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
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
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