Three Oaks Senior High

This week on campus we welcomed the two Envirothon teams from Three Oaks Senior High on PEI. The students worked in the field and in the lab to explore the diversity of life that lives in the Bay of Fundy.

One of the teachers attending with the group has a personal connection as she came to the Huntsman in 1986 as a high school student. Just by coincidence pictures of her class were featured on the front page of the most recent issue of our newsletter, SeaWords. We are very happy that fond memories of the Huntsman encouraged her to come back with her students!

Studying urchin anatomy.

View through the microscope.

Identifying the pattern on the urchin.

One of the urchins started spawning during the lab.

Touring the Atlantic Reference Centre (ARC), a research museum run jointly between the Huntsman and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. 

Deep sea shrimp. Look at those huge eyes!

The grand finale of the tour, a porbeagle shark head.

One the search for invasive green crabs.

Data is collected on the size and sex of each crab.

The group found 202 crabs in just one hour!

The students played a round of plankton bingo. Everyone found copepods in the sample.

Conducting an experiment to see if temperature effects the feeding rate of barnacles.

Toronto Waldorf School 2018

Last week on campus we had the pleasure of  working with students from the Toronto Waldorf School. To start the week the students collected a few animals from the shore and from the subtidal environment while on the Huntsman research vessel, the Fundy Spray. The live animals were held in tanks in the lab to observe throughout the week. We captured some video of a few interesting behaviours happening in the tanks. Take a look.

Searching for invasive green crabs.

Data is collected on the size and sex of the crab.

Exploring a muddy beach at low tide.

The students found clams.

A sea cucumber called a pink synapta.

A moon snail egg case.

Studying the anatomy of sea urchins.

Behaviour experiment with sea stars. Does size affect flipping rate?

Making a dichotomous key using seaweeds.

Playing croquet on the lawn of the historic Ministers Island. This was the summer estate of Sir William Van Horne, known for his role in the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway. 

Picnic lunch overlooking Passamaquoddy Bay.

Drawing the beautiful bathhouse.

Crossing back over the bar which links the island to the mainland at low tide.

Touring a part of the Huntsman called the Atlantic Reference Centre (ARC). A research museum of specimens from the Atlantic Ocean.

Deep sea dragonfish.

Lobster.

The students were asked to create art pieces using lobster bands that were collected during local beach cleanups. Here are a few of the pieces.

June Videos of the Month

This week the students caught a few cool behaviours happening in the lab tanks.

The first unusual event was a common sea star (Asterias vulgaris) spawning. This species of sea star reproduces by releasing the gametes into the water to be fertilized externally. The sexes are separate. The tippy-toe stance that you see is common during spawning. This particular sea star was hanging upside down from a piece of floating seaweed.

The second fascinating behaviour that the students noticed was an acadian hermit crab (Pagurus acadianus) eating the mud worms (Polydora sp.) that are burrowed in the scallop (Placopecten magellanicus) shell.

Glenview 2018

This week on the Huntsman campus we welcomed a wonderful group of Grade 8 students from Glenview Senior Public School, Toronto. While here we introduced the students to the marine environment around St. Andrews by-the-Sea. The students took a trip on our research vessel, visited a number of different beaches, studied the specimens they collected in the lab, explored the aquarium, went whale watching with Quoddy Link Marine (and saw three minke whales!), and had a tour of historic Ministers Island. Below are a few pictures from their visit.

On the Huntsman research vessel sorting the animals collected using the benthic drag.

Shrimp

Rock crab

Sponge

Sea stars

Sad to find a plastic water bottle mixed into with the animals from the bottom of the bay.

In the lab identifying the plankton collected while on the boat.

Mix of phytoplankton and zooplankton, including a sea star larvae.

Searching for invasive green crabs.

 

Data is gathered on the size and gender of the crabs. They are then marked and released.

One of the students found a large female with eggs!

Collecting marine debris at Pagan Point Nature Preserve.

Some of the debris collected.

Using art to learn about fish adaptations.

There were some beautiful and interesting fish created.

Conducting an experiment with live seastars and sea urchins.

Does size effect the flipping rate?