Stories from the Bay |
By: Zach Nickerson, Education Outreach Coordinator, American Littoral Society On June 27th we brought two groups of kids, from Cumberland County College Summer Academy for Kids and from Children’s Country Place in Seaville, to the oyster reef at Reeds Beach in order to learn about our habitat restoration projects. In the morning, during low tide when the reef was visible, about 20 students from Summer Academy for Kids came down to do some biological sampling of the reef to see what creatures are living in it. We were able to identify mud dog whelks, striped anemones, black fingered crabs, red line worms, arthropods, bryozoan, mussels, and of course oysters. Then we went on a beachcombing walk to see what else we could find and to talk about beach erosion, the beach replenishment that the Littoral Society had done there in the past, and how we hoped that the reef would protect from future erosion. Finally, we used the seine nets to catch silversides, mummichogs, blue claw crabs, and even a few horseshoe crabs. Later on in the afternoon, closer to high tide, 25 kids from Children’s Country Place came to learn about the horseshoe crabs. We found a live horseshoe crab and talked about its anatomy and its relationship to migratory shorebirds and humans. After another beachcombing walk to talk about the Littoral Society’s work with these amazing arthropods, the older kids broke off to practice our horseshoe crab surveying technique while the younger kids dug in the sand to try and find their eggs. Not only did they successfully find eggs, but we were able to look through the magnifying glass and see the tiny baby crabs growing inside!
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