Marine Coastal Biology-Final Chapter July 2, 2009

Today again was wet and cool. Our final mission on the water was to study local ichthyology and make general observation. It did rain, heavy at times, for most of the near three hours on the river where the water remained calm. No sea sickness today_Yea! We did use sea worms and clams as bait, caught lots of crabs. I snagged a small lobster (4-5inches) which hung on when I lost it before I got it into the boat. Our fearless Captain did catch a flounder that was a keeper, over 12 inches in length and we also spotted a harbor seal. I was much too wet to stay out on the boat so after drying off at a local coffee house we returned to work at the boat house.

The afternoon discussion was whales. There is generally two groups of whales, baleen and toothed. The baleen whales are filter feeders and the toothed whales are flesh eater, which have an adaptation called throat pleats on the lower jaw that expand to accommodate large catches of fish. The lower jaw may also in some species separate out from the skull to aid the pleats. The baleen is attached to the top jaw only and is itself made of keratin, similar to our finger nails. Water freely moves through and out of the baleen but plankton and sometimes small fish get trapped as food. Baleen is shorter in the front and longer toward the back. The size varies greatly from a foot or two in the humpbacks (front of mouth) to 50 feet (rear of mouth) in the Alaskan Bowhead. The size of the baleen by species is dependent on the abundance of nutrients in the water . If a species naturally feeds in a nutrient rich area they will likely have smaller baleen and visa versa for a species feeding in a nutrient poor area, lower concentration of nutrients would require greater surface area of baleen. Further the hardness and design of the baleen can also vary, if a whale feeds where there may be schooling fish, the baleen would be thicker and more compacted to endure the impact of the fish on the baleen when the whale is traveling some 20 knots. Wright whales move slowly, perhaps 5 knots, and because they have blubber up to a foot thick they are a desired by hunters. Slow moving makes them easier to catch and when they die, they float.

The blue whale is the largest species measuring between 90 to 100 feet and weigh up to 110 tons. Their lungs are size of a compact car and have a blow hole that a human child could fit in it. The blow hole is it's nostril, some species have two, and can blow water 30 feet in the air. The blow fills with water as it dives but the blow closes before water get to the lungs. Some species can say underwater, holding their breath, for up to an hour. All whales have two bow hole openings in the skull merging into one blow or staying separate with two blows.

The skull is often broad , especially for toothed whale, across horizontally and is a bit concave vertically to help capture returning echos from it's own sound. This give the whale forward information. Baleen whale are more likely to have a bony rise or hump to the front portion of the skull for support of the baleen. Whales have no vocal cords but generate sound by controlling the speed of the air moving through their nostrils. Clicking sounds often heard on trained dolphins, related to the pilot whale, is the clapping of their jaws. All whale have a tongue.

Finback whales have large nostrils with modeled skin, white jaw on the right side, gray on the left jaw, and have pigmentation swirling on it's skull that is unique to a individual whale, similar to the uniqueness of a finger print. These whales will typically have a single calf that is 20 feet and weight up to 10 tons that will drink 40 to 70 gallons of milk per day. The mother would unlikely be able to support a second calf. Whales will stay in their preferred feeding grounds during gestation (about 12 months) and will migrate south to have the calf but will have little to eat until it returns northward for feeding. Typically the whales will lose 30% of there body mass during this period.

Sei whales are small and are found in the northeast waters of Canada. They feed on copepods and small fish of the region. The Minky whale (22ft) has a shape dorsal fin with white patches on it's fins which can act as an identifier. The Wright whales in a toothed whale but do have no throat pleats as expected but have an adaptation called calosites which are hard layers of skin around the face, eyes and portions of the body. It may act as a feature for the attraction of a mate as in the size of the horns on a ram.

Humpback whales have 15 foot wide white flippers. They are considered to be one of the most acrobatics whales. Their general shape, broad, makes them more buoyant requiring a vertical and energetic dive. These whale are a threaten species with only about 350 remain in the north Atlantic. They are frequent injured or kills by large ship when they swim in commerical sea lanes. Humpbacks have whiskers , last remaining hairs of this mammal, which are believed to
to be used for sensory. They also have unique social behaviors such as male circling a female for her select of a worth mate. The details of this behavior are some what disturbing which among may things involves feces to impress her. Humpbacks will collectively create a bubble cloud which use bubbles to trap and force schooling fish to the surface and the whale swims up from the center eating many fish. They also are know for making what is called a bubble net which is a circular tube of bubbles, again used to trap schooling fish.

As a final statement I would to thank our captain and crew for a wild ride and a great learning experience. I'd do it again.

Marine Coastal Biology Day 3 July 1, 2009

MY LOBSTER

Who would believe that on July 1st the temperature would barely reached 62 degrees on land. Today like most of this past June was overcast, cool, heavy fog with a moderate northeasterly wind. Not to mention that the water was very choppy with swells at one point reaching 6 feet. Needless to say I endured but I was on the edge with my sea sickness for most of the 3 hour expedition. I really shouldn't blame Captain Rob but somebody has to be the fall guy.

Our primary mission was to haul a number of lobster traps, plankton net and trawl the sand bed for marine specimens. We worked a mile or so off the coast of New Hampshire. I also got to use a secchi disk which is a simple devise with a half black- half white weighted disc attached to a cord for visible depths, which is an indicator of plankton concentration. Our measure was 15 feet. It can also be used vertically as we measure today or horizontally in tow. The plankton did yield an abundance of life which could be viewed on board with simple magnification or contained for extensive viewing back at laboratory.

Hauling lobster traps is definitely a unique experience. Also of us hauled, three lobsters in total, with my trap having the only keeper. The lobster trap itself has a single opening at the end of it's length side that leads to the "kitchen" which connects to a "parlor", all of which is defined by the internal netting. The theory is as the lobster enters the kitchen and proceeds to the parlor where the food is the lobster can not back out, thus trapped. It turns out that Dr. Wilson of the University of New Hampshire recently mounted cameras on traps which recorded some lobster actually backing out. In order for a lobster to be legally caught the measured distance between the eye socket on the rostrum to end of the carapace must exceed 3 1/2 inches; it takes 7 years to reach this size.. Also lobster are left and right handed. The two large claws, one of which is the crusher claw and the other is the cutter claw. The side of the crusher claw determines the it's handedness. The first set of swimmerets determines the lobsters sex, if the first swimmeret is hard it's a male and if it's soft it's female. The shell is made of chite with colors that varies from yellow, to rust,to even blue. When lobsters are cooked it's the denaturing the proteins of the shell that creates the red color. Lobsters do molt on average of once every seven years, with longer stretches as they age.

We did a 60 foot and a 20 foot trawl for approximately 20 minutes each. The net is called an Otter Net. The netting uses a number of variations in "net mesh" which depends on what one specifically is trying to catch. The otter net has "doors" which are small weighted panels on the ends that keep the net open horizontally, lead weighted net line along the bottom opening and floats along the top net line. This keeps the net open but the net does taper lead back for several feet to a knot. Anything bigger than the mesh was trapped. We collected a number of flounder, sand dollars, couple of urchins, hermit crab, very small lobster, rock crabs and seaweeds. An interest notation on crabs is that on their bottom side the section between their legs is used for sexing. If the distance is long and narrow it's male or if it's short and wide it's a female.

Back in the boat house we able to view and study a number of marine specimens. One specimen was 5 pound lobster that was defleshed by sand flea in less than forty eight hours, found off the coast of Plum Island. In terms of aging bivales the obvious ring can be use for aging with each being one year. The mantle secretes a more shell as the mantle gets larger. One can also age fish by counting ring on the scales.

Barnacles, an arthropod that may reach the size of a coffee cup, is free swimming for two weeks (macroscopically) during this period the barnacle goes through development with its head getting heaver eventually settles on a rocky surface head down. Visualize a headstand, the antennae secrete a glue, anchoring the barnacle to rock which secreted its harden shell around it. When the barnacle open for feeding it'd the legs that are thrashing out with it's head glues to the rock. The barnacles do release chemicals that do attract larvae which is significant in aiding the formation a colony. Mating requires a neighbor since barnacles are hermaphroditic and must cross fertilize, the male reaches out to the female.

A couple points of trivia, scallops will swim by flapping their shells, the smaller size of north atlantic species is the direct result of seasonal variations in temperature , nutrient flow and sunlight. Flounders as juvenal's have eyes on each side of their body but migrate to a "top" side, most other fish-like feature remain as a typical fish. Finally Rob cheats when he fishes by using sonar to find the poor "soles".

Marine life identified:

Ulva-Sea Lettuce

Lamanaria
Iris Moss

Fucus with epiphyte

Fucus withTubeweed (Polysphoeia lanosa)

Ascaphylum-simular too fucus but not as broad

Agarum-shotgun kelp

Lunanaria digitalis-finger like kelp

Coraline

Bryozoans-as found on snail shell of hermit crab

Marine Coastal Biology Day Two

Today, June 30th is day two of my Marine Biology class. Conditions were dryer but still had cloud cover and lots of fog with temperatures in the mid-sixties. We boarded the Erica Lee traveling to the Isles of Shoal which is 8 miles off the coast of Maine but a number of the 9 islands are in New Hampshire. The surf was 3-5 feet and very choppy likely caused by the a northeast wind. I've come to the conclusion that the Erica Lee is a "wet" boat with heavy spay constantly soaking most of us as it cut through the choppy surface. I did manage at about half way to become a bit sea sick but fortunately it was short lived and things settled down for me for the rest of the trip. If I need to place blame I'll give it to Captain Rob for the rough ride, ha ha.

The shoals do have a lengthy history which includes such things pirate treasure and murder. The John Smith was granted the islands in the 1600's, Black Beard drop off one of his wives on isles never to return for her. The oldest house standing in Maine is the Hailey house on the Smutty Nose Island and is physically next to the house was Honivei House, no longer standing, that in 1843 was the location of a famous (in Maine) murder of two sister by Louis Wagner. A breakwater was built between Smutty Nose and Cedar Island with monies from bars of silver found on the island, presumably belonging the pirates. A number of the Island are state property yet other are private, for example Star Island has a hotel owned by the Unversalist church.

All of the islands do have limited soil formation which reduces the size of the vegetation to bush size for a maximum. Most of the soil varies but on average is merely 2-3 inches. It was stated that the Islands have 88,000 nesting gull pairs. I was able to get very close to the nest, two of which had single eggs, with gulls flighting closely over head. I was also able to observe young gulls closely which furiously guarded by "mom". I also witnessed closed gull attacks on members of our group. The dominant gull was the Lesser Black which aggressively occupied the more protect inland portions of the Island where as the Herring Gull got the less protected, more exposed shore regions. Gulls are very territorial if a young gull wonders just a short distance for it's nest, near by Gulls will kill and eat it. It did witness lots of fighting between near by Gulls. Mother Gulls ,as a point of fact, do have a red dot on their beak so that when they return with food their young peak at the dot which cause regurgitate digesting food. I also saw the largest gull found in the north Atlantic called the Northern Gammet which winters along the Carolina coast to Florida. Other animal life is limited other than the gulls and two goats observed, we were told that the Island has an abundance of rats and snakes. Snakes likely used a technique called "rafting" where they climb on draft woods or like from the main land. Reptiles can go a fairly long time with out food where as mammals can not. The rats are likely on board boats which frequent the islands.

The sand on the beach had a high degree of organic (shell components) and their was clear evidence of glacial scouring. Much of the exposed rock away from the shore had numerous and lengthy deep scratates across the surface in a constant northeast direction.

Tomorrow we will be identifying and hopefully press a number of collected algae.

Marine life generally identified in the field:

Lamanaria (kelp)- collect three species

Acaphyum with an unnamed epiphyte attacked

Ulva (sea lettuce)

Fucus

Colium ( dead man's fingers)

Irish moss

Coraline

Urchins

Smooth, rough, and common periwinkles

Photos from Sandy Point Reservation Day 1

Drumlin-in the distance castle hill

Gary Darwin

Dune with animal Highway-path
Beach Pea (flowering) with Beach Grass

BayBerry on the Dune

Eroded dune shows deep roots of grasses which stabilizes dune

Lichen -Fruiticose






Beach Heather

Dusty Millar

Chart of the Gulf of Maine from New York Sound to Nova Scotia. In fathoms shows latitudes and longitudes as well as la rand lines for navigation.

Field Marine Study of Coastal Ecosystems Summer 2009

I am a biology teacher of 33 years at North Shore Technical High in Middleton Massachusetts.


Today was day one of four in our marine studies. My goal for this course is to use its content and constructs to integrate into a unit on coastal field biology into the curriculum of a year long field based class that I've been teaching for nearly twenty years. I have been dissatisfied with the limited instructional content and quality of my current curriculum field component for marine science and I am looking forward to improvements and the greater use of technology in my program. One of my thoughts is to have the blogger as a class requirement for all of my student to maintaining a record of what was learned and to write a reflection on their class experiences regularly. It is my intent to use this blog as a means to record field notes and studies with as much detail as possible with the hope that as I add to my blog it will morph into some form of instructional tool or product.


Today our class visited Sandy Beach State Reservation, in spite of rain (lots at times), which is located at the southern end of Plum Island which most of which is a federal wildlife reservation. We explored the geology, fauna and flora of the dunes by walking in animal "highways" through the dunes to the tidal flats. We were fortunate to have the State Field Educator Mr. Gary Darwin guiding and instructing us.


The geology of The Plum Island Barrier Beach region includes numerous drumlins which were formed ~12,000 years ago when the Wisconsin Glacier retreated. They are primarily composed of glacial till and vary in size but appear long and narrow with tapering toward the ends. On average they appear to be from 100 to 200 feet high with lengths of a few hundred yard long. The barrier beach is formed my shifting sands that are moved by currents and winds. The sand it self is formed by erosion of the land and in general it is washed out and moves north to south with the local currents. Blowing sands are caught up on sand grasses which adds to the dunes, with the addition of more grass and more sand over time the dune continue to build. However the dunes are also very fragile and subject to erosion from rising tides and storms surges. Most sand is composed of quartz and silicon but locally one can also find garnet (semiprecious mineral) and a magnetic mineral call magnetite. The drumlins in this cases appears to create anchoring points on the ends which seem to aid in the formation of the barrier beach.



Fauna Identified on the dunes:

Red tailed Fox (tracks)

Coyote (tracks and scat)

Deer (tracks)

Beach Swallows

Flora on the Dunes:

Bayberry

Beach Heather

Beach Pea

Poison Ivy

Beach Plum

Beach Cherry

Beach Rose

Spartinia

Fragmities

Lichen-Fruticose, Crustose, Foiliose

Dusty Millar

On the Beach:

Hoarseshoe Crab Limulus sp.
(blue blood-medical testing for sterility-clots with in contact with bacterium, males clasp on to female until eggs are fertilized-sometimes for weeks)

Mussel with byssall treads that are used for anchoring

Crabs- Asian, Green, Rock

Periwinkles



Tomorrow we will investigate the Isles of Shoals and Smutty Nose Island, This region is a rich feeding ground for plankton to Cod to Whales. This is the result of the upwelling of nutrients from the bottom which is caused by the movement of cold water currents along the bottom until it hits a ridge that forces the water to rise from the bottom. The nutrients in this water feed the phytoplankton which is food for the zooplankton, which feeds typically mackerel and herring on up the food chain. The islands in this region were formed by plutons of lava but were also largely influenced by glaciation.

Until tomorrow.