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.