This past week, the EW XXVIII class went up to Lubec, Maine on a research field trip. Lubec is located at the southern tip of the Bay of Fundy, and the trip provided a unique opportunity for us to compare the intertidal zones between there and Nahant. For those who do not know about the bay, it is primarily in Canada with the southern part in Maine and has some of the highest tides in the world (about a 20 ft range!). While we were there, we used every possible minute to learn about the local ecosystems and spent most days in the field conducting various surveys.
What struck me the most, besides the actual tide range, was the difference in the marine life. While Nahant and Lubec are relatively close (on a global level) what lives there actually varies greatly. In conducting surveys we found the organisms that we have become familiar with back in Nahant, but also saw creatures I had never seen before. For instance, I have never seen a nudibranch in Nahant but they were relatively common up in Maine. Also, when we went diving, I saw soft bodied corals at only 20 feet which can only be found at 60 feet or deeper in Massachusetts. It will be interesting to compare the data we collected in Maine to the data we will be collecting in Nahant this week.
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| View at high tide |
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| View at low tide |
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