Huntsman Marine Science Centre: Bell High and South Carleton High

Wednesday 25 September 2013

Bell High and South Carleton High – Day 2

Yesterday low tide was mid-morning so the students and teachers got to spend the whole morning on two local beaches. The first beach that we visited was Indian Point, a mixed habitat intertidal zone with lots of rocks and seaweed. Armed with buckets the groups headed down the beach to see what animals inhabit this area when the tide goes out. Upon moving the seaweed and lifting the rocks, the students found a great diversity of animals including, sea stars, urchins, sideswimmers, and green crabs.

After a quick stop in St. Andrews to get snacks from the grocery store and use the facilities the group headed to Pottery Creek, a muddy intertidal zone. Here the students added shovels to their equipment and quickly went to the bottom of the beach as the tide was starting to come in. The hunt was on for who could find the greatest diversity of worms and the longest worm. The students found red-lined worms, ribbon worms, and bamboo worms. The longest worm discovered was a 2 ½ foot blood worm! Great job Parker!

In the afternoon the students were in the lab studying the invertebrates they had collected while on the research vessel and beaches. The students had to draw, describe and ID five animals from different phyla. Some of the animals the students worked with were sponges, anemones, hermit crabs, scallops (careful, they splash!), urchins, and some of the worms collected earlier in the day. The students really enjoyed being able to see the animals moving around in the specimen bowls.

To finish the afternoon the students gathered in the aquarium theatre for a presentation on lobsters. They were a great audience with lots of questions. The highlight of the presentation was getting to see and take pictures of Pinchy the lobster. Also, one of the lobsters in the aquarium had moulted the previous night so the students were able to see the lobster in the tank, with its moulted exoskeleton. Pretty cool!

In the evening the group had a short presentation on whales of the Bay of Fundy. During the presentation the students were shown how to ID the different whale species they may see when whale watching later in the week.

Today the group has headed to Grand Manan for a couple of days to tour the island and its industries and go whale watching. Let’s hope the weather and the whales cooperate!