Boating in the Charleston Harbor
Our class was given the chance to go out on a DNR boat and catch organisms on April 18th, 2019, with beautiful weather surrounding us. There was a low of 60 degrees Fahrenheit around 6 a.m. and a high of 72 degrees at 2:15 p.m. (middle of the time spent on the boat). There was a 64% cloud coverage around noon, however, I remember the sky being absolutely clear and blue and bright. There was only a 5.4% chance of precipitation around 1 p.m. and an average wind speed of 10.0 mph throughout the day. We went to the Grice marine laboratories for take off and adventured to three different spots in the Charleston harbor. The first spot we went to was just a few miles off the shore and I remember it being 23 ft deep! During the first catch it was unbelievable seeing all the organisms such as "Sea Robins" which looked like aggressive little fish but were gentile and "Porcelain Crabs" which were in fact very small. Here, we also identified "Drums," and "Atlantic Croaker", they were very shiny in appearance and looked like a fat minnow. The coolest catch of the first haul was a "Stripped Burrfish," which was yellow and brown striped with little spines poking out of its back. It was very exciting to see this and see it puff up. The second catch was definitely the most eventful however, especially when it began with catching a stingray. On the second haul we identified another pufferfish called a "Northern Puffer" it looked like a regular small fish when it wasn't puffed! We also identified a "Northern Clingfish" which had amazing suction to the tables! We also caught lots of "Brief Squids" which I learned change colors in your hand because of chemicals, it was very neat to see it change before my eyes. The most unique organisms we identified was a little reddish orange octopus that I classified as common, because I am not completely sure. However, everyone was amazed to see it swim and ink! The third catch my phone sadly died, however, there were mostly repetitive species that were found in the other catches such as "Atlantic Blue Crabs", "Atlantic Horseshoe Crabs", "White Shrimp", and also " Windowpane Flounder" which were completely colored on one side and then see through on the other with two eyes on one side! Some other neat organism was a "Tonguefish" that truly looked like a big tongue, and a "Brittle Star" that was a small starfish covered in sand. This trip was an excellent ending to the great semester we had identifying and learning as much as we could about the nature around us!
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