Charleston Harbor April 18th
On April 18th we went on a boat in the Charleston harbor to observe the various coastal organisms in these waters. The weather was warm with a high of 78 and beautiful clear skies. It wasn't too humid, we had a nice breeze on the water. We lowered a net four times, pulling up various organisms to observe. In every net there were tons of white shrimp and Spot Croakers, which the laughing Gulls and Brown Pelicans swarmed to try to snatch. We also pulled up some Colorful Sea Whip which was a bright yellow. There were a couple Weakfish in the net which I thought were pretty funny with their one snaggle tooth. There were tons of these little fish which looked kind of like dragons with fins that spread out like wings, I attempted to identify them as Searobins but I have not gotten another identification on that post, so I'm not 100% thats what I observed. We also pulled up quite a few Atlantic Blue Crab which had such bright blue colors, I didn't know they were that vibrant. Our nets were filled with Hogchoker every time which I thought were very interesting, the first one I saw I thought it was missing it's other half. We pulled up a couple True Jellies and a couple different crabs, called Lady Crab which had a mesmerizing pattern and an Armed Petrolisthes which was very tiny. We got lucky and pulled up both a female and male Atlantic Horseshoe Crab, they were most likely mating when we caught them. It was neat to see them side by side and observe the sexual dimorphism in the species. We were also very lucky to catch an octopus! This was one of my favorite observations, I had never seen one in person and did not even think they would be here in the Charleston harbor. My other favorite observations was the Northern Puffer and the Striped Burrfish, it was cool to be able to hold them and I thought they had funny faces. We also pulled up one small Atlantic Stingray, I thought it was neat how it looks like it's smiling and seeing the stinger was cool as well. We caught several short-bodied squids as well which were mesmerizing to watch swim. Overall, it was so interesting to see the diversity of organisms that live in the Charleston Harbor and I hope I get the opportunity to experience this again!
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