Thank you, Treehouse Toys!

Treehouse Toys, located at 143 Market Street in Portsmouth, NH, just became a Silver Sponsor of our Portsmouth Touch Tank! A big thank you to them for helping us continue to educate our visitors and hopefully inspire them to conserve the marine environment! Be sure to visit Treehouse Toys and thank them for their contribution! Their hours are:

Mon - Thur 10am - 6pm
Fri - Sat 10am - 8pm
Sun 10am-6pm

A week full of echinoderms!

This week's creature feature is the echinoderm. Echinoderms include sea stars, sea urchins, and sand dollars. The word echinoderm comes from the Greek words for "spiny" and "skin." Echinoderms are the largest phylum (group of related animals) that has no freshwater or terrestrial species!

All adult echinoderms have pentaradial, or 5-sided, symmetry. There creatures are often known for their ability to regenerate body parts - in some species, a single arm can develop into a complete individual!

For the chance to observe and hold an echinoderm or any of the other amazing creatures currently living in our touch tank, stop by the Isles of Shoals dock in downtown Portsmouth from Wed-Sun from 8:30 am to 2 pm!!

Crab week at the touch tank!

This week at the Portsmouth touch tank, our featured creature is the crab! Just in time to celebrate, we noticed one of our female crabs is carrying bright orange eggs!

We will have to keep a close eye on her, and hopefully we will have some new baby crabs by the end of the summer!

Stop by Wed-Sun between 8:30 am and 2 pm to see this crab or any of our others - we have jonah crabs, rock crabs, green crabs, and asian shore crabs in the tank right now! Hope to see you soon.

Can you find our flounder?

The winter flounder uses its fins to cover its body in sand. This fish is able to camouflage so well that sometimes it's hard to even spot him in the tank! Can you find him in both of these photos?

July 13-17 is Flounder Week!

We have a very friendly winter flounder in our Portsmouth Touch Tank. At feeding times, he has even been known to eat right out of your hand!

Winter flounder is a type of flatfish. In the Gulf of Maine, it is the most common shallow water flounder. It can be distinguished from the summer flounder because winter flounder have eyes on the right side of their bodies and they have no teeth.

If you would like to see this week's featured creature for yourself, come

visit our touch tank this Wednesday-Thursday from 8:30 am - 2 pm at 315 Market St!

Hermit Crab moving day

I know this week is supposed to be all about frilled anemones at the touch tank, but it seems the hermit crabs weren't ready to let go of their time in the spotlight! Today we had a very exciting event - one of our large hermit crabs switched his shell!

Because hermit crabs don't grow their own hard shells like other crabs, they live in empty shells from other animals, such as dogwelks and moon snails, to protect themselves. The hermit crab today carefully inspected one of the empty shells in the tank, turning it over with its claws many times to make sure it would make a suitable home. It then left the safety of its original shell and moved over into the new shell! We don't get to see this event very often, so our visitors today were very lucky to witness the show. A big thanks to Emma and Scott Watson for visiting our tank two days in a row!

Kids: Join us for our Sea Star Camp July 19 and 21!

Looking for something fun for your 3-6 year old?  To earn their Silver Award, a team of Hampton Cadette Girl Scouts is partnering with Blue Ocean Society to offer Sea Star Camp.  Camp will be held at the Blue Ocean Touch Tank and on board the docked MV Thomas Laighton in Portsmouth.  Two sessions are offered, Tuesday July 19^th and  Thursday July 21^st.  Camp runs from 9-11:30am both days.  The sessions offer activities and hands on education with the sea animals in the touch tank.  Cost is $10 per session and includes a t-shirt.  Registration form can be found here  or call 603-431-0260 for more information.

This week at the Touch Tank: Frilled Anemones

Come visit the anemones in the Portsmouth Touch Tank this week! Frilled anemones use their tentacles to feed on small zooplankton in the water.

Join us at the Isles of Shoals Steamship Company Dock in this great summer weather to gently touch and hold some of our plants and animals in the touch tank. Along with this week's featured creature the anemone, we also have a winter flounder, a sculpin, and many crabs, hermit crabs, and sea stars.