Transcript Bay was observed in this study for getting a better understanding of

Estuarine & Marine
Benthic studies of the New Jersey Coast, Life in the Sea.
Tony Castagna, Peter Gan, Dr. Peter Straub
The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
The Marine Eco-System makes for a vast amount of dwelling places and the shear
water volume and ranges of depth, temperature, salinity , and nutrient concentration
make it a very diverse community. In this study the Marine/ ocean eco-system was
observed and photographed to document species found and to help further research
toward many other projects going on in the Stockton College community. The species
found here are predominantly adult. With no coincidence our N.J. artificial reef
program is helping the populations of fish and many other organisms have a place to
call home, live and multiply. Many of our “reefs” were accidental but that makes no
difference to the species that thrive on the abundance the they attract.
The Estuarine Eco-system is fragile, valuable, diverse, and readily available for study. The
Estuarine/ Bay was observed in this study for getting a better understanding of the habitat of
the organisms found there. Many species were photographed, some were analyzed for
photosynthetic properties. The estuary is a tidal meeting zone for the fresh/brackish water
coming from the rivers, and the salty water coming from the ocean. The estuary has a
fluctuating salinity but this range is within tolerable measures for many organisms. The
estuary environment provides for a relatively safe, as far as hiding places are concerned,
nursing ground for many juvenile species.
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Orange sponge
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We find a Northern Diamondback Terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin terrapin) digging in the sandy shore of a beach (1)
in the bay, she is preparing to lay her eggs. With any luck these eggs will hatch in 7-10 weeks and the hatchlings
will need to quickly become adapted to life, both as predator and prey.
A colony of anemone gently grazing on the passing by plankton, these anemone are quite
satisfied to have a solid structure to attach to. Some of these Cnidarians are also hunters
capable of paralyzing prey and drawing them in to be consumed.
A large female Horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus), this is mating season and egg laying season as well, the
horseshoe crab waits until a full moon tide to lay her eggs high on the sandy estuary shores (2). Buried much
shallower than the terrapin, a great number of these fat and nutrient rich eggs will be used as a food source for
many shore birds. The struggle of the horseshoe crab continues as their numbers have depleted greatly since the
high harvest rates in the 1990’s, using the horseshoe crab as bait for more desirable catches.
A colony of North Atlantic Star Coral is embedded on this part of the wreck, just as it is in
more tropical locations every square centimeter of space that can be attached to will be, if
not yet then just give it some time. These sturdy deep water facultative symbionts have
become well adapted to deep cold water life and are continually making their presence
known.
Tube worm
A juvenile flounder (3), these fish start out as any other with eyes on both sides of it’s body, however as it matures
one eye migrates over and the flounder then spends most of it’s life hiding in the sandy and muddy bottom
awaiting for an appropriate prey.
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Blue claw crab (Callinectes sapidus)
Red Algae (4), growing in fair abundance is found being influenced by the shallow fast moving tide. Shallow clean
water helps this and many other photosynthetic organisms thrive in this part of the estuary, known as the eelgrass
beds. In some areas the eelgrass is so thick that you can see nothing else.
Our underwater PAM is being used for the first time to take some initial measurements of the local underwater
photosynthesizers, sea lettuce is shown here going through a photometric assay for fluorescence (5).
American eelgrass (Zostera marina) the primary carbon fixer (6), and Yellow boring sponge (7) (Cliona celata),
green algae (8), amphipods (9) also make up the inhabitants of this nutrient rich eco-system. The Underwater PAM
(10) at work.
American Spider Crab, (Pyromaia tuberculata)
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I would like to thank Captain Steve Evert, the Faculty, the Crew, and the RV Gannet for a great journey in education and discovery.
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Sea Star,
Hermit Crab
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Frilled Anemone
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The bay and ocean are facing a new dilemma for our sea creature co-habitants on
this planet of mostly water, discarded and/or lost harvest devices. This “ghost pot”
as it is known because the trap is still viable and it has no surface dob/float. There
have been efforts to put into legislation a means for allowing these traps to have
biodegradable pieces in the frame so as to allow for a possible escape for any
organism that became trapped in a pot that could never be tended. It would be like
walking freely into an inescapable prison and living out the rest of your life there!
The advances made in the biodegradable mesh that is supposed to help in this
situation is proving to be not as degradable as it needs to be, it so happens that the
iron rungs that hold the pots together are rusting apart faster than the mesh is
degrading. These ghost pots not only cause for unnecessary death of marine life
they also pose a problem during low tide periods when they were lost in a shallow
region and are at risk of causing great damage to any vessel that might pass over
it. Harvesting these Ghost pots may not be an option, with a greater concern for the
marine life the best way to help cope with these ghost pots could be to leave them
in place and simply use some wire snips to cut a fairly large (10cmX20cm) this
would cause relief to the organisms trapped inside and leave the pot behind as a
type of safe artificial reef. Many of these ghost pots were found during back bay
Side Scan Sonar sweeps.