Intro to Marine Bio - Day 2

This morning the students gathered in the lab to get a closer look at the animals they collected while on the research vessel yesterday.  One of the tasks was to identify the animals and take a tally of the biodiversity.  They identified an amazing 27 different species of invertebrates!  Some of the favourites were the sea stars and the hermit crabs.

After identifying all of the animals the students headed over to the aquarium for a tour.  They got to explore the touch tank, get splashed during the salmon feeding, and watch Snorkel and Loki, the harbour seals have their lunch.  Yum, herring!

In the early afternoon while waiting for the tide to go out the group visited the Atlantic Reference Centre (ARC).  The ARC contains specimens of invertebrates and fish from the North Atlantic.  Lou, the fish specialist, showed the students fish from the deep sea, including angler fish and hatchet fish, as well as, chimeras, dogfish, and a porbeagle shark head.  It was a pretty cool!

Donning our rubber boots and sunscreen we headed to the beach for the remainder of the afternoon.  We explored under rocks and seaweed and found green crabs, rock gunnel fish, sea stars, urchins, sideswimmers, clams, periwinkles, and even a jelly fish.  There was also a chance to explore the cool rock formations and skip some stones before going to Anderson House for supper.

This evening we gathered in the lab again to spend some time with echinoderms.  The students did some anatomical drawings of the sea urchins and then tested their strength.  The strongest urchin held 31 times its own weight.  Wow!

A movie night with Finding Nemo was in the works for the rest of the evening.

Looking at animals collected while on the boat.

Using the dichotomous key to help ID the animals.

A list of our catch.

Discussing the height of the tides in our section of the Bay.

An introduction to the touch tank.

Touching a skate at the aquarium.

Lobster!

Getting a view of Bay of Fundy fishes.

Learning how to determine the gender of a lobster.

A gulper eel at the ARC.

Lou, the fish specialist showed us lots of different species of fish.

Perusing the aisles for cool fish.

  

Yikes, those are some big teeth!

Notice all the photophores on the bottom of the hatchet fish.

Hmmm...a jar of gills.

Looking at the cartilage in the porbeagle shark head.

Green crab on the beach.

We found a few jellies.

One of the cute little rock gunnels.

Group picture time.

Using our new microscopes to view urchins.

View of the urchin spines and tube feet through the microscope.

Testing urchin strength.