Journals 2005/2006

Judy Reeves
Baldwin County High School, Bay Minette, Alabama

"Monitoring and Assessment of Tidal Creeks" Hollings Marine Lab, Charleston, South Carolina August 1-12, 2005

Journal Index: August 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6/7 - 8 - 9 - 10            11 - 12

August 4, 2005
Blue crab heaven!

Judy and Mark seining. View full version pop-up.		Guy and Judy with blue crab catch. View full version pop-up.

Today we went back to yesterday's creek to seine at each reach. It was a relatively easy and thoroughly pleasant day. Guy, Mark, and I went. We'd learned a little about which areas to avoid while walking, and we didn't have any trouble finding the sites since we'd been there before. Everyone talks all the time about estuaries being such terrific nurseries for marine organisms, and they are, and we certainly collected many, many small fish and shrimp. Today, though, we seined some of the largest blue crabs I've ever seen, including the biggest, prettiest, and bluest granddaddy crab! We agreed, after photographing him and trying him out as a blue crab necklace, to release him. Our excuse was he was too big to fit in any of the specimen jars anyway! We did identify, measure, and photograph him for the record. After "Big Daddy", we found quite a few really large ones; it was quite a productive day. We retrieved the sonde, drove home, processed specimens, and cleaned up-each seine bag had to be put in separate labeled specimen jars and preservative added. This was the shortest and easiest day so far!

Granddaddy Blue Crab. View full version pop-up.		Mark and Judy with a blue crab necklace! View full version pop-up.