Yesterday morning our excited group of teachers and adults boarded the Fundy Spray in search of what lives beyond the intertidal zone. We headed out of Passamaquoddy Bay in search of marine mammals and found approximately 30 harbour and grey seals lounging on the ledges. Some of them were quite active, jumping out of the water and putting on a little show for us. Unfortunately, because of the fog we didn’t get to head out further in search of even larger animals but that is life in the Bay of Fundy, you are at the mercy of the weather! Also, while on board we did a plankton tow and two scallop drags to collect animals to study in the lab. We found a great diversity of species using the scallop drag, including two very soft lobsters that must have just moulted. The group was a bit upset we couldn’t bring the lobsters back for their cooking class but we did bring back sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and scallops…a fair trade?!
In the afternoon the group met in the lab to get a closer look at the animals they collected Monday at Indian Point and while on the boat. They had lots of fun viewing everything through the microscopes and learning about animals they had never heard of before such as sea spiders, terebellid worms and bryozoans.
Later in the afternoon we donned our rubber boots and took buckets and shovels to the muddy shore in search of marine worms. Tracey did a quick introduction with the group and warned them that a couple of the worms can bite. As luck would have it the first worm of the day was a blood worm which decided to have a taste of one of the teachers, who now has quite the story to take back to his students! While on the beach did find a great diversity of animals, including bamboo worms, red-lined worms, milky ribbon worms, soft-shelled clams, and moon snails. One of the coolest finds was a huge moon snail collar, which contains the eggs one very large moon snail!
After a great roasted chicken supper (which included stuffing and gravy…yum!) the group met me in the aquarium lab to check out their plankton sample from earlier in the day. They found an amazing selection of diatoms, dinoflagellates, copepods, and even some Podon sp. It was a great comparison for the teachers who are used to working with freshwater plankton species.
Below are some pictures from our awesome day.
Zooplankton and phytoplankton samples.
Our captain dumping the scallop drag.
Sorting through the collection from the scallop drag.
Soft lobster.
Tiny urchins.
Checking out the beautiful terebellid worm.
Digging for worms!
Look at the size of that moon collar...huge!
Biology teachers in their glory! Studying the plankton samples.
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