A Fish Eye View » outer banks http://masonposner.com/afisheyeview blogging about comparative physiology with some marine and regional flavor Wed, 18 Apr 2012 02:18:46 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Live tweeting a class field trip to the Outer Banks http://masonposner.com/afisheyeview/2012/04/live-tweeting-a-class-field-trip-to-the-outer-banks/ http://masonposner.com/afisheyeview/2012/04/live-tweeting-a-class-field-trip-to-the-outer-banks/#comments Wed, 18 Apr 2012 02:18:46 +0000 Mason Posner http://masonposner.com/afisheyeview/?p=566 Kayaking out of Manteo harbor with the Queen Elizabeth II in the background

This Thursday morning my marine biology class at Ashland University will be piling into two vans and trekking for 13 hours to the Oregon Inlet Campground on the outer banks of North Carolina for three days in the field.  This is the [...]]]>

Kayaking out of Manteo harbor with the Queen Elizabeth II in the background

This Thursday morning my marine biology class at Ashland University will be piling into two vans and trekking for 13 hours to the Oregon Inlet Campground on the outer banks of North Carolina for three days in the field.  This is the fourth time I have taken this class to the Outer Banks for an end of semester trip, after previous expeditions to the much colder Assateague Island, Maryland.  On past trips I have posted photos to this blog and shot video in the hopes of editing it together into a summary of our trips.  But that editing never happened after the last trip as I succumbed to summer research and administrative duties.

Plans for this year are a bit different.  Instead of relying primarily on this blog, I will be tweeting from the trip and am encouraging my students to do the same.  They are required to keep field notes from the sites we visit, but I have offered them the option to keep those notes via Twitter.  With 12 students and three faculty on the trip I hope to have a solid crowdsourced record of the trip.  You can follow these tweets at #aubio412.

Once we get back I plan to turn the tweets, YouTube video and any other material into a story on Storify.  Wish us luck.

]]> http://masonposner.com/afisheyeview/2012/04/live-tweeting-a-class-field-trip-to-the-outer-banks/feed/ 0 Mole crab molts litter the beaches http://masonposner.com/afisheyeview/2010/05/mole-crab-molts-litter-the-beaches/ http://masonposner.com/afisheyeview/2010/05/mole-crab-molts-litter-the-beaches/#comments Thu, 20 May 2010 02:03:25 +0000 Mason Posner http://masonposner.com/afisheyeview/?p=472 What a difference a month makes.  Back in April I brought my marine biology class to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for our end of semester field trip.  We saw lots of surf clam shells on the beach then, and some arks, but not a lot of other diversity in shells.  And the month [...]]]> What a difference a month makes.  Back in April I brought my marine biology class to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for our end of semester field trip.  We saw lots of surf clam shells on the beach then, and some arks, but not a lot of other diversity in shells.  And the month before on a spring break trip the beaches were covered in purse crabs.  But this week it’s clear that mole crabs are in season, as the beach is littered in little Emerita molts.

Mole crab molts on the beach in Southern Shores, North Carolina

Adult mole crabs start mating in early spring and go through to fall.  Like other arthropods, males copulate with females and fertilize eggs internally.  The females then hold the developing embryos under their abdomens for 2-3 weeks (see image below), after which the larvae leave the females and live on their own in near shore areas.  The larvae then leave the water column to settle back into the surf zone in June/July and September/October, where the juveniles and adults feed on small plankton and detritus in the swash zone of the beach.  The molts I have been finding on the beach this week are all about 2 cm in length, and may be from actively mating crabs.  We did find some crabs in the swash zone back in April, but not this large number of molts.  Are the females molting prior to mating, like in blue crabs?

Female mole crab with egg mass

A very interesting study examined whether female mole crabs time the release of their larvae.  They found that the larvae do in fact leave the females in quick 5-15 minute bursts just after it becomes dark.  What is really interesting is that the larvae themselves control this timing, as the rhythmicity is also seen in egg masses that have been removed from the females.  And this rhythm continues in constant darkness, showing that it is due to some internal clock in the embryos, not simply a response to darkness.

These little ubiquitous beach crabs can pull off some impressive tricks.

]]> http://masonposner.com/afisheyeview/2010/05/mole-crab-molts-litter-the-beaches/feed/ 0 A successful field trip to the Outer Banks http://masonposner.com/afisheyeview/2010/04/a-successful-field-trip-to-the-outer-banks/ http://masonposner.com/afisheyeview/2010/04/a-successful-field-trip-to-the-outer-banks/#comments Fri, 30 Apr 2010 01:01:53 +0000 Mason Posner http://masonposner.com/afisheyeview/?p=441 I recently returned from my latest class field trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  I am fortunate to teach an upper level marine bio course at Ashland University in Ohio.  Yes, Ohio.  My students can see live marine specimens in our saltwater aquarium, and lots of collected organisms from the Atlantic and Pacific [...]]]> I recently returned from my latest class field trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  I am fortunate to teach an upper level marine bio course at Ashland University in Ohio.  Yes, Ohio.  My students can see live marine specimens in our saltwater aquarium, and lots of collected organisms from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, but the highlight of the course is definitely our trip to North Carolina, where we stay at the Oregon Inlet campsite and make day trips up and down the coast.  This is the third time I have taken my class to the OBX, and as usual we lucked out on weather.  We avoided rain, had great temperatures, but did get blown out of our campsite the last night by high winds (a late night escape to my Mother’s house in Southern Shores got us some sleep before the 13 hour drive back home).

Here is a taste of our trip (thanks to my colleague Patty Saunders for serving as trip photographer).  Still to come, some video and food highlights:

Our welcome to the beach after 15 hours on the road

Breaking camp the first morning

Kayaking out of Manteo harbor with the Queen Elizabeth II in the background

Official portrait on the Manteo dock

Lots of beachcombing, and a mini-study on how Oregon Inlet affects shell deposition on the beach

Beach seining yielded some small blue crabs, croaker (or spot), silverside and shrimp. The water was cold, but it was worth it.

Juvenile dolphins playing off the beach just south of Oregon Inlet

. . . and a large group of royal terns. You can see Bodie Light wrapped up in the distance while it gets a refurbished Fresnel lens (right side of picture).

Birding on Pea Island

At the top of Hatteras Light, after a great history lesson in the failures of beach stabilization by a Lighthouse volunteer

One of many beautiful sunsets over the dunes

]]> http://masonposner.com/afisheyeview/2010/04/a-successful-field-trip-to-the-outer-banks/feed/ 4 We made it to the beach http://masonposner.com/afisheyeview/2010/04/we-made-it-to-the-beach/ http://masonposner.com/afisheyeview/2010/04/we-made-it-to-the-beach/#comments Fri, 16 Apr 2010 03:10:24 +0000 Mason Posner http://masonposner.com/afisheyeview/2010/04/we-made-it-to-the-beach/ It took us almost 15 hours in our two vans to get from Ashland, Ohio to Oregon Inlet, but we had some great BBQ (Currituck BBQ) on the way and a quick stop at walmart for the camping gear we left behind. But we are here, tents are up, my students had their first trip [...]]]> It took us almost 15 hours in our two vans to get from Ashland, Ohio to Oregon Inlet, but we had some great BBQ (Currituck BBQ) on the way and a quick stop at walmart for the camping gear we left behind. But we are here, tents are up, my students had their first trip through the dunes to the beach, and it looks like we may have fantastic weather. And with an almost new moon the stars are amazing.
More tomorrow. Must get sleep after all the driving. But I must say it is pretty cool to be posting from my iPhone in my tent next to the beach.

]]> http://masonposner.com/afisheyeview/2010/04/we-made-it-to-the-beach/feed/ 2 Marine Biology in the Outer Banks http://masonposner.com/afisheyeview/2010/04/marine-biology-in-the-outer-banks/ http://masonposner.com/afisheyeview/2010/04/marine-biology-in-the-outer-banks/#comments Thu, 15 Apr 2010 08:21:18 +0000 Mason Posner http://masonposner.com/afisheyeview/?p=437 End of the semester teaching and a slew of chair duties have kept me away from the blog for a few weeks.  But it is now 4:18 am and I am off with a colleague and 10 students for my semi-annual field trip to Oregon Inlet, North Carolina in the Outer Banks for my Marine [...]]]> End of the semester teaching and a slew of chair duties have kept me away from the blog for a few weeks.  But it is now 4:18 am and I am off with a colleague and 10 students for my semi-annual field trip to Oregon Inlet, North Carolina in the Outer Banks for my Marine Biology class.  Look for frequent posts about our trip over the next few days.

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