It was a beautiful day on the water...
Once we were near the mouth of the inlet, a trawl net was dropped into the water. There are so many different animals in the water here: in the first trawl, Katie gathered several fish, including a Hog Choker (got to love that name) and plenty of shrimp. She explained a lot about each animal, even how to tell if you are eating male or female shrimp.
On the second trawl, she brought in a medium to large female horseshoe crab. We learned how to tell the difference between males and females and also heard how their blood is used in the medical field for testing for impurities.
Forked tail fish (faster swimmers), fan tail fish, trout with "buck teeth", eyes that migrate to the top side of flat fish in one day (the Hog Choker) and lots more. Katie also passed around two sting ray barbs; they were nasty looking things - don't step on one of these animals in the water.
All in all, a really great trip. Thank you, Karen, for making this all possible.
And a very big THANK YOU to all the wonderful volunteers who spent so many hours on the beach this summer monitoring for turtle crawls, protecting the two nests we did find, and collecting data at the inventories. Not to mention the tons of trash you all collected over the summer; your help in keeping the island clean make it a beautiful and pristine seashore.
See you all in the spring!
Barb and Steve
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