A few days after the storm, we went diving in one of our well-known and well-loved sites and found the benthos completely changed. The storm brought in all sorts of algae and treasures from some far off place, and rocks had been moved to form new topographic conditions.
However, coming back I found the greatest find: a mystery bone.
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| Photos of the mystery bone |
After consulting with faculty and consulting online sources, I believe it is the shoulder blade of a seal. While seals are not necessarily common in Nahant, there are some that live in the general area. This find - and the other treasures from the storm - shows how connected marine ecosystems are.
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| skeleton of a seal with the shoulder bone highlighted |
I'm so glad i saw this post of yours! I also found a "mystery bone" yesterday after an awful storm (I live in CA)and i was convinced it was a sea turtle fin because of the way it had broken. today i realized, after searching thru dozens of pictures, that my bone was also most probably a scapula. of course then i was terrified i had picked up evidence in a murder investigation! after looking at your pictures though, i can say almost certainly that my bone is also a seal/sea lion shoulder; and as we have so many of them here, it makes sense. Thank you!
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