Fort Point Channel

    This week my group and I were placed at Fort Point Channel. It's located in Boston near the Children's Museum. The first day was kind of a bummer because it rained so we didn't get to do much, but we managed to use the drones before it rained and we saw a striped bass. It took us a long time to figure out how to get the camera to work but we finally figured it out. I also set a crab trap but we didn' t catch anything. Then again it rained the first day so our work time ended up being very little. 

    The second day we went on our fishing trip that was canceled the week before. It was my first time fishing on a boat and I had a pretty good experience. I didn't exactly catch anything but I can now say that "I've officially gone fishing!" The only thing that was a little disappointing was the weather because it was very cold in the morning when we left the dock but it got a little warmer throughout the day. The boat driver Charlie, caught multiple fish. He was kind enough to let me reel up a winter flounder. I've never exactly caught a fish before but that was the closest thing I've done to it. 

    The next day we started figuring out what we wanted to present as our deliverable for this week and we decided to create an infographic. We spent the first half of the day splitting up the work and doing some research on different topics. The other half of the day went on the Roseway and we walked to the office finishing up our research. On the Roseway we learned about what it's about and how different tools worked. We figured out how to find out the pH level of the water. 

    On the first day, we discovered a striped bass and on the fishing trip, we caught a winter flounder. Striped Bass are also known as stripers, insider, or rockfish. A fun fact about female striped bass is that they are able to lay up to 3,000,000 eggs and female striped bass also grows larger compared to male striped bass. The typical size for striped bass is about 16-30 in. Striped bass predators the mainly feed off of plankton, insects, small fish, and crustaceans. Striped bass is mostly found in Canada till the St. John River in northern Florida. Their habitat is towards the Atlantic coast to the Gulf of Mexico. An interesting fact is in 1973 there was a collapse that affected striped bass population immensely.  This resulted in habitat loss and an overharvest on this organism. When we saw the striped bass I noticed the silver-like colored scales. The mouth was very and the fins were a very light shade of yellow. This was my second time seeing a striped bass. 

    Another species I discovered this week was the winter flounder.  A winter flounder is also known as Lemon Sole, Sole, Blackback flounder, Flounder, and Georges Bank Flounder. Winter Flounder usually is more than 2 feet in length and can live up to at least 15 years. Winter flounder eat shrimp, clams, and worms. Winter Flounder are found in streams from Canada to North Carolina. Some fun facts about Winter flounder are that they eat during the day to locate their prey during the night. Another fact is that newly hatched are born with two eyes on one side of their head but overtime goes through a metamorphosis stage and grows moves one to the other side of their head. I noticed that winter flounders have a very dark-colored side on its body to help camouflage into its environment. When I saw the dark side of the winter flounder I thought to myself how fish also have a way to hide from their predators by the features they have. This helps them avoid predators. The other side is this white/pale side. This was my first time seeing a winter flounder. When I think of the word I picture Flounder from The Little Mermaid because I've never fished before. 

This is a picture of Fort Point Channel.

Peace out everyone!
-Arianna