Day 4 - Sampling and Tracking

Our last day at Boat Camp. We did some Ichthy sampling(see below), and alkaloid tracking in the morning. After lunch, we discussed whales, including indigenous hunts and new dangers. Then a debriefing.

I have been on 8 whale watches in my life. The first 7 turned out to be nice, non-rainey days on lovely, uneventful boat rides. Last Memorial Day, I found myself riding around Gloucester looking for yard sales when I noticed the whale watch sign near the Rt128 rotary. "What a rook", I thought as I turned into the parking lot. "I'm not falling for that 'educational' junk again", I decided as I parked the car and headed for the pier. "But, what the heck, it's a nice day for a boat ride." Within an hour we were watching 6 to 7 humpbacks breaching, blowing bubbles and coooperatively feeding, while at least 2 Minkes were sleekly moving through the water at a much safer distance. We also saw a mother and calf. The guy with the microphone (who identified himself as a whale specialist) said he knew the mother humpback from her flippers. There were whales both on port and starboard - breaching, feeding, and (I swear) watching us. There was so much to see that we were all at a loss as to what side to be or stay on.
We went out at 1:30; sometime during the afternoon, they asked if anyone needed to be back on shore. We were scheduled to be back by 3:30 and I assumed that they wanted to stay out an extra half hour or so. Back at the dock, I realized that we had stayed out an extra 2 1/2 hours. I have no idea where the time went, but was I a very happy camper - and finally, I was also a Whale Watcher!

Thank you Rob, Scott, the twins and everyone who helped make this a memorable and fun week.

Movies:
Rob in the midst of Sampling
A fraction of a whale watching extravaganza.

Day 3 - Lobstering to trawling

Reflective Journal:
I think today was our most intensive learning day, and our most difficult from a weather point of view.
Last year I bought a children's book, Going Lobstering, by Jerry Pallotta and Rob Bolster, when I realized that I had no concrete idea how a lobster trap actually worked. Should I have admitted that???? Today I got just a tad more info and hauled a trap. The gear was a mini Dangerous Catch version. Using the Otter trawler to dredge the bottom yielded a few sand dollars which I forgot to take home, some flounder in different stages of development, small lobsters and crabs, and a hermit crab. Hopefully, the sand dollars will still be there tomorrow.
The instrumnts were very interesting. from the Secchi disk, to the captains navigational gear. This afternoon, we got out of the weather and took a look at sand specimens from Smutynose and Plum Island, and talked more about seaweed. We didn't get a chance to press seaweed, though. Too much to do.

Daily Log: Things I've found most interesting:

• Lobster and crab sex ID.
• Lobsters can be either left or right crusher clawed.
• Lobsters regenerate.
  
• Lobster traps have kitchens and parlors - how civilized.
  
• The two different kinds of trawlers.
• A huge specimen lobster that sand fleas had completely cleaned out.
• Bivalve age is determined by counting the rings on their shells.
• Barnacles are arthropods, related to lobsters and crabs, and can be as large 4 to 5 inches.
  

How Lobsters molt:

• Lack of enzymes soften the shell
  
• They then split their shell down the middle and back out
  
• They fill themselves with mass quantities of water
• The shell grows back and hardens
• They expel the extra water which gives them room to grow.
  

Vocabulary:

• Plankton net - small funnel net with a plastic bottle at the end, and used to trawl on the bottom to trap plankton and other small marine species.
• Secchi disk - round black and white weighted disk which determines the depth of sight in a body of water. Concentrations of plankton determine depth of visibility.
• Chite - a protein which determines the color of a lobster and the red color they turn when cooked.
• Otter Trawler - trawler that is towed on the bottom of the ocean. It has 2 doors and weights and scoops up whatever is on the bottom. Ours was small compared to huge fishing boat trawlers.

More movies:
Day 3
Day 3 Otter Trawling

Day 2 - Gull Rookery

Reflective Journal:

Today was a great day. The Gull rookery was fascinating. Who knew Gulls were cannibalistic murderers. The ride out was just as interesting. It's probably rediculous, but I love the folk lore. I've often wondered about the different kinds of seaweed I'd see on the beach. I looked it up once, but the images were just line drawings, so I wasn't sure that the kinds I was reading about were the ones I'd seen.

Daily Log: Things I've found most interesting:

• The description of reproduction of Urchins in a lab.
• The folklore: German U Boats, murders, Spanish sailers frozen and dead on doorsteps, huge boulders flying through houses and imbedding in kitchens.
  
• Black Back Gull chicks take all summer to get their juvenile feathers and fly.
• The way reptiles supposedly colonize new areas.

Movies:
My little amateur video of our Day is here

Day One Journal and Log

Reflective Journal: I am starting from square one. I've spent so many years in Vermont and have forgotten everything I knew about shelling(my hobby as a child), flora and fauna. I've also never known what those little grids were on a navigational chart. I guess I have a long way to go with this course.

I am anxoius to learn, tough. I saw this course last year, but it was at the end of the summer. It ended after I was due back at work, so I was ecstatic to see that you were offering it in June this time around. I love the historical/romantic notions about the sea as much as the special ecosystems and challenges (eg. your story about fishing in spawning grounds). Many nuances to become acquainted with an understand.

Daily Log: Things I've found most interesting:

• Fisher Cats live in a shore ecosystem. That must mean the presence of mice and rabbits.
  
• I didn't hear any Red Wing Blackbirds on our walk today.
• Plum Island is not an end moraine like Cape Cod.
• Six feet to a fathom. I thought a fathom equaled miles.
• I need to play with Google Earth much more. Like everything Google, It's fantastc.

Vocabulary:

• Primary Dunes - Areas that protect the land beyond against flood tides and storm surges. They are held together by the plant life(eg. beach grass) that lives on them.
• Beach Grass/or Poverty Grass - Interesting grass that will colonize all but the shore area, with long roots that form a mat to stabilize the sand.
• Noran Lines - I must not have the correct spelling, but they are the lines other than longitude and latitude on a nav chart.
  
• Plutons - layered composition of the earth. Specifically for this course, the layered compostion of the ocean floor.
• Upwelling - the transport of deep water to shallow levels.
• Finger Moraine - no definition. Will clear this up tomorro

First Post

I'm looking forward to Boat Camp. I know very little about coastal marine ecosystems in general and even less about the Merrimac River and its surrounding area of influence. I'm eager to know.