The Crabby Mystery

As mentioned before there has been some sketchy behavior in the tank. Someone has been stealing our Crab's legs!! Our first suspects were the hungry flounder but today we got photo evidence of a mummichog minnow with a hermit crabs leg in his mouth!! We have a rock crab with only two legs and our poor Europen Green Crab Petey is down to only a leg or two as well. Along with a couple hermit crabs there is a crab leg theif in the tank so we have to watch out for them. The Flounder and mummichogs are now under investifgation come by the tank to see our poor crabs and tell us who you think did it!

Also it is sea urchin week so our little urchin needs a name we are open Saturday and Sunday 10am-4pm. Hope to see you there!!

Someone's been stealing our crabs' legs!

It seems to be molting season, because today we found the molt, or shed-off shell, of our green crab Petey - the second molt this week. When we found the living, breathing Petey hiding under a rock, we discovered that, just like our rock crab that had molted a few days before, he had fallen victim to our resident leg thief!

As Samantha mentioned in yesterday's blog post, crabs are soft and vulnerable right after they molt - they need a few days to grow and harden up. So both Petey and the rock crab were attacked at their most vulnerable. We're not quite sure who's taking those legs, though we have an idea, based on something we witnessed today: a flounder creeping up on a hermit crab and snatching its leg as a snack! We crushed up a few blue mussels for Flappy, Mikey and Winnie the Pooh to eat, with the hopes of curbing their appetites and giving them reason to leave our poor crabs alone. Life is tough in the touch tank!

Speaking of snacks... the urchin craft continued to be a big hit today. After learning about the green sea urchin, our feature of the week, several visitors used marshmallows and pretzel sticks to create their own urchins - and then eat them! Here are a few of our friends piecing together the craft:


Come see the urchin for yourself - and help us solve the case of the crab leg crook! See you tomorrow!

Crab Molt

When we opened the Portsmouth touch tank the other day we noticed one of our Rock Crabs had molted. Crabs molt once they have out grown their current shells and need a bigger one. After this molting process happens a crabs shell is soft for about three days leaving it vulnerable to predators. Our Roch Crab apparently did not hide itself well enough because when we saw her on Wednesday her still soft body was missing six legs! Below is a picture of the molted crab, the lighter red shell is the molt and the dark color shell is the Crab, still leaving, only without six legs. Crabs, like Sea Stars, can regrow legs but it will not be back to its full length until after three molts.

Feeding Frenzy at the Discovery Center

The North Shore Consortium from Peabody Ma came to visit us today, they enjoyed several books read to them by our summer intern Ally. Morgan from Charlstown Ma came in again with her grandmother and did some arts and crafts. Feeding time was really fun! We watched as each crab would grab the yummy scallops donated by Lee's Seafood. Come by for feeding time Wednesday and Saturdays at 1:00, also story time on Wednedays at 11:00. Hope to see you soon!

It's urchin week!

This week, our Feature Creature at the Portsmouth tank is of the spiny variety - the green sea urchin! We have at least one little guy in our tank; another, more elusive urchin may be hiding in there too.

Urchins are related to sea stars, sand dollars and sea cucumbers. They have lots of small green spines on the outside of their test, or body - one visitor today called our urchin "the porcupine of the sea." Their tests are round and squat, and all those spines protect the insides, where urchins ingest their food and harbor their eggs.

The mouth of an urchin is located on its underside. From what you can see when you hold one, it looks like a small opening, similar to the mouth of the sea star. But from the inside, it looks strikingly different: there are five "teeth" that come together to munch on algae (particularly kelp). Here's what the teeth, all together called an Aristotle's lantern, look like from inside the urchin's test:


Urchins move around using tiny tube feet, just like seastars do. But whereas seastars' feet are found only on the undersides of their arms, urchins have tube feet all over their bodies - you can watch them all stick out if you hold an urchin under the water for a moment or two!

These funny little creatures are harvested quite frequently from the Gulf of Maine, often to be sold to Asian seafood markets. Found under the name "uni" in Japanese American restaurants, urchin roe and gonads are a delicacy in many Asian countries. There have been recent reports that the urchin population in the area is under threat of overfishing, so it may be best to avoid this on the menu - at least until populations increase again!

Come check out these fascinating animals, and give our one - or two - urchins a name. See you at the tank!

Camouflage Attempt #2

For the second day in a row we separated out a flounder and placed black and white patterns under him to see if he would change colors to match the patterns. Did it work?Well....it kinda worked. The beginnings of some black and white spots can be seen but unfortunately the flounder did not have time to fully adapt to its new surroundings.

In other news, we drew three names for our three flounders. The winning names were: Winnie the Pooh submitted by Natalie in Lebanon, NH, Flappy the Flounder suggested by Hanna from Kennebunkport, ME and Mike-y submitted by Liam in Strafford, NH.

Yesterday at the Touch Tank

Yesterday at the touch tank we tried to make one of our flounder change colors to the new backgrounds that were put in the tank yesterday. Flounder not only can camouflouge in the sand in rocks but even patterned surroundings like checker boards and spots! We put one of the flounder in to a smaller tank for a little bit with our patterned backgrounds and waited...and waited...and waited for the flounder to do its thing and become a living checkerboard, but the poor flounder wouldnt sit still long enough. He did produce some black and white but that's all he was willing to do for us.
You still have a chance to name these stubborn flounder so come on down today before 4pm and put your name suggestion in the box or just come visit us if you already have! :)

We have new backgrounds at the tank for the Flounder to camouflage to, found a cool new scale worm and figured out what the two unknown red fish were in the tank.. Cunner fish!! Come out this weekend between our hours 10am-4pm to check everything out!!
Also found our small sea urchin who has been hiding from us in the tank today!

We will also have a table set up at the Redhook Festival tomorrow from 2pm-7:30pm so feel free to stop by or find us if you have plans on going to the festival. We will have fun games and prizes, our Enviroscape presentation and so much more.

Hope to see you sometime this weekend!!

It was a beautiful but windy day today. Our Winter Flounder were very active and even showed off some of there camouflage skills. We hope to bring in some different colored backgrounds to the tank this weekend so we can see if the Flounder will change color to match the different backgrounds we have. We have some great pictures of the eye migration and camouflage traits of the flounder so come check it out!!

We are open tomorrow 11am-4pm and Sat-Sun 10am-4pm
Please come and sign our new guest book and you can be added to our mailing list to see what we are up to even during the winter months when the tank is not open.

New Craft!

This week's feature creature is the Flounder. We currently have three Winter Flounder in the Portsmouth Touch Tank who are quite active and fun to watch. In addition, we are making Flounders with googly eyes as our craft for the week. Come by the tank to personalize your Flounder as Jocelyn did today!

New critters join our tank

We have alot of homes for crabs theses days. This crab has found a nice cozy home in this empty moon snail shell. A new friend to our tank is the Rock gunnel, we actually have 2 of these fish. They reside all year round in hiding under rocks and sea weeds. They move like an eel when disturbed hence the name "rock eel" and are also called "butterfish" because they are hard to catch. They like to eat shellfish, shrimp, and worms. Like life in a tide pool your choices are to eat or get eaten. There predators are cod, pollock, and sea birds. Our summer intern Heather and Erin are educating a visitor who spent alot of time with us today!

It's flounder week!

Come check out some our three flatfish, learn some fun fish facts (like that one of a flounder's eyes moves to the other side of its body so both eyes can be on top) and give them all a name!

Winning Name!!

This was the final day in our naming contest for our Neptune Whelk, although there were several creative names the winner is....

LILY, submitted by Rosie from New Ipswich, New Hampshire! Congratulations!

Come by the tank next week to name our Flounder.

Today at the touch tank it was a scorcher! Good news is, two of our sea stars finally decided to show themselves:) They have been in the tank for some time but have stayed very well hidden until now.
It was relatively busy and we got some more name suggestions for our creature feature, the Neptune Whelk. If you still haven't had a chance to put your name in you still have until 4pm tomorrow so come on by! And while your down at the tank you can make a necklace:D Remember we"re drawing the name tomorrow so be sure to check the blog to see if your name was drawn!

Hungry,Hungry Flounder!

Today at the touch tank we fed the hungry flounder and minnows. What a lively bunch!If you've never seen a flounder eat, this video's just for you.

It was quite apparent that the fish were hungry when the flounder started to eat the sea lettuce and the minnows started to eat the periwinkles!
Hopefully that should hold them over 'till tomorrow when we'll be feeding everyone in the tank raw cod. Yum!
It's supposed to be a beautiful day tomorrow so come on down, you never know what will happen in the tank!!!

Everyone made their own special sea necklace! Some sea stars, whelks and scallops.

Temple Israel - thank you for letting us be a part of your Pirate themed day!

Today was a great day at the tank!! We had a group of great girls from the Temple Israel come by for pirate day and a lot of interested visitors about the new critters! We made a lot of Whelk necklaces and even had some visitors from Paris, France!! We learned a lot, made crafts and some sea urchin snacks after holding one and learning all about them! We had some great names for our Whelk as well today so do not forget to stop by and enter your own name idea for our Neptune Whelk.
We will be open tomorrow from 11-4pm and Sat-Sun from 10-4pm
Hope to see you there!!

Whelk Week

In keeping with this weeks feature creature, the whelk, our craft is making whelk necklaces! Come by to trace, color, and add beads to make your very own personalized whelk necklace!

Come by the tank to see our four species of whelk and to name our Neptune Whelk!

Discovery Center July 13

Christian LaFlech from Glenville, NY came in to visit today with his mom and dad and his little brother, who could clearly saw "Nemo" We were able to show them a sea anemone similar to the one Nemo lives in! From the picture you can Christian holding a large Sperm whale tooth and the smaller tooth from an Orca whale. Both teeth are replicas of real teeth. It's difficult to find real teeth because when whales die there gums deteriorate very quickly and there teeth fall out and are likely at the bottom of the ocean. Alot of new critters in our tank come by and see us! Our first beach clean up is July 21 at 10 am meet us at the Discovery Center, we supply all you need! We also had the Granata family spend some time with us and then returned for feeding time, Jake, Nick , and Mia and there mom are from Marblehead, Massachusetts, thanks for visiting!

Fan photos!

Here are some of the people who joined us on Tuesday in checking out our new critters and trying out our new craft!

Sam checked out the crabs in the tank and had lots of great questions for us. He gave one of the first entries for our creature feature naming contest - this week, our Neptune whelk needs a name!

Alyssa and Audrey of Sanford came to the tank for the first time yesterday! Alyssa was fascinated by the periwinkles, and Audrey was very good at finding the crabs hiding in the seaweed.

Some fascinating new creatures

Here's a look at one of our three flounder. These little guys are flatfish - they swim with their bodies turned so that they scoot along the bottom on their sides. As young fish, flounder swim like other fish - straight up and down - but somewhere in the development process, they switch to sideswimmers. The coolest thing about it: When they make this switch, one of their eyes moves to the other side of their body!
You can see from the picture that this flounders eyes are on top. The eye that used to be on the bottom side moved when the fish was young. Now, this flounder can watch the world around it with two eyes on the top of its body!
Another interesting addition this week: an Asian shore crab. Yes, we've had this species in the tank for a while, but our newest friend is a male - and his claws are gigantic! Take a look at the difference between one of our resident females (sitting in someone's hand) and our new boy (sitting on the bottom of the tank). The new guy walks around dragging these big claws with him - he almost looks like they're weighing him down!

So Much To Talk About

Today was a great day at the tank!!! Our friend Chris Emerson was so nice to donate us some new critters!!! We now have 3 new sea stars, a brittle star, 2 sea urchins, 3 flounder and a couple minnows!! We are all excited about the new specimen in the tank you will have to stop by Tuesday between 11am - 4pm to welcome them all to the tank!

And now the moment you have all been waiting for, the name drawing for the Green Crab! We had a lot of good entries and the one that we picked out of the pot was...
Drum roll please....
PETEY!! Name suggested by Jordan from Worcester, Massachusetts.
Congratulations for being picked and if your name was not picked our creature feature for this next week are Whelks!! So come down and we will have new crafts and new creatures who need to be named.

Today at the touch tank was very busy despite the rain :) we also aquired a few new additions to the tank a wave whelk snail, a few smaller hermit crabs, and a few giant perriwinkles. The wave whelk especially is very active and could be a new favorite. We made tons of crabby masks and they all were so beatuiful and creative. Our lobster got it's bands today so no worries about being pinched! Our green crab has a lot more possible names thanks to the entries today and now he only has to wait until tomorrow at 4pm to find out his name! If you come up with an awesome name you still have tomorrow so come on down. We're open from 10 am-4pm on Sunday, so don't be shy and come on by!

Yesterday at the Touch Tank!

Yesterday at the touch tank we were pretty busy! We made a lot of crabby masks and had a lot of new submissions for the Green Crab's name. If you have put in a submission or have not been down to then tank yet you have until 4pm on Sunday!!! If you have already submitted your name then be looking here on our blog Sunday night to see whose name we randomly pick out of the box and best of luck! We are open today and tomorrow 10am - 4pm so come down and see all the critters, make your own crab mask and enter your chance to name the Green Crab ( our creature feature of the week ). Today Katherine, Bailey and Aimee will be there waiting for you to come play at the touch tank. Hope to see you there!!

A crabby day (in a good way)

This is Evelyn, one of our regular visitors at the Portsmouth touch tank. Today, she took initiative and showed her babysitter the way to the tank!
After checking out our featured creature, the European green crab, Evelyn made a crab masquerade mask. The final product was perfect - it looked just like the crab in the tank!
We'll be making masks like this one all week long as we feature our favorite little green guy. He was a big hit today with Evelyn and our other visitors, so come check him out for yourself! You can ask our knowledgeable staff about what crabs eat, how long they live, how they grow and how they got here in the first place (green crabs are not native to the area).
We'll be open from 11 to 4 Friday and 10 to 4 on Saturday and Sunday. See you then!

Feature Creature

This weeks feature creature is the European Green Crab! The Green Crab is an invasive species in New England, originally brought over from Europe in the 1800's. These creatures are not always green however, they sometimes lose their color as they age.
Come to the touch tank this week to take a look at our Green Crabs or make a Green Crab mask!

This is also our first week doing a naming contest. Come to the touch to name our Green Crab, the winning name will be announced at the end of the week!

Feeding time and story time at The Discovery Center

Today was a fun-filled day at the Sea Life Discovery Center! Here's a list of today's exciting events: 1) We have a new pregnant green crab! She is carrying anywhere between 185,000-250,000 neon orange eggs in her brood, and she will be carrying them until they hatch! 2) Feeding frenzy! Our crabs had a delicious meal of fish, scallops, and clams, and we got some great footage of the action. 3) Story time was a great success! Our visitors from Arizona, Colorado, Quebec, and the Netherlands all listened to a story read by our intern Ally. Come visit us every Wednesday to hear an ocean tale and to see the crabs have their weekly meal!

Hot hot hot...

Man, is it hot out. By 2 p.m. today, the water in our outdoor tank in Portsmouth had risen to 12 degrees above the setting at which we keep it - it reached 67 F! As a result, we closed things up a bit early, with the hopes of keeping the critters (and staff) happy. However, we are on call if you would like to stop by this afternoon before 4. Just have a member of the Isles of Shoals Steamship Company crew give Katherine a call - I'll be there in no time!

Beautiful 4th of July weekend

We had a great day today! With visitors doing arts and crafts to fill our ceiling with all sorts of sea creatures we're on our way to filling our ceiling with artistic life. The touch tank is still full of life and all the residents can't wait to help teach you about the ocean.
Come in, get your hands wet and learn... It's a beautiful weekend, spend it learning about our beautiful ocean.

A real life hero!

Today was going along as another great day at the Discovery Center when a personal hero of mine came to visit. Willy, Blue Oceans, Junior Intern came by to see what we have inside. I've got to say todays blog is about him. Willy is 10 years old and he cares so much about our local whales that he has his family come from PA(where he's from) all the way up to the MA area to volunteer his time two times a year helping out on local whale watch boats and at beach clean ups. Today he adopted his 4th whale. If that isn't enough he maintains an active hand in the push for a better tommorow. Sending Origami whales with anti-whaling messages to the IWC and having his friends donate to conservation groups as their gifts to him, I've got to honestly say I wish there were more people out there like him. Thank you Willy for coming by, it was a great pleasure to finally meet you!

As for the rest of the Discovery Center we had a good wave of visitors that I know walked away with more knowledge in their heads(even if it is summer break). The tank is still fully stocked and the Kids Corner is being filled with beautiful works of art made by visitors to our center.

Hope to see more new and old faces soon!

HI EVERYONE!!! My name is Aimee and I am an Intern at the touch tank this summer. If you ever come over to the tank you will probably see me there! Today was a beautiful day as we had a good amount of people show up. We made a lot of Sea Urchin snacks and held a lot of critters. The lobster is starting to get use to all of the hands in the tank and actually let us pick him up today for everyone to see! You will have to join us this weekend for some fun lobster crafts and come see the lobster for yourself. Hope to see you there! :]

Our lobster is already at home

Here's an image of the latest addition to the Portsmouth touch tank! After 24 hours in its new home, our lobster is fitting right in. It's been walking around the tank, hiding in the seaweed and checking out the rocks and sandy areas. We fed the little guy some cod donated by Seaport Fish in Rye, which was gobbled up gratefully. Tomorrow's craft will be all about lobsters, so make sure to stop by. Alyssia and Aimee will be there to greet you!