Happenings at the Touch Tank Mon. July 28th

So today was a fun day filled with a steady amount of visitors curious to see what was in our touch tank. Some of these visitors were passengers who had heard about the touch tank after being a passenger aboard one of our whale watches and others were people who had seen our sign and decided to stop by. Many of our visitors often have interesting questions about the critters in the tank and one question we were asked today was, do crabs hibernate? Other happens at the touch tank is our on going project to make a model of Jeffrey's Ledge. Right now the construction is underway and hopefully soon visitors can start to see the construction in progress.

Touch Tank Fixed

Saturday, Saturday July 26

It was a lovely and not rainy morning on the Isles of Shoals Dock. We were ready to get the touch tank going and then Cassie says" the touch tank is not on." Well, that began an hour in a half of trying to figure out why it wouldn't turn on, because everything was turned on and yet the touch tank was not. We called tech support that is only open from 9-5 Monday through Friday (because apparently that is the only time touch tanks break), and got lucky because the plant supervisor was there to answer. We ran through a few scenarios and found that the problem was with the extension cord. The rain storms in the past week were pretty severe and had shorted out tripping the reset button on the outlet, which is fantastic or we could have caused a fire because there was exposed wire. Reset buttons are awesome. We bought a new extension cord and everything was wonderful. We a good number of people show for the touch tank and besides the morning hiccup everything turned out fantastic. Always check your extension cords for exposed wires, especially old ones. The tank was saved and smiling faces were had by all!
By Rachel Neild, Blue Ocean Society educator

Inclement weather

We've closed the tank today due to stormy weather. Come visit us this weekend instead!

Cunner Fish Attacks European Green Crab!

As it turns out, we humans aren't the only ones with a taste for crab
legs. Just the other day at the tank, I observed our cunner, a common
coastal, omnivorous fish, hovering near one of our green crabs. The
crab didn't seem to pay the fish much mind at first, but then, all of
a sudden, the fish lunged forward and took one of the crab's legs
right off of him and devoured it in a single gulp! The crab,
obviously upset to say the least, scuttled away as fast as it could,
claws raised menacingly at the fish as he limped over to a rock to
hide under. Needless to say, we began feeding time a bit early that
day so as to avoid any more losses of limbs! The drama truly never
stops at the Touch Tank!

Caught in the act!

I watched on Thursday morning as the larger of our two hermit crabs scoped out a new shell and then went for it! You don't get to see this very often, because it happens very quickly and only when a crab finds a suitable, available shell.

Hermit crabs are not true crabs -- they don't make their own shells. This leaves them extremely vulnerable to predation and injury, as their abdomens are soft and unprotected. To guard themselves, they use empty shells created by other animals -- a kind of recycling in the marine world! They're always on the prowl for a bigger and better shell. Once they find one of the right size, they hop in, backside first, and curl their abdomens around the columella, or middle column. They keep the shell with them at all times, carrying it around as their home. 

Because empty shells can be hard to come by, hermit crabs can be very competitive when it comes to obtaining one. The hermit crab in our tank has obviously succeeded in this many times, as it is big enough to need the shell of a moon snail, a very large gastropod that lives in Atlantic waters. Hermit crabs will outgrow their shells if they can't find or compete for bigger ones, and we at the tank have never seen a hermit crab this big!

Our first blog!

Hello, marine lovers! Welcome to Blue Ocean Society's first-ever touch tank blog. I'm Katherine Lanzer, this year's Touch Tank Coordinator, and I'm excited to keep you updated on the many activities we have in store for the tank each day. 

This summer, we've had visitors from all over the country, and many local residents have come more than once to check in on our critters. It's been wonderful to meet so many people and help them learn about local marine life. Our hope is that once they encounter several of the species that live in the Gulf of Maine, they'll be inspired to help protect them from pollution, overfishing and other actions that pose a threat to our oceans.

The tank is open seven days a week, all summer long. We have games planned for every day at noon; you can make crafts each day and take them home; and twice-weekly story times (Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11 a.m.) feature some of the creatures in our tank, such as our giant hermit crab. Next week, July 13 through 19, be sure to arrive at noon for Entanglement Tag, a game that will help kids and adults understand one way in which pollution can threaten ocean animals.

We've seen lots of cool things occur in the tank. Just yesterday, we watched as a sea star swallowed its stomach back up after extracting it to digest some algae. Several times, we've seen our two hermit crabs exchange their shells, pulling their vulnerable bodies out of the old ones and jumping quickly into the new ones. Two of our crabs have molted, leaving behind the old shells that they shed to make room for another. And our waved whelk, a large predatory snail, has been leaving silvery bubbles in its path -- and we've yet to discover why!

Thanks for checking out our blog, and keep coming back to find out more about the tank and what's new!

New Gulf of Maine exhibit underway!

Welcome to our new blog about our touch tank, located in downtown Portsmouth! Our touch tank staff will be sharing more news throughout the summer, but I wanted to post some recent pictures. The new tank is sponsored in part by the Port Inn in Portsmouth, and is a great improvement over our old tank!

Our staff and interns are in the middle of converting the old tank into a model of Jeffreys Ledge, which is an important habitat about 20 miles off our coast, and the location of many whale sightings during the summer! Progress so far included taking most of the old piping out of the fiberglass tank, and painting it. Soon a layer of sand and plywood will be put in, then we'll be working on a foamcore model of the Ledge! Come visit the tank and see how things are going!

Last week, Touch Tank Coordinator Katherine Lanzer held a staff training and we cleaned the tank - in the middle of a storm (nothing stops us from helping our critters!). Here are a couple pics showing one of the interns siphoning water, and the team effort of doing the water change!