Atlanta Aquarium

2009-07-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

I went to the Jersey Shore for rest and relaxation after the class ended. Then I came home for a day and went to the "High Schools That Work" conference in Atlanta, GA. The weather was not as rainy as it was in Newburyport, but it was overcast and not as hot as I anticipated. One of the highlights of my stay was a trip to the Aquarium. It boasts being the biggest in the world, and I believe that is based on amount of water in the place. It had a great layout and tons of touch-tanks for the kids (and adults). The two coolest things were the giant tank that you go underneath the water and all of the fish are above you (incuding a whale shark!), and the tank with 3 beluga whales. One male and two females...the male kept on inverting and chilling out right in front of the glass...at one point he was clearly a male, and happy to see all of us! If you are ever in Atlanta, check it out.

Day 4

2009-07-02T18:00:00.000-07:00

I am blogging from CT, it took over four hours to travel what normally takes about three hours. The horrible weather that we have been having all week was waiting for me on the trip. It was until I hit the CT border and I hit about 4 or 5 different storms. Visibility was reminiscent of being out in the Merrimack...little to none.

(I apologize for not having pictures today, as I didn't want to soak my wife's camera in the deluge of rain that we had)

Our day started out rainy as usual today. We set out to go fishing for flounder. I was pretty excited to drop line. I enjoyed our time fishing today, even though I did little more than feed the fish. I had three different fish (or the same one 3X) on the line but could not close the deal. I was thankful for the rain pants that Rob lent me. It rained the hardest that it has all week. I can say that my spirits were not dampened though. I enjoyed a few good laughs with Rob and Marissa about Mike 93.7 and our anticipation of the upcoming Bruno movie...you have to love Sasha Baran Cohen, he is hysterical..."Very Nice"! Rob caught a real nice flounder, and I am sure that he has already eaten it for dinner this evening. We pulled in our lines and headed back for base.

Myself and the others in the class went to a coffee shop on Pleasant St. and spent a good hour and a half. I had an excellent cup of coffee and the others had some fancy looking desserts. The bathroom was a welcomed sight, my hands smelled like sea worms dipped in clam bellies. We shared conversations about the class, teaching, retirement and we got a chance to share some of our experiences. It was a real nice experience.

We headed back to Boat Camp and had our lunch. Scott gave a great slide show of some our his meetings with several different whale species. He had some great photos, especially the one of the whale excrement that he thought was the whale. The samples of baleen were impressive, even though they made Rob and Marissa squeamish. It was pretty funny when they made the other young girl working there (I apologize for not knowing her name) move the baleen to get the projector....and they informed her that it was bad luck after she touched it. I got a good feel for the morphology of both baleen and toothed whales. I thought the depiction and explanation of the nostril was particularly interesting. The way the jaws sort of unhinge and can swing to be almost perpendicular to the top jaw was amazing . I never knew that certain whales had white mouths or white fins as opposed to similar species in the Pacific. I found the whaling pictures of the indigenous people to be fascinating and the polar bear story was interesting as well. I plan to share some of what I learned about whales with my class.

They say "you learn something new every day" and over the past four days I have learned a lot. I had a good base of ecology and knowledge about marine systems prior to this week, but the hands on mentality is what really brought it home to me. Having the touch tank animals around must be great with high schoolers. To teach about polychaetes, then pass one around is great. To talk about the carapace of a lobster or sexing a crab then having samples is what brings it home for the kids, especially since I teach at a vocational high school where many of the students are kinesthetic learners. I think my wife is getting annoyed (or jealous) from my stories about class every day. I can't think of a better way to pick up PDP's and credits by physically doing things. I had a great experience this week. I plan to spread the gospel of Boat Camp to my colleagues and friends. I look forward to bringing much of this stuff back to my students and I hope to bring them up to see Rob and Kate in the near future. I really have appreciated this week. It is nice to see people who are passionate about their life's work, and finding a way to spend as much time on the water and in the classroom spreading and sharing their interests with students of all ages. Thanks again.

Marty

Day 3

2009-07-02T03:38:00.001-07:00

Day 3 started out with gray skies and rain once again....surprise, surprise. The fog made for a "zero" visability day. We boarded the Erica Lee once again for a trip that would include checking lobster pots and trolling. We headed out to the mouth of the river once again and the outgoing tide and incoming wind once again made for some choppy seas. We were in 3 foot waves for a few minutes, and it felt like we were on an amusment ride. For someone who was not feeling well the other day, this was actually fun for me. We learned that lobster pots have to have unique colors that are displayed on your boat and we learned that Maine lobstermen are more territorial than mother gulls, and you can legally shoot at someones boat if they mess with your gear. Marissa prepared the famous "bucketfish" for baiting the traps in picture below. I got a chance to pull up a pot from about thirty feet. Sadly, there was only a small male lobster in my pot that was not a keeper.

We learned how to sex a lobster by feeling the simmerets closest to the carapace, if they are feathery -female, if they are hard - male. We also reviewed how to sex a crab, v-shaped was male and a u-shaped abdomen was for female. We looked at handedness of lobsters, which is dictated by the side that has the crusher claw. We found that there were some nice data points that could be graphed by students when dealing with the lobster pots: number in pot, sizes, sex, dominant hand, etc.

We checked the clarity of water, and how far down you could see using a secchi disk. We did this in the mooring area and out in the ocean and we found that the water was more clear out in the ocean. We also towed a plankton net in two different spots. We found there were great examples of zooplankton in our ocean and that these practices, again, gave great opportunities for graphing data.

Day 2

2009-06-30T17:58:00.000-07:00

Today we headed out on the Erica Lee. It was a little rainy and very foggy when we got out on the boat. We traveled for approx. an hour and headed up to the Isle of Shoals. We saw a dredging barge on the Merrimack, several boats fishing in some choppy water and as we passed through the mouth of the Merrimack, Scott shared with us that it was one of the more dangerous places to maneuver, and that the Coast Guard practiced in it during bad weather for rescue missions. We saw the first Coast Guard station in the US, in Newburyport and the American Yacht Club, which is the second oldest yacht club in the US. As we left the Merrimack and the harbor the fog was very thick. There were times when Rob could see Salisbury Beach and other points of interest on his instruments, but we could not see them from the boat. The water was quite choppy due to a receding tide and a northeast wind. There was quite a bit of spray, and our boat in tow seemed to be dancing in our wake...I kept thinking that sitting in that boat would make for an extreme sporting event. I confess, I was getting a little queasy and had to head out into the spray and wind for a little fresh air to ease my mind...and stomach.

We saw the lighthouse on the first of the islands (White Island). Rob and Scott tell of two men being trapped there during the Blizzard of 78, and how a big rock was deposited under the sink and how the lighthouse itself was shaking and creaking from breaking waves. Luckily, it is automated now. We also saw Star Island and its famous hotel.

We were informed that it was owned by the Unitarian Church and could be rented out for functions and weddings.

We were told many stories of pirates treasures and bars of silver...and we finally landed at Smuttynose Island. We weighed anchor offshore and took the smaller skiff to shore. Upon arriving at the island we had to jump into the cold water, but we were greeted by a two goat welcoming committee...and they stayed with us nearly all day.

We heard the stories of John Smith remarking that Smuttynose was the most beautiful place on Earth, then he was given it for all of his work...he was less than impressed and is said to have never come back. We also saw Haley House, the oldest house in Maine...which seems strange to me that they put it on an island six miles from anywhere with no potable water. I also found it amazing that so many homes were made on the island when everything had to be imported, including water. It doesn't seem like the same cost:benefit equation was used here that migratory birds used form yesterday's experience.

We hiked nearly the whole island. We saw lots and lots of gulls, both black back and herring gulls. We learned that the black backs get choice nesting grounds while Herrings are on the edges. We also learned how territorial gulls are and that if a chick encroaches on another gulls space they will likely be killed and eaten. We saw some examples of this brutality, and in one instance the mother returned and a nasty little fight ensued. We also heard tales of murder on the island and I am including a picture of the rock that was the hiding place of the lone surviving female...we all questioned the legitimacy of the story of running across the island barefoot in February...one might also ask what the heck anyone was doing there in February! The accused obviously did not hire a "dream team" of lawyers as he was executed, but denied any wrongdoing until his death.

Famous rock above along with a shot of the intertidal zone at high tide exposing a sand made primarily of shells and many species of seaweed. We took both sand and seaweed samples back to base camp for pressing tomorrow. We noted examples of red, green and brown algae and noted several of the common names and genus and species names for most of the samples.

The ride home was much more pleasant than the ride out and we got back and headed home.

Day 1

2009-06-29T19:05:00.000-07:00

After a brief introduction and some it information on what the expectations would be for the week, it was off to some field work. We took a short but bumpy ride to a DCR facility in Newburyport at Sandy Point. We met up with the facilities naturalist (Gary) and got some great history on glaciation and the production of the barrier islands around Plumb Island, Crane's Beach, and the connections between the Ipswich and Merrimack Rivers. We met up with the our guide and field naturalist, and went for a great hike through the sand dunes.

We were made aware of many different types of flora on our journey. We say poverty grass, shown above, and vast amounts of poison ivy. I was surprised to see as much ivy as we did. I guess I wasn't aware that it could stand the harsh environment of the sand dune. We also saw great examples of beach grass which lays down a network of roots that holds the whole dune system together. We got a chance to see a dune that had been split in half and it gave us a good look at the root system that holds things together.

We also got to see various types of birds on our trip including: egrets, tree swallows (which I was amazed to hear travel thousands of miles in migration) and we learned about the Red Knot (sp?). It was interesting to get the explanation for migration in birds using the whole cost vs. benefit of making the trip, which our guide made very clear for us. We also got a chance to look at several examples of animal tracks in the sand, since the paths we were on were made and used by many local animals. We saw deer tracks, possibly fischer tracks and coyote tracks in the dune network.

Deer and coyote tracks

The dune network seemed to be dotted with scrub brush, ivy and small trees at times. It seems that these were places sand and or soil had aggregated over time. We took pictures from one of the highest dunes in the network and saw some beautiful views of Little Neck, Great Neck and Plum Island.

We walked along the beach, and some interesting points/chats surrounded: rack line, crabs - invasive species and native species, chord grass (spartina alternaflor) and marsh hay (spartina patens), along with clamming, red tides, and horseshoe crab bleeds. At this point the rain persisted so we headed for our cars along the path that ran along a body of fresh water. We saw egrets in the water and several swans, which we came to find out are in such large numbers they are considered a nuisance in the area.

Upon arriving back at Boat Camp, we had lunch and learned about nautical charts. Scott shared some great information on plate techtonics and pluton formations (I am interested in exploring the one in York Maine this summer with my children). We saw some great, and practical uses for Google Earth and another program that Rob had. Rob gave some info on food pyramids and talked about ocean ecology. Then we called it a day since the weather did not seem to be improving and we headed for home. It was a productive day, with lots of information, but just being outside and seeing what excellent resources we have (for free) was eye-opening for me as an educator in Massachusetts.