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Date: Thursday, June 21, 2001

UMASS BOSTON "Exploring the Coastal Environment"

Summer Solstice!

We started off the day looking for the perfect spot to do an otter trawl in Gloucester Harbor. An obstacle course of lobster pots made it a challenge, but with the help of the students we successfully set and retrieved the net avoiding all the hazards. To our surprise an old, mangled and forgotten lobster pot had been scooped up in our trawl. It must have been abandoned long ago because it had become an artificial reef that was now home to anemones, barnacles, sponges, tunicates, sea stars and numerous other invertebrates. Other unexpected items in the net were a large rubber boot and a plastic bag that had trapped a live flounder. The most abundant animal in the net were sand dollars, there were hundreds, and tons of good mud that the students sifted through pulling out different species of animlas. We ended up with representatives from seven different Phyla, Chordates, Echinoderms, Mollusks, Annelids, Cnidarians, Arthropods, and Porifera. The most interesting chordates were male and female winter skates, a sea raven, on ocean pot, squirrel hake,and 5 winter flounder. The rest of the catch consisted of different crabs, sea anemones, sea stars, snails, bristle worms, and sponges. After identifying all the species and hosing down the muddy deck, and people, we set sail and headed for Boston. The fog closed in on our way to the Harbor Islands and we put out a plankton tow to do a sampling. As we checked out the zooplankton and phytoplankton under the microscopes there was a species I had never seen before. It was bright orange and moved around with little podia, it turned out to be a sea cucumber larvae.

We anchored for the night off Peddocks Island, and after dinner the students had the opportunity to express their creativity and humor through skits about the ups and downs – litterally - of a week shipboard life. It was definitely amusing and enjoyed by all.

Anchor watch followed.

Captain: Willi Bank
Program Coordinator: Crista Mellican

We would like to thank Lotus and IBM for donation of software, hardware and funding to enable regular electronic updates from the ship.

NOAA Chart is provided courtesy of Maptech using Cruising Navigator 4.3 and grabbing the image using Grabit Pro 6.02.

 
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Copyright 1997-2001
Schooner Ernestina
89 North Water Street, P.O. Box 2010, New Bedford, MA 02741-2010
phone 508.992.4900 -- fax 508.984.7719
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