Procedure Set up a table near the upwellerGather materials:Amir Digital Kitchen Scale Petri dish¼ cup scooperPaper towelsnotepadUsing the ¼ cup scooper, scoop out a random sample of clams from one of the bucketsThe clams should fill more than half of the cup, but not totally fullTry to remove the water from the scooper before placing the … Continue reading Clam Count and Weight Data Collection
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Shell Length Data Collection
Procedure Set up a table near the upwellerGather materials:Caliper ¼ cup scooperPaper towelsnotepadUsing the ¼ cup scooper, scoop out a random sample of clams from one of the bucketsTry to remove the water from the scooper before placing the sample of clams on the paper towelRandomly select one live clam from the sample, and using your … Continue reading Shell Length Data Collection
Cleaning the Seed Clams and Buckets
Procedure Make sure the pump is running and put on an apron and bootsTurn off 1 and ½ valves in both tanksOpen the valve that goes to the hoseCheck the water pressure on the hoseYou want enough pressure to spray the mud and clam poop through the mesh, but not too much pressure that you … Continue reading Cleaning the Seed Clams and Buckets
Nature on Schoodic Peninsula
As someone who is somewhat new to the area, I've been trying to explore as much as possible to check out the amazing nature here on the Schoodic Peninsula. In the past couple weeks, I've been able to see so many interesting things, some of which I've only ever read or heard about, and not just plants and animals, but I've also witnessed some interesting phenomena. There are so many amazing things happening under our nose, and I encourage everyone to go explore and check them out!
Seeding Our First Batch Of Clams
Last week, I culled all of our one-year-old clams that were around ¾ of an inch or larger and placed them in a separate bucket in the upweller. It was time for these clams to finally get in the mud. When clams grow to this ¾ inch size, they need to grow under pressure. If … Continue reading Seeding Our First Batch Of Clams
Water Level and Upweller Flow
The flow of water through the upweller is different for each of the three buckets pictured at right. You can tell by the amount of sediment on the clams. The clams in the bucket on the left are pretty clean, the ones in the bucket on the right are covered with silt and other organic matter, and the ones in the middle are, well, in the middle.
One-Year-Old Clams: Growth and Mortality Report
Late in May, I collected and analyzed data on the one-year-old clams before they began feeding and rapidly growing. I was specifically focused on the average clam shell length and the estimated total number of live clams we had in the upweller. Our goal was to compare this data to the data that we collected … Continue reading One-Year-Old Clams: Growth and Mortality Report
Mapping Flooding: More on Gouldsboro’s Need for your Help
Last month we wrote about Gouldsboro's need for information from the people who live here about where they are seeing problems with flooding due to big rainfall events and tides. Almost immediately, we heard from someone with a flooding problem. His email raised important questions that we had not addressed in our initial post. He also shared insights into potential concerns about how people might Gouldsboro's interest in understanding how things are changing. In this post, we try to answer the questions and address the concerns.
Lab Water Temperatures: What’s Going On?
The graph that you see at the top of this post shows the water temperatures in the shellfish lab's two tanks from 3 PM on June 5 to 3 PM today, June 12. Since the tanks get water from the same pump, the temperatures go up and down together. That's always been true until today. Between 2 and 3 AM, the temperature in Tank 2 began increasing slowly and started dropping in Tank 1. Then, at 7 AM, Tank 1 started warming quickly while Tank 2 continued its gradual increase. By 3:30 PM, there was a four-degree difference between the tanks! What was going on?
Feeding Time
After a long winter, the clams are finally ready to start feeding and growing again. During the winter, the clams were packed together in mesh bags, lying dormant in one of the upweller tanks in the lab. This past week, we cleaned out the second upweller tank and, once filled with sea water, transferred the clams from the mesh bags into five-gallon mesh-bottom buckets where they could spread out while still having access to a constant flow of water.