May 22, 2006 - More Critters, From the vanVeen and the trawl Options

[Samantha_Dassler_Barlow]

Date: Monday, May 22, 2006

GPS Coordinates
Latitude: 64° 41.1’ N
Longitude: 170° 34.6’ W

We are pulling up lots of cool new critters from the vanVeen and the trawl. The bottom has changed from the mud that we saw south of St. Lawrence Island, to more of a rocky bottom now that we are north of St. Lawrence Island. Enjoy this journal full of critter pictures!


5/22/06 - This scaly creature may look like a chiton at first, but when you turn it over, you can see that it is actually a scaled, polychaete worm. It has setae like segmented worms, not a big muscle foot like a chiton which is a mollusk. Do you know what phylum and class it belongs to?


5/22/06 - This hermit crab is actually kind of a big guy. What is all that white bumpy stuff on his shell? He is covered with barnacles. They have made their home on the outside of his shell and body. The barnacles get to filter feed on any detritus he might stir up in the sediment. How do the barnacles benefit the hermit crab…or do they?


5/22/06 - I used to think that shrimp only live in warm, salty water like where I live in North Carolina or on the Gulf Coast near Mississippi and Alabama. But, now I know that a couple of different species of shrimp can grow in the freezing cold salt water of the Bering Sea too. How are shrimp classified in the animal kingdom?


5/22/06 - I’ve noticed that the scientists are calling this animal a sea star. You might be used to calling it a starfish. It is not really a fish at all. It doesn’t have gills or even bones like a fish. It is an echinoderm and is related to animals like sea urchins and brittle stars. Did you know that if a sea star loses an arm, that it could grow a new one?


5/23/06 - This is a rock that was pulled up a vanVeen grab. How many and what kinds of critters can you see? These are quite a bit different from the clams, snail, and brittle stars that we pulled from the muddy bottoms south of St. Lawrence Island.