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We went on a field trip to Odiorne Point on two buses. Upon getting there, we went down and searched for creatures such as sea urchins and starfish. Later we had lunch and played football, baseball and/or just on the playground for a while. Near the end of the trip, the tide came down and some people went to look at the drowned forest. After all of that, everybody got back onto the buses to return home, making a stop at an ice cream place for a treat.
The reason why tides occur all has to do with the moon. Its gravitational pull pulls things towards it (and on the other side of the Earth wavy from it), and oceans as well as big lakes are affected. The water rises up when the moon is there and halfway to when it will be again, going down when the moon is halfway around to the other side of the world, thanks to the Earth’s spin and orbit of the moon.
There are four intertidal zones on the coast, created by the tide. The first one is the Upper Zone, also called the black zone, which is usually dry, only splashed by breaking waves. It is called the black zone because of the black rocks there with nothing on them. The next zone is called the Middle Zone, which gets covered in water when the tide comes up. It is also called the white zone, because of the barnacles dotting its rocks. The Lower Zone is the next zone, being constantly underwater unless the tide is at its very low. Another name for it is the brown zone, but it isn’t actually brown. It’s just called that because of all of the kelp and seaweed there. Finally, there is the Subtidal Zone, which is always underwater, even when the tide is at its lowest. It is also called the red zone, because of the irish moss that grows there. These are the four intertidal zones.
At Odiorne, we saw many interesting creatures. Most of them were put into a fish tank filled with water together. Among those included hermit crabs, lobsters and baby lobsters, sea urchins, periwinkles, barnacles, green crabs, jonah crabs, and two types of starfish: the northern sea star, and the daisy brittle star. Not all of the living things we saw were animals, though. Irish moss, rockweed and knotted wrack are just some of the things that we saw.
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| The image above is a sea urchin, which is about egg sized with many points coming out of it. | This image is of a crab, specifically a jonah crab. |
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| Above is a drawing of a daisy brittle star, a type of starfish found at Odiorne. | The image above is a sketch of a baby lobster, as many were found there. |