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!
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