Tis the season of farewells!

Not only did we have to bid adieu to our wonderful fall interns this week but we're also beginning the process of taking down the aquarium tanks! We're doing this because the Marine Exhibit is closed during the winter (except for the days immediately following Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years).

Yesterday we emptied out the eelgrass tank- it was quite the adventure! After safely removing the animals and eelgrass, we drained the water and I suited up in rain gear, climbed into the tank and carefully scooped out all the shells that had been covering the bottom. While in the tank I took a moment to imagine what life had been like for all those gunnels, pipefish and tube snouts during the long summer months. Fortunately I had less people staring at me than they did...
After the shells were all taken care of, we rinsed the walls and I set to work scrubbing out all the patches of algae clinging to the walls. Finally we rinsed the tank again, used a bilge pump to drain the remaining water and Julia mopped up the rest!


The tank looks so empty now!

In the coming weeks we'll be emptying out the other tanks in the cluster as well as the piling tank. Julia and I will be spending many hours this winter buffing out all the scratches that have accumulated during the year.

Even though our eelgrass tank is down for the season, you can still learn all about the important role of eelgrass meadows in the near-shore ecosystem on our website:
http://ptmsc.org/science/eelgrass.html

You can even download a coloring poster to decorate your wall in classy eelgrass style!
http://ptmsc.org/science/EelgrassPoster.pdf

And hey- it was just one more reminder that being an AmeriCorps here at the PTMSC is pretty darn AWESOME:

Thanks for reading!
-Jess