Welcome!


Are the barnacles feeding? Will the hermit crab switch shells yet again? Here you'll learn about all the exciting happenings at our Marine Life Touch Tank in Portsmouth and our Blue Ocean Discovery Center in Hampton Beach, NH!

Locations and Hours:
- Blue Ocean Discovery Center, 170 Ocean Boulevard, Hampton Beach, NH (just north of the Sea Shell stage). Open 10 AM-7 PM daily until early September, and weekends in the fall and spring. Like Us on Facebook

- Marine Life Touch Tank in Portsmouth, Isles of Shoals Steamship Company dock, 315 Market Street, Portsmouth, NH. Open Tuesday-Friday, 9 AM-12 PM until late August. Like Us on Facebook
We'd love to hear your questions and comments! Hope to see you soon!

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Wish Upon a Sea Star

Have you ever seen a shooting star and made a wish? Well, we wished on our sea stars that our touch tank in Hampton would be totally awesome and people would love it. And.....guess what!? Our wish came true. People love our touch tank and we have had the pleasure of educating and meeting over 2,500 people in our first month. We couldn't have had this much success without our amazing animals.

Pictured below are the fabulous Jonah crab and a large Northern sea star. Jonah crabs are a native of New England. They like to hide themselves in the rocks of the tidal zone. When handled they often draw into themselves; almost like the way a tortoise draws into its shell. They have a bumpy and pinkish colored carapace (shell) with black tips on the end of their pincher claws. They are often confused with rock crabs, another native crab of New England. However, rock crabs have a smoother and pointer carapace which is often more red in color. Yet, they are still hard to tell apart but the crab pictured below is an excellent example of a Jonah crab.

As for our sea star, it is the most common sea star found in the area. They have five arms. They may have six arms but this is very rare and then they are called a Polar star. If they lose an arm it will grow back. This is called autonomy. The regrowth may take months or years and at this time the animals is susceptible to disease and predation. The Northern sea stars have small spikes on top to protect their soft bodies. They move very slowly and can travel only one mile in a week. I thought snails were slow! Sea stars enjoy feeding on mussels, clams and other shelled animals. They shoot their stomachs outside of their body, excrete digestive juices and then suck their stomach back in once their food is digested.

We love our animals and you will too. Hope to see you soon.

~ Your marine loving friends at the Blue Ocean Society

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