Friday, April 30, 2010

Another OBX post :)

At 5:30 in the morning, I met the rest of my BIO 412 Marine Biology class and left for Outer Banks, North Carolina with Doctors Posner and Saunders, two of the Biology department faculty. The sleep deprivation and the drive were well worth it though because I had such a great time!

Here are just a few of the cool things I saw in the Outer Banks:

Even 15-foot-tall sand dunes are futile attempts to prevent the erosion that barrier islands experience naturally.


We went kayaking in a salt marsh and I spotted a duck. I was able to get close enough to take this sweet pic right as it took off.


The Littoraria snails will climb the Spartina marsh grass to escape predation by crabs below. They can hold on even as they sleep by secreting a sticky substance onto the spot and just hang there, sleeping.


We came across this huge fish skeleton in the salt marsh. I took a picture with my hand next to it to set the scale for how huge this thing was. We wanted such a complete specimen for our lab back in Ohio, so we wrapped it in trash bags and stored it in our lunchmeat cooler.


Once you get the chance, go check out the Outer Banks! But whatever you do, don’t feed the Laughing gulls! They will stalk you forever if you do.

4 comments:

  1. If anyone is reading this, my name is Jason and I live in San Diego. I found that exact same fish skeleton in San Diego bay recently and no one seems to know what it is. This is the only replica I’ve seen anywhere. Please, what is it ? Thank you, Jason.

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  2. I also saw the same fish skeleton on the beach today in New Hampshire! I’d love to know what species it is.

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  4. I sent pics of this same skeleton to Scripps institute of oceanography in La Jolla last year, but no one seems to know there as well. mystery fish ?

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