Nautilus Live

While we were at WHOI Anna told us about this really interesting website that live streams the Nautilus as it explores sea life at the bottom of the ocean. You check out the their website here.
There are really cool videos you can watch. One video I thought was interesting was the video about blob sculpin. You can see the video by clicking here.

Squidding and FlatFish

We went squidding from 9:00-10:00 p.m. at Menemsha.  We saw lots of squid, but we did not catch any.  I caught fish and crabs with a net.  I caught a flatfish, possibly at the very end of its larva stage.  It was ¾ of an inch big.  Flatfish are born like normal fish, but they turn flat.  This is called metamorphosis, like butterflies and frog.  Their eyes rotate to one side.  At the beginning, they swim on the surface.  At the end of the metamorphosis, they swim at the bottom.  This adaption helps them camouflage on the sandy bottom, so their predators and prey cannot see them.  I think it is in its larva stage because it was still a little rounded, the eyes were still moving over the sides of its body, and it was at the surface.  

This is a video of the baby flatfish, possibly in its larval stage, swimming upwards and flat.  

This flounder is out of its larval stage.  You can see that eyes are on the top.

 

You can see that the bottom is a different color than the top.   

To watch a video of this baby flounder swim click here: http://www.greysadventures.blogspot.com/2014/07/techniques-for-catching-sea-creatures.html

These links will show you the metamorphosis of a flatfish 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Metamorphosis#p00f26xr

http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/19844/20120518/biologist-passes-along-his-fascination-with-metamorphosis

This is a cool minnow that I caught.  It has blue spots.  I found it because I saw little glowing eyes.  

We caught 2 big lady crabs.  The lady crabs in the bucket fought.  At the end of the wrestling match, they were both crowned champions.  

Giant Japanese Spider Crab

I went to the library and read a book about shells.  I learned that the giant Japanese spider crab is the biggest crustacean in the world.  It can get up to about 12 feet across when stretched out.  The shell can reach up to 18 inches.  When we got home, we measured 12 feet and 18 inches.  We marked it with rocks.  Then we did more research online.  We learned they can live to 100 years old!!!!!  We also learned that they are omnivores.  An omnivore is an animal that eats plants and animals.  They eat dead animals and pry open mollusk shells.  They are super duper cool.

This is an interesting video about Japanese spider crabs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8P_OV8DFSk

Scallops

Scallops can have 60-100 blue eyes.  They are not like our eyes.  They can only detect motion, light, and darkness.  They also use their feelers to notice attacks from predators, like sea stars.  They are filter feeders. They eat small organisms.  Depending on the species, scallop shells can grow up to 4-9 inches.  

This is the inside of a scallop. 

 The arrows are pointing to the eyes.

Sea Stars

There are about 5,000 different species of Asteroidea or sea stars.

Sea stars usually have five arms, but some sea stars have forty arms.  Some sea stars lose their arms, but then a new arm grows back.  

A sea star has an eye spot at the end of each one if its arms.  They can only see light and dark.  

Sea stars move by using their suckers or "tube feet" on the bottom of them to move along the sea floor.    

Sea stars eat any small, slow-moving creature.  One place you can find sea stars is in shallow waters in oyster beds.  Sea stars stick their stomachs out of their body and eat their food. 

I want to catch them all!!!

This is a brittle star.  Brittle stars don't have a butt.  They poop out of their mouths.

This video shows you how a brittle star moves fast in the water.  

On this sea star there is an orange spot in the middle of its body.  That dot is called a sieve plate.  The sieve plate helps the sea star drink water.  There are little holes, that you can't see, in that dot.  The water goes through those holes into its arms.  

Loggerhead Sea Turtle

Loggerhead sea turtles eat hard things, like horseshoe crabs and soft things, like jellyfish.  They can live up to 50 years old.  They can travel thousands of miles.  They go back to the same beach that they were born at to lay their eggs.  The eggs hatch 60 days after the mom laid them in the sand.  Lots of them get eatten by predators.   Loggerhead's are not endangered but are threatened.  I wish I could see a real loggerhead sea turtle.

This is part of a loggerhead's shell and rib cage.  This bone was found in the saltwater pond by Long Point Beach in Martha's Vineyard.  You can also find blue crabs at this pond.

This is a loggerhead sea turtle eating a conch under the water. 

http://seaturtles.org/article.php?id=1251

This is a little baby loggerhead walking toward the ocean.

http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/marine_turtles/loggerhead_turtle/

Horseshoe Crabs

Horseshoe crabs are not true crabs.  They come from sea going spiders.  Horseshoe crabs have been around before the dinosaurs were around, 400 million years.  They look scary, but they will not hurt you.  They eat worms, clams, and dead fish.

They lay hundreds of eggs in each hole.  They lay thousands of eggs in total.  Many get eaten. 

Before horseshoe crabs are three years old, they have already shed their shell 11 times.  After that, horseshoe crabs shed their shells once a year when they get too big for their old shell.  I found tons of baby horseshoe crab shells.  

Sometimes horseshoe crabs swim upside down.  They use their gills to swim by moving around.

They have blue blood.  Doctors use it for medical stuff.  

To learn more watch this video at: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e8KlAmtIu1E&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3De8KlAmtIu1E

I like to find horseshoe crabs at Stonewall Pond.  

This is a horseshoe crab shell, but it does not have its tail.

A horseshoe crab's front shell is shaped like a horse's hoof.  

Skate Egg Case

This blog post is about skates and how they are like or different from rays and sharks.  Sharks, skates, and rays are like cousins.  Skate fish are flat and wide like a sting ray.  Skates live in cold water, and rays live in warm water.  Skates and rays don't have any bones.  They have cartilage like sharks.  Rays can grow up to 35 feet and skates can only grow up to 8 feet.  Rays are more active than skates.  Skates and rays eat clams and other small things.  They use their teeth to break shells and eat the inside of it.  Skates don't have barbs on their tails for stinging, but they have small spines and can give a small shock.  Skates and sharks have eggs that look almost the same, but rays give birth to live rays.

This is a picture of a fishman at Menemsha holding a skate.  

In this picture the two outer small black egg cases are skate egg cases.  The middle might be a skate egg case, but it might also be a shark egg.  I am pretty sure it is a shark egg case.  

This is a picture of a skate egg case with a baby skate in it.  The egg the case is bigger than this 12 inch ruler.  The egg cases shrink one-third of their size when they dry.  

http://www.coralreefinfo.com/coralglossary/glossary_e.htm

This is a baby skate hatching out of its egg case.  

http://aquariumofthebay.org/pages/detail/442

In this picture, you can see that the cownose ray has teeth.  

http://www.globio.org/glossopedia/article.aspx?art_id=47#

Fiddler Crabs

Fiddler crabs use their bigger claw to talk to each other.  They make noises with their claws and legs to talk to each other.  Fiddler crabs move their claws in patterns to communicate with other crabs.  Fiddler crabs from other beaches might not understand a fiddler crab from another beach.  I think we could not catch them because if one crab came out he could communicate with other crabs, telling them we were there trying to catch them.  The fiddler crabs were in their holes because they could feel us stomping through the path.  

Barnacles

Barnacles are in the crustacean family.  Barnacles have feelers or legs that catch food.  They grab the food and suck it in.  Barnacles stay in one place for their whole lives.  They live on anything that is hard that they can attach to.  Some barnacles attach themselves to whales.  

Pelagic Goose Barnacle

This is me opening a goose barnacle, so you can see the feelers or legs.  

Bay Barnacle 

Amanda found this at Long Point Beach. This is a log with a bunch of barnacles on it. 

Moon Snail Shell

Moon snails make a sand collar and lay their eggs into it.  It makes the sand collar with sand and her mucus.   

http://buzzmarinelife.blogspot.com/2011/06/sand-collar-seasonor-more-tiny-stuff-to.html

During the day, Moon snails are under the sand.  They use their foot to move.  They suck water in it and squirt it out to move.  

Moon snails also use their foot to eat. 

Watch this video to see a moon snail eat a soldier crab.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qlxmKghiHI

This is a picture of a moon snail's shell.  I found tons of these moon shells at Stonewall Beach.

This is a chart of the sizes of the moon shells that we found.  

Jelly Fish

Jellyfish were alive before the dinosaurs.  They sting their prey food to paralyze them and get them.  They digest their food quickly, so they don't sink.  Jellyfish eat and poop out of the same hole, like sea stars.  They have no heart, no brain, and no blood.  

The currents push them through the water. Jellyfish also squirt water out of their mouth to propel themselves, like an engine.  

This is a red jellyfish that we found in Menemsha. 

This is a moon jelly.  Moon jellies can't sting.  Moon jellies are all over the place in Menemsha.  

Channeled Whelk Egg Case

This is a picture of a whelk's egg case.  A whelk is a large snail, that is a predator.  The whelk's shell keeps them safe because they are all mushy.   

Inside of each case there are tons of tiny whelk shells.  There can be 0-99 eggs in each case.  This is a picture of the little whelk shells in the egg case.

The mom whelk snail sticks one of the ends of the egg casing into the sand in the water.  Unfortunately, this egg case washed ashore and the snails dried up.  

This is a baby whelk shell next to a penny.  

This is a picture of a mature channeled whelk.

What an exciting find!