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| Chester sorting organisms from seaweed with very cold hands |
While on the boat, our skipper Nate was an excellent guide. He cast out a huge net and showed us how to bring it back in. We then collected and counted all of the organisms from the net, placing the organisms we found into tubs. It was very difficult to take pictures using my camera if it wasn't for Kevin Villalobos helping me from falling in, I likely would not have many pictures on the boat of organisms. Some of the organisms we collected (as pictured and numbered):
- Sand Shrimp (Crangon affinis) - role: acts as food for some organisms and eat smaller organisms.
- Graceful Decorator Crab (Oregonia gracilis) - role: food source and lives in a kelp environment, eats sponges and algae.
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| Some of the organisms, after counting and sorting |
- Kelp Perch (Brachyistius frenatus) - role: cleaner fish which participates in mutualism to remove dead skin and parasites from larger fish.
In my group, after the boat excursion, we came back to the lab and viewed several different organisms. I thought the sea pen (Pennatula aculeata) was interesting how it would go back in it's tube and hide when it felt threatened. The sea pen eats passing plankton and are food for sea stars. The giant red sea cucumber (Parastichopus californicus) was also very interesting and moving along the side of the lab container. The sea cucumber acts as a filter, and is closely related to the sea star. While in the lab, I also examined pillbox diatoms under the microscope, which looked like little bugs and form the basis of the ocean food web.
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| Sea Cucumber |
Because the tide was in, we weren't able to study the tide pools, but we did discover some green shore crabs (Carcinus maenas) when overturning rocks, as well as a dead lamprey (Petromyzon marinus), a turban snail (Tegula funebralis) and several bullwhip kelp (Nereocystis).
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| Sea Pen |
I felt that this trip was interesting because we were exposed to many organisms in a very short period of time. I have seen sea stars while hiking along the coast before, but never a sea cucumber or the really cool decorator crab. The skipper Nate, made our adventure on the boat a very successful and fun learning experience. I sincerely hope he was able to retrieve the net. Nate inspired me to be as passionate as he is in his field when I finally choose mine. My perspective on marine biology didn't really change, but I did realize that there are many marine organisms that we can't see unless we view them under a microscope.
One question that comes to mind, is why the sea cucumber appears to have spikes, which might be a form of mimicry, when it does not appear to have any predators other than humans?
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| lamprey |
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| turban snail |
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| Skipper Nate |
I remember sorting through the seaweed with Chet. It was fun but the cold hands was a downside. The shrimp were odd to hold as they liked to jump everywhere.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Shannon Point so much! I agree that Nate was a great guide. He did an excellent job of teaching us all about the marine life on the boat.
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