Earlier this summer, aquarists Austin Brayton and Jackie Anderson camped on a remote island in Maine to assist with Project Puffin, an Audubon Society project designed to restore populations of these clownish little seabirds. In this post, Austin takes us on surveys for terns on Seal Island.

June 20, 2014 
Tern studies

Jackie and I helped gather data for two major tern studies: tern productivity and a tern feeding study. The tern productivity study involves monitoring the growth and survival of tern chicks in specific study plots. The nests are checked daily and chicks are banded shortly after they hatch so that you can keep track of individuals. These chicks are then weighed and measured every other day.

Banding a tern chick

The tern feeding study involves observing specific nests from a blind within the colony and identifying and counting the food items (small fish and shrimp) that are fed to the chicks by the parents.

View from the blind: Arctic Tern and chick

Chicks from the nests being observed are marked with non-toxic ink in order to identify them.

It was fascinating to observe the terns during the feeding study. Each pair that I observed had a slightly different method of chick-rearing. Some pairs seemed to take turns going out to fish while in other pairs one parent remained at the nest while the other fished. There was also lots of drama – terns squabbling over territory and even killing neighboring chicks, and chasing away “teaser” males that would come into the colony showing off a fish they had caught in order to attract females. Data from both the productivity and the feeding studies will be used to monitor how changes in the environment, such as from climate change, overfishing or increases in predators like gulls, impact the health of the tern colony.

-Austin

Earlier this summer, aquarists Austin Brayton and Jackie Anderson camped on remote islands in Maine to assist with Project Puffin, an Audubon Society project designed to restore populations of these clownish little seabirds. In this post, Austin and Jackie take us on surveys for terns.

June 15, 2014 
Tern census and the first tern chicks

Today was a busy day on Seal Island as we performed a census to estimate the number of pairs of terns (Artic and Common) that nest on the island.  We got a late start on the census as it rained heavily overnight and the vegetation was damp until 10 AM.  We don’t enter the colony in damp cold weather because the eggs and chicks might get cold if the parents are scared away from the nests.

Preparing for the tern census

Entering the tern colony is always an adventure as the terns are very aggressive, calling noisily and swooping down to try and peck your head, as well as pooping on you as they fly by.  They have evolved this behavior to deter predators that could otherwise easily prey upon the tern eggs and chicks which are in very simple nests on the ground.

Island Supervisor Julia Gulka, surrounded by terns

You will notice the funny hats that we are wearing – having pin wheels or sticks attached to your hat helps keep the terns from pecking you directly on the head!  After being pecked bloody one day, I upgraded my hat with a cardboard liner and two branching sticks duct-taped to the sides of the hat like antlers.

We spent all day performing multiple transects of the colony, walking side by side  and counting the number of Arctic and Common Tern eggs (while being continuously dive-bombed by the adult terns).

The best part was seeing the first day-old tern chicks.

Day-old tern chick

We also counted eggs in one plot going in one direction and marked their locations and then did a census of the same plot walking in another direction and counted the eggs again to see how many we missed and determine our margin of error.  We missed 8 out of 200. Not too bad!

— Austin

Tern egg and chick

Meanwhile on Matinicus Rock, we conducted our census over the next three days, June 17–June 19. We counted tern nests and how many eggs were in the nest. Additionally, we counted nests of laughing gulls, Eider and black duck. We divided the island into sections and walked up and down each section an arm’s length apart so that we didn’t miss anything.

Jackie during census on Matinicus Rock

--Jackie

June 11, 2014 
Introductions

This summer aquarist Jackie Anderson and I had the amazing opportunity to participate in Project Puffin.  Project Puffin was started by the Audubon Society in 1973 to restore puffins to islands in the Gulf of Maine where they had nested until the late 1800s when they were largely exterminated due to hunting for their meat, feathers and eggs.

A puffin in its burrow

In an attempt to restore the colonies, young puffins were brought to the islands from Newfoundland, which has a healthy population of the birds. Eventually some of these puffins returned to nest on the Gulf of Maine islands and their population has been slowly increasing. Tern colonies have also been restored to the islands through the efforts of the project. Today staff members, interns and volunteers spend the breeding season on these islands to implement management activities that help the colonies, like removal of invasive vegetation, and to monitor the health of the seabird populations through gathering data for several long term studies. The primary focus of my work at the Aquarium is our shorebird exhibit which features local shorebirds (several species of plover and sandpiper) as well as two common terns, so I was very excited to participate in some hands-on field work and to be able to observe terns in the colony while also helping with their conservation.

Camping on Seal Island

Jackie and I went as volunteers to two different islands, Matinicus Rock and Seal Island, where we stayed for two weeks. Matinicus Rock features a light house. Seal Island has a tiny cabin with a propane stove for cooking. The participants sleep in their own individual tents. Neither of the islands has running water, but getting to spend so much time out in nature certainly made this minor hardship worthwhile.

Banding birds is tricky business!

During my first day on Seal Island I got to observe Arctic Terns being trapped, measured, banded and released.  The data is used for a long term demographic study of Arctic Terns in the Gulf of Maine.  Arctic Terns, as well as several other species of tern including Common Terns, have been declining in population in the US and information gathered through the efforts of Project Puffin can help us to understand why and can identify the best management practices.  On my second day, I got to band adult terns myself which was a little nerve-racking as you have to apply considerable pressure with one hand in order to close the metal ID band with special pliers while holding the bird gently in your other hand.

-Austin

Click here to keep reading Part 2!

On March 28, we completed the last dives of the trip. We did an evening dive and then a night dive at the wreck of the Sapona, which is a concrete-hulled cargo steamer that ran aground during a hurricane in 1926, and before then was used as storage for supplies of rum and whisky during Prohibition. The Sapona is always a favorite dive spot on our collecting trips.

Interior of the Sapona wreck

My favorite aspect of this dive site was the amazing invertebrates. On the night dive we saw many impressively large sea urchins and sea cucumbers. The hull of the ship was covered in corals and basket stars that are curled up and inconspicuous during the day but unfurl their branching arms at night to capture plankton. The most beautiful coral we observed on the wreck was Tubastrea, commonly called sun coral. This coral has huge yellow-orange polyps which open up at night in order to feed. You can see a fiberglass replica of this coral in the Giant Ocean Tank that looks just like the real animal.

Unfurled Tubastrea with a large urchin seen during night dive

We also saw this awesome redeye sponge crab climbing on a column in the interior of the wreck. Sponge crabs wear a “cap” of living sponge as camouflage. They cut and shape the sponge and hold it in place with their rear legs. Sponge crabs usually hide under their sponge during the day, so this night dive was a great opportunity to check out this crustacean when it was active.



You will probably notice many white particles in the water in these clips. These particles are living plankton of all sorts that was attracted to the light from our flashlights. We scooped up some of this plankton from the water surface while we on the boat to take a closer look. We saw a fantastic diversity of tiny animals – shrimp, fast-swimming polychaete worms, amphipods and larval fishes. If you look carefully you might be able to spot a larval crab and a tiny pipefish!



The Sapona night dive was a really amazing experience and a great finale to our collecting dives.

Aquarium staff recently returned from an expedition to the Bahamas. They'll be sharing pictures and stories from their time exploring the turquoise blue waters of Caribbean—complete with pictures, video, conservation notes and a taste of life on board a working boat. 

This post about a beach seine and copper sweeper roundup comes to us from Austin, who normally cares for the shorebirds on Central Wharf.

On most of our dives we collect in groups of 2 – 5 divers and work together to corral and catch fish in our nets and transfer them into catch bags. Depending on the water depth we either bring them directly to the boat or put them in a barrel with holes in it that hangs from the boat and is raised in the water at increments to allow the fish to decompress.

On the reef looking for fish

However we collect the two most fragile species, needle fish and copper sweepers, with different methods where all of the trip staff and participants work together as a team.

South Cat Key

On March 25 we went ashore on South Cat Key, a small uninhabited island, to seine for needle fish. We pulled a 100 ft seine net through the shallow waters by the beach and collected needlefish. Needlefish have delicate scales so we very carefully removed them from the net and transferred them to coolers to be brought back to the tanks on the boat.

Before wading into the water, Don and Barbara show the team how to gently seine with the help of a paper towel.

Success: Needlefish collected in seine

You can see needlefish swimming near the surface of the Giant Ocean Tank. Their silvery blue coloration makes them almost invisible when seen from above or below.

On March 27 we dove together as a team to collect copper sweepers. These cute fish live in large schools under ledges and in caves in the reef. You can see them at the Aquarium in the Blue Hole exhibit alongside our goliath groupers. Like the needlefish, copper sweepers are delicate and need to be collected with care. The collection of the copper sweepers was highly coordinated and involved all of the collectors working together.

Copper sweeps in their protective bag

Once caught, the copper sweepers are transferred into large plastic bags which are smooth and protective, while still allowing the fish to school. It was my job to hold one of the bags and make sure that the fish were transferred gently.

Participating in the needlefish and copper sweeper roundups was some of the most fun I had on the trip and I was impressed with how well coordinated and successful these roundups were.

Aquarium staff recently returned from an expedition to the Bahamas. They'll be sharing pictures and stories from their time exploring the turquoise blue waters of Caribbean—complete with pictures, video, conservation notes and a taste of life on board a working boat. 

This post comes to us from Austin, who normally cares for the shorebirds on Central Wharf.

Drawbridges up, the Coral Reef II heads down the Miami River toward the Bahamas

Today was the real start of the collecting trip and was an exciting and productive day. We set out at sunrise down the Miami River, passing under several draw bridges. After a calm ocean crossing of about 4 hours we found ourselves in the beautiful blue waters surrounding Bimini Island in the Bahamas. All of our trip dives were to take place around Bimini.

The turquoise blue waters around Bimini...Ahhhhhh.

We did our first two dives of the trip at Rainbow Reef, a pretty area with many small patches of coral. Our first dive was observational and gave us a chance to test out our dive gear before the real collecting began. This was my first dive in the Bahamas and I was amazed at the abundance and diversity of the fishes at this site.



We saw many of the fish on our collecting wish-list including angelfish, triggerfish, squirrelfish and wrasses, and got the chance to check out some cool invertebrates. Aquarium aquarist Monika Schmuck took this picture of one of our favorite cephalopods, the Caribbean reef squid.

Caribbean reef squid

We began collecting fish during our second dive at Rainbow Reef.  My favorite fish that we brought on board were three trumpet fish. Trumpetfish are predators that hover beside the reef and are slow moving until they detect a small fish or shrimp to eat, which they inhale with a powerful suction generated by their tube-like mouth.

Trumpetfish swimming with grunts and squirrelfish

The team collected three trumpet fish including one with unusually yellow coloration. We decided that one of the trumpet fish was too large to be shipped back safely so we returned it to the reef. At all times on the trip we were extremely careful to collect only fish of specific sizes that could be shipped back safely and do well in one of our exhibits. All of our collecting is sustainable and is approved by the Bahamian government and the import of these animals is approved by the US Fish and Wildlife.

All of our collecting is sustainable and is approved by the Bahamian government, and the import of these animals is approved by the US Fish and Wildlife.

The blue blue under the Coral Reef II

Aquarium staff recently returned from an expedition to the Bahamas. They'll be sharing pictures and stories from their time exploring the turquoise blue waters of Caribbean—complete with pictures, video, conservation notes and a taste of life on board a working boat. This post comes to us from Austin, who normally cares for the shorebirds on Central Wharf.
March 20 – 21, 2014

We got off the airplane in tropical Miami on March 19, happy to escape the arctic-like conditions in Boston, and began preparing the research vessel the Coral Reef II for our Bahamas fish collecting expedition.

A bustle of activity around the Coral Reef II  as the team gears up for the trip to the Bahamas

In spite of the industrial surroundings of the shipyard where the Coral Reef II floats on the brown, murky waters of the Miami River, we had some interesting wildlife encounters during our several days of preparation. We found an injured juvenile yellow-crowned night heron on the docks that apparently had fractures to its wing and leg and was unable to walk well or fly. Luckily we quickly were able to contact Pelican Harbor, a wildlife rehabilitation facility that specializes in seabirds and shorebirds. We secured the bird under a laundry basket to make sure it was safe until they could come and pick it up. (Learn how an injured common tern found a new lease on life at the Aquarium.)

File photo: Yellow-crowned night heron by Peter Wallack via Wikimedia Commons

The staff members from Pelican Harbor had cared for yellow-crowned night herons before and were hopeful that the bird could be brought back to health and, if not released, then placed in a sanctuary or at a zoo or aquarium (just like most of the birds in the Aquarium's shorebird exhibit that have injuries and would be unable to survive in the wild).

On a happier note, on Friday we were visited by a friendly manatee that apparently wanted to drink the fresh water coming out of a hose that was running into the river. The manatee entertained us for about ten minutes as it swam right next to the dock. These encounters reminded me of how there can be amazing wildlife even in urban and formerly very  polluted areas like the Miami river and, closer to home, Boston Harbor.

An up-close manatee sighting is definitely something text home about!