Closed for the Season

Due to the hurricane this past weekend, we had to empty the Portsmouth touch tank and unfortunately will not be reopening for the last week of the 2011 season. Hopefully you got a chance to visit us earlier in the summer and enjoy some of the creatures from the Gulf of Maine. See you next year!

Update Re: Hurricane Irene

We're taking precautions due to Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene and will be putting the tank in storage at least while the weather passes - so the tank will be closed from this afternoon (Saturday) until further notice. Will keep you posted!

Periwinkles!

Our featured creature at the Portsmouth touch tank this week is the periwinkle! Our junior intern, Willy Jones, wrote a great article about these animals in this month's Blue Ocean Society e-newsletter, which can be found here: http://www.enewsarchive.com/blueoceansociety .

We had some great periwinkle-themed crafts at the touch tank today, thanks to our intern, Callie! Today was her last day as she heads back to school next week - a big thanks to Callie and all of our touch tank interns and volunteers for their help this summer!

Mummichogs

We had some great visitors at the touch tank today, along with wonderful weather! We have quite a few mummichogs in the tank right now, in addition to lobsters, crabs, hermit crabs, sea urchins, moon snails, and sea anemones.

Stop by this week to visit these fish or any of our other great creatures! We are open Wed-Sun from 8:30 am to 2 pm.

Creature feature August 15-21

We have two featured creatures at the Portsmouth touch tank this week!

The first is the sand shrimp, which is a small species of shrimp common on the Atlantic coast. They have one pair of hook-shaped claws and are one of the dominant predators in the benthic (sea bottom) community. In the summer, they are found in shallow waters, and in the winter they migrate into deeper waters.

The second creature this week is the mummichog, which is a small fish that also lives in shallow waters along the east coast of North America. Its Native American name means "they go in great numbers." These fish feed on insects, small fish, crustaceans, and plants. They are an important food source for larger fish species.

Lobster week

Lobster week at the touch tank was a success! We now have 4 of these creatures in the tank, of various sizes. Although they typically scavenge at night, we actually got some of these animals to eat mussels on Saturday afternoon! Thanks to all of our visitors this past week - we hope to see you again soon!

Lobsters!

In honor of our new additions to the touch tank, this week's featured creature is the lobster! We have two little lobsters in Portsmouth right now, as well as some new crabs, limpets, and sea urchins! Here is the bigger of our two lobsters, hiding between his favorite rocks!

We had some great visitors today at that tank - here is Michael, age 2.5, with a moon snail shell, and with his favorite touch tank creature: the periwinkle!

Stop by to see our lobsters and the rest of our great marine life at the Blue Ocean Society touch tank in Portsmouth!