WAVING goodbye to July!

             Hello friends!!! Wow, 4 weeks of fun already under our belt! This week we kicked off the fun with a trip to the Aquarium! We saw a bunch of aquatic animals, many I had never seen before. Up until Monday I didn’t know much about sea dragons, or even stingrays, but I noticed something interesting while looking at the rays this time.

A ray with a stinger (left), and a ray without (right)

            Some stingrays had very long stingers, and some had short ones or even none. What could this mean? To begin, there are many types of rays, including stingrays, electric rays, manta rays, etc. When I did some research regarding the tails of the rays, an article on ThoughtCo said, “Stingrays in petting tanks in aquariums usually have their stinging spine(s) removed so that they don't sting visitors or handlers.” My assumption is that because they were in the big tanks this time, they are moved from the touch tank in order to both be touched by the public while also getting time in a more realistic habitat for some of their stay at the aquarium. These stingers are very important when stingrays are out in the water because they can sting the attacker and transmit venom as well. 

Cruising into the rest of our week, my team and I explored other species and human impact in East Boston. We went to Piers park, Constitution Beach, and Bell Isle Marsh where we saw animals like Osprey, Spider crabs, and Egrets. Learning about these species made it more evident that there are more species out there that are not as well known as others. As for human impact, being in East Boston itself showcased a lot of gentrification happening locally. We were able to see new and expensive apartments, construction sites, and more parks as a result of this as well. We had a fun-filled week of exploring, and I can’t wait to SEA what week 5 has in store for us!!

Team Jason taking on Eastie!!

Catch you next week,

Aleena Mangham :)))