Invertebrates (Tuesday, July 7)

We spent the morning doing a field exercise on marine environments. We went to two sites along the Indian River Lagoon, one near the mouth of Taylor Creek, just south of HBOI, and one at a seagrass bed at HBOI. Taylor Creek drains agricultural land--mostly citrus, down here--and urban areas, but is also directly across from Fort Pierce inlet, so is flushed with seawater more than the HBOI site. We split up into groups and rotated through four stations at each site to measure different parameters

Water quality - temp, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen, and depth. We also talked about water sampling and how to collect good samples for toxicology sampling.
Seining for nekton - using nets, we strained through the water to collect anything swimming around. We found
--various different small baitfish
--a tiny barracuda
--a small jellyfish
--dwarf seahorses
--a shrimp
Benthic core sampling - we cored and strained from the sand, mud and muck at the bottom, and found
--hermit crabs
--a small flounder
--lots of worm tubes and empty shells
--two brittle stars

Brittle star from the bottom in a dish back in lab

--a bunch of worms and small slimy things
--a crab
Quadrant survey of seagrass - we looked at the distribution and species of seagrass in these two locations, and found much more seagrass and a more diverse population at the HBOI site.

We were able to come back to the lab in the afternoon to look more closely at some of the creatures we caught. We had identification books, and I attempted to identify some of our creatures but had a lot of trouble deciding between the two or three best choices of species for most of them. It was great to get outside and do something active for the day, rather than sit in lecture, and I got a bit of a tan!

The class back in the lab at HBOI, ready to start identifying sea creatures

In the afternoon and evening, we heard from Tom Landry on the subject of aquaculture of shellfish, shrimp, and bivalves, and some of the problems and solutions with it.