Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Atlantic Canada had some of the gorgeous, diverse, and stunning coral reefs we see all around the tropics? Well guess what, we do! They are just a little harder to see from the shore... ​
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The Atlantic Ocean is home to many species of cold-water, or deep-water coral species. Now before we get into that, what is a coral?

​Corals are often mistaken for plants, but they are actually very important animals. Corals are part of the cnidarian phylum which also consists of our friends the jellyfish and sea anemones. I like to think of corals as a colony of tiny upside-down jellyfish. Picture a jelly with its tentacles up and their bells stuck to a limestone skeleton - this single individual  is called a polyp. The large corals we see when we look at a reef are composed of colonies of many coral polyps.
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Unlike tropical corals, cold-water corals don’t need sunlight to eat and live. The waters surrounding Atlantic Canada is home to many species of cold-water corals. It’s hard to say how many species of cold-water corals exist since scientists have only been studying these corals for the last decade. But there are at least 45 described species in Canada's Atlantic Ocean. These corals can be found living at depths greater than 4 kilometers, living in waters as cold as -1ºC (which happens to be the average temperature of Halifax in December). ​​
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Another reasons these corals are so cool is their age and size. These corals are OLD, like very old. Radiocarbon dating of a coral off the coast of Norway estimates it to be around 8,000 years old, give or take a few thousand years. It one of the longest living animals! Some corals studied in Atlantic Canada were also found to be over 1,000 years old.

These old corals are of great importance. By looking at their skeletons, we can use corals as a climate change indicator by determining historical water temperatures and other conditions from thousands of years ago. These deep-water corals are also huge. One species, the bubblegum coral, is said to be the largest marine invertebrate species with some reaching 6-10 meters in height! 
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Due to COVID-19, this year we were unable to open the beloved Touch Tank Hut located in Dartmouth. However, we still wanted to find a way to bring the ocean to eye level and engage everyone with amazing local marine life. And thus, Tidal Trekkers was born!

We like to describe our Tidal Trekkers programs as coastal field trip adventures. We had four different unique programs in total that were carried out over the summer at different waterfront locations around the Halifax area. And let me tell you, it was a blast! I was able to attend almost all the treks that took place and I would love to share some of my favourite memories that took places over the summer!
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Top 4 Favourite Memories!
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​Coming in at #4 is the Hartlen Point crabs. Our first Trek at Hartlen Point was one of my favourites because the location was absolutely beautiful and I could’ve stayed there to look for periwinkles and tiny crabs under the rocks for the whole day. During this Trek we had a wonderful volunteer snorkeler (shout-out to Stefan) look for some cool animals a bit farther in the water than we could walk out too. He came back with two gorgeous rock crabs (Cancer irroratus)!

Crabs are one of my favourite animals to spot around the Nova Scotian intertidal area. If they look familiar, it’s because they are quite common, however still very neat to find! I think one of my favourite things about rock crabs is that they are not green crabs and will probably not try and pinch me unless I’m really annoying it, but I always treat my crab friends with the upmost respect.

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​My #3 favourite Tidal Trekker memory is ….. algae! I know, this may sound weird. Out of all the cool things we were able to spot I choose to talk about algae? Well, after doing lots of research on all the living organisms that we can find in intertidal areas, I have found a new love for algae. I learned just how cool and important algae is.

A fun fact about algae are that Green Algae have their own built-in anchors called holdfasts that keep them from drifting away into the sea so that they’re always able to reach the sun for photosynthesis. Crazy! During our last Tidal Trekkers of the year we went back to Hartlen Point after Hurricane Teddy and there was so much algae washed up onto the beach that there was no sand in sight! 

​Now it’s time for #2! My second favourite Tidal Trekkers memory has to be: Sea Stars! Or one sea star in particular. During one of our last treks we spotted the biggest sea star EVER! Now, I don’t like to brag but I am pretty familiar with the stars of the sea and when I tell you this is the largest sea star I have ever seen, I am not lying. This enthralling echinoderm was bigger than my head (see picture below). 

It's not unlikely for a Common Sea Star (Asterias rubens) to get this large in size, but it is pretty rare to find one that big so close to the shore. Other species can get even bigger with the largest sea star species being the sunflower star (Pycnopodia helianthoides) that can reach an arm span of 1 metre and weighing up to 11 pounds!  ​

​And now for the moment you have continued reading this far for, my #1 memory….
 
Getting to nerd out about the ocean all summer long! This might be a bit anti-climactic, but in all truthfulness, getting to share my love for the oceans and all the wonderful and wacky creatures in it was a dream come true. I looooooove to talk ocean and I’m sure my roommates were very happy I was able to talk to some other people for a change and give them a small break (just kidding, they love my ocean facts…I hope). Every trek we found something super cool and got to talk about all the astonishing animals and species that call the ocean home. If you were able to leave our treks learning even just one thing, then I did my job, and I definitely had fun doing it!

Photo by Venessa Mignon

Today, I’m going to talk to you about my favourite species of whales: Humpback Whales
Whales or Cetaceans are marine mammals, they are split into two general types, “Odontocetes” which include the toothed whales and dolphins and “Mysticeti” which are the Baleen Whales. Humpback Whales are baleen whales that range in size from around 50-62 ft, Females are usually larger than Males! They live in seas and oceans around the world and carry long migrations of about 25,000 km each year from where they feed in polar waters in the summer to waters around the equator in the winter to breed. They have a life span that ranges from 45 to about a 100 years! Their diet consists of krill, small fish like herrings/sardines and plankton. Humpback Whales also have different techniques to trap fish such as Bubble net feeding. They gulp enormous mouthfuls of their prey and seawater. Using their baleen plates, they then filter out the water. Due to their size humpback whales need to eat a lot of prey to survive. In fact, an adult humpback whale can consume up to 1360kg of food each day! Please watch this video of humpbacks performing bubble net feeding off the coast of Alaska.

Photo by Hawaii Wildlife Fund

Here’s a picture we took of a male humpback whale breaching

​Other than their natural beauty itself, my favourite characteristic of Humpback whales are their “vocalizations” that range from low whistles to high pitched squeals and rumbling. Whales have no vocal cords like us humans, so they produce sound through a structure in their throat. Although both male and females can vocalize, males are the ones that produce complex songs which travel long distances through the ocean. Studies have shown that males may sing continuously for more than 24 hours. Another interesting fact is that whales within a large area, sing a single song. For example, all North Atlantic humpback whales sing the same song and North Pacific whales sing a different song. Scientists still don’t know the exact purpose of these whale songs, but they think it is to attract females or communicate with other males. Click here to hear a beautiful male humpback whale song.

​There are a lot of interesting creatures living out there in the ocean. Some of them, like jellyfish, we can see floating in the water. Others, like periwinkle snails, we can find clinging on our rocky shores. Today, I will introduce you to an amazing group of creatures that you might not have seen before – they’re called flatfishes!
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​(Pro Tip: How do you make the word “fish” plural? If you’re talking about individuals from the same species, you can just say FISH! If you’re talking about individuals from different species, you should say FISHES!)

​The flatfish group includes a whole bunch of different species such as flounder, plaice, and halibut.  They have one thing in common – they have a unique flattened shape! Some fishes that have a flat shape, like skates and rays, are “dorsoventrally flattened”, which means that they look squished flat on their bellies. The flatfishes that I am writing about today are different because they are “laterally” flattened, which means that they are flattened side to side.
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​Flatfishes are typically predators and their favourite foods include crustaceans, molluscs, polychaete worms, and smaller fishes. These flat friends are mostly bottom-dwelling and they usually prefer a soft substrate (that means a squishy bottom like mud or sand). Because of their shape, when they are resting near the bottom, they aren’t resting on their belly like a skate or ray – they are lying on their side!

Flatfish always look on the bright side… because both of their eyes are on the side of their head facing up into the water, rather than down towards the ground! This makes their face look a little bit funny. However, they aren’t born with this shape. When they’re young, they start swimming around like a regular fish and then they eventually start swimming tipped over on one side. As a result of swimming on their side, the eye on the underside of their body migrates around to their upper side! As a fully developed fish, they swim on their side with both of their eyes looking upwards, while their underside is “blind”. Some species become “right-eyed” and some are “left-eyed”, depending on which side of their body faces up.

My favourite flatfish is the mighty Atlantic halibut. Here are my top 3 Atlantic halibut facts:
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1)Atlantic halibut have a really fun scientific name: Hippoglossus hippoglossus. Try saying that 5 times fast! Hippoglossus is Latin for “horse tongue”, which apparently refers to the shape of the fish.

2)Atlantic halibut is the largest groundfish in Atlantic Canada! They can be more than 2.5 m long and can tip the scales at more than 300 kg. That’s a big fish!

3)Atlantic halibut are really deep… literally! They are most abundant at depths of 200– 500 m in deepwater channels between offshore banks and along the continental shelf.
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​While you might not be able to go out into the deep sea to find an Atlantic halibut, the fishermen in our area certainly know about them! They are one of the most commercially-valuable fish harvested in Atlantic Canada. You might be able to spot one of their smaller cousins, like a flounder, right here in Halifax harbour. Keep your eyes peeled for these fishy friends hanging out near the seabed next time you’re out for an ocean adventure!

“What are those jellyfish in the water?!”
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Every spring and early summer, Nova Scotia gets a group of fabulous visitors in our waters. I have seen so many people hanging their head over the side of the Halifax boardwalk trying to get a better look at these tiny mysteries. But today we are breaking the mystery for you. So what are they? They go by many names including ‘disco jellies’, ‘ctenes’, or ‘comb jellies’, but their mouthful of a scientific name is Ctenophora. [Pronounced “teen-OH-four-ah”]. Now these extravagant little jellies are many things but the one thing they are not is jellyfish!

While Ctenophora may have the gelatinous form we are used to seeing in ‘jellyfish’ (which is classified scientifically at Cnidiarians), there are a few hallmark reasons that make them their own phylum and a very fun animal to observe:

Don’t fear! Ctenophora can’t sting you. This is one of the most noteworthy differences between Ctenophora and Cnidarians (aka jellfyfish!). They do not have what are called cnidocytes which deliver the stringing feeling we get when we touch the tentacles of a jellyfish. However, even though they can’t sting you we still recommend observing them at a safe distance. Since ctenophora have a soft jelly-like body it is very easy to injure these little wonders.

How do they get around? I am so glad that you asked! Ctenphora are the largest organisms that move by ‘cilia’. Cilia are very tiny hairs that typically bacteria use to move around. Ctenophora have eight rows of the cilia attached to their body which move in tandem to help them get around. Slow and steady wins the race with ctenes! See how they move here. 

Hey! Why do they look different? Both of these pictures are ctenophora, but are different species. Ctenophora really do come in all shapes and sizes. Ctenophora have lots of different species and some have beautiful long tentacles and some are nice and oval shaped without any additional appendages. Often in Nova Scotia, we have multiple different species of ctenohpora in our waters at the same time.

What is the RAINBOW? Ctenophora are often mistaken are being “bioluminescent” which is the process where organisms give off their own light. Now some species of Ctenophora are biolumensect, but most often if you are seeing beautiful rainbow colours it is from the light refracting off the tiny beating cilia! We love to call them disco jellies for this reason! What do you think their favourite disco song is to synchronously move their rows of cilia to? (My bet is on Stayin’ Alive!).

by Kayla Hamelin

When you live in Nova Scotia, it is obvious that fishing is an important part of the culture and economy of Atlantic Canada. Fishing vessels fill our harbours. Folks head down to their local pier – rod in hand - to cast a line and see what bites. Seafood restaurants and markets abound. People fish for fun, for food, and for work. 

​Mackerel are a marine, pelagic fish, which means that they live in the open water column of the ocean, rather than on the bottom or at the shore. They have beautiful bodies well-adapted for camouflage in the ocean, with shimmery blue on their backs, silvery undersides, and squiggly stripes down their backs and flanks. You may notice the tiny finlets (mini, nonretractable fins) on their caudal peduncle (a funky name for the area where the body meets the tail fin). These finlets help with their high-performance swimming and are a feature shared with some of the larger members of their Scombridae family, including the mighty tunas and bonitos. 

Mackerel are relatively small, measuring up to about 40 cm (a bit more than a foot) in length and about 1 kg in mass. However, there is strength in numbers, and these schooling fish like to swim together in large groups to stay safe from predators. Fun fact: unlike many of their relatives, mackerel do not have a swim bladder, the gas-filled organ that helps many fish to control their buoyancy. Without a swim bladder, mackerel must follow Dory’s advice and just keep swimming!

​​Unfortunately, Fisheries and Oceans Canada has classified mackerel in the critical zone, meaning that the stock has declined and needs rebuilding. However, we still don’t know a lot about the biology, ecology, and fishery operations for Atlantic mackerel. I think this seems like a great oppor-tuna-ty for fishers, scientists, and government officials to unite and work together to ensure that an abundance of these creatures can be found swimming our seas for years to come. If you’re interested in chatting all things mackerel, feel free to reach out at kayla.hamelin@dal.ca!
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by Meghan Borland

It is hard to believe that another Touch Tank Hut season is around corner! Well, maybe it’s still a couple snow melts and freezes away, so to tide us over, I thought I would share some highlights from our 2019 Touch Tank Hut guest book.

​As you read on, you will notice that I have sprinkled this blog with some quotes from the guest book that are guaranteed to turn any day from crabby to fin-tastic!  I mean, just look at the letter below from one of our many sweet, ocean-loving visitors, Solomon!

​​Before we dive in, let me just say that we had an amazing 2019 season. We loved seeing familiar faces from the previous season and many new ones too! The guest book is a great way for us to gain an understanding of where our visitors call home and what the highlight of their visit was. Keep in mind, the fun facts that I have included in this blog are based on the information we collected in our guest book and do not reflect all 2019 visitors.

– Tara, Chad, Karaghen and Jax, 2019 Touch Tank Hut Visitors

​​This season we had visitors from not only across Nova Scotia, but across Canada and the globe! After going through our guest book, I learned that in 2019 Touch Tank Visitors came from 35 communities across Nova Scotia.

 
​Outside of Nova Scotia, we had visitors from 57 communities across 9 Canadian provinces. If you visit us from Manitoba or a territory, make sure you sign the book so your province is represented next summer!

​We even had visitors from 10 countries outside of Canada (yes, you read that right)! We like to think that these individuals travelled such a long distance just to visit us… 😉

​We had visitors from the United States, Bermuda, New Zealand, France, Spain, Australia, Japan, India, Germany, and Lebanon.

Thank you to everyone, near and far, who visited the Touch Tank Hut last season. We are humbled by the support we receive. Your positive feedback confirms why we are working so hard to open a community aquarium!

Psst! If you haven’t already heard, a couple weeks ago we announced a call for feasibility vendors. This is a fancy way of saying that Halifax is one step closer to getting a community aquarium! You can read our press release here.

- Lindsay, Lara and Austin, 2019 Touch Tank Hut Visitors
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By Alex Tesar
 
We here at the Back to the Sea Society hate to be accused of favouritism. When it comes to marine life, we love it all, from anemones to zooplankton. Jellyfish: yes. Whales—whale, of course. But there is one group of animals that may be entitled to bear the crown of nature’s most perfect creature. I speak, of course, of crabs.
 
To understand why, we must first look at some things that aren’t crabs. Sorting the crabs from the crab-nots can be complicated. Consider, for example, the hermit crab: protruding eyes on stalks, a shell, and the trademark claws that suggest the quintessence of crabbiness. You would be forgiven for thinking that you were looking at a crab.
 
However, despite their name, hermit crabs aren’t actually crabs. Though they resemble “true crabs,” hermit crabs are in fact a different kind of crustacean that happens to look very similar. And they are far from alone: among those living in disguise are the king crabs, which may have themselves evolved from hermit crabs (known, delightfully, as the “hermit-to-king” hypothesis), as well as hairy stone crabs and porcelain crabs. 
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The king crab is not a crab, but it is a king. 
Photo credit: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Gulf of Mexico 2017

​The theory that crab-like crustaceans tend to evolve from non-crab ancestors is known as “carcinization.” The word literally means to become cancer-like, but think of the astrological sign, not the disease. The phenomenon was first described by a man named Lancelot Alexander Borradaile, who has perhaps one of the best names in the history of science. Borradaile coined the term while studying the evolution of the humble hermit crab, describing it as “one of the many attempts of Nature to evolve a crab.”
 
Why does Nature want to evolve a crab so badly? Well, we know that evolution “selects” for traits that are particularly well-suited to a given environment, and there seems to be something about the crab-like shape that works very well when it comes to surviving and thriving in the water—so what works for “true crabs” might also evolve in other species that aren’t close genetic relatives. This is called parallel evolution.
 
There are other examples of this in nature, too. In Australia, many marsupial species have evolved separately from mammals in the rest of the world but still look strangely familiar because they’ve faced similar evolutionary pressures—like the flying phalanger and the flying squirrel, which both glide from tree to tree. 

​It appears that nature likes to get crabby. Of course, there’s no such thing as a perfect animal in evolution, only the creature that’s best adapted to its time and place. But when you come to the touch tank this summer, you can get hands-on and decide for yourself whether you are simply holding a hermit crab or touching a miracle. 

​If you have ever made the acquaintance of a hermit crab in the ocean or the Touch Tank Hut, you will know that they are an incredible lobster-like animal with ten legs, two claws, and a whole wack of weird and wonderful associated facts. For example, hermit crabs can grow up to 16-inches, have algal and anemone friends, and can move between oceanic and land environments! As amazing as these facts are, hermit crabs have an even weirder trick up their shell…or should I say shells.

Even though hermit crabs require a shell to protect their soft abdomens, they are unable to create one. The hermit crab’s solution to this evolution irony is to inhabit shells created by snails and other animals. As the hermit crab grows, however, the too-tight-jeans feeling takes over and the hermit crabs need to find a bigger shell to call home. This is where the Black Friday analogy comes in because changing shells requires speed, knowing what you want, some *light* shoving, and a whole lot of determination as a bigger shell is the desire of many. ​​

When it is time to change shells, hermit crabs can do one of three things – steal a shell, find a vacant shell, or trade shells in a mass event. Although the mass event is nothing short of madness, there is some etiquette to trading shells, specifically:
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1. Hermit crabs line up from largest to smallest;
2. The largest hermit crab finds and enters an uninhabited new shell;
3. The next-largest hermit crab enters the recently empty shell; and
4. The shell swapping continues until all or nearly all hermit crabs have a new, roomy shell.

Even though mass events do lead to a lot of happy hermies (the internet taught me this term), some hermit crabs will undoubtably be left without a shell and will be forced to steal or find an empty shell.

​Although we do not condone stealing as part of our shopping-shell swapping analogy, we do support the hermit crabs’ teachings of etiquette and identifying needs – a clawsome reminder as we exit a consumer-heavy weekend and enter holiday shopping season. 

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As we are into August already, it is safe to say that  it has been a successful season for the Touch Tank Hut thus far. With many new eager volunteers, visitors and amazing animals, the Touch Tank Hut has been running smoothly! With only a handful of weeks left to the summer, make sure you take time to come visit and see some of the special creatures that lurk in Nova Scotia's waters. 

Goodwill Bot Wrap Up

It was a night filled with laughter, games, prizes and a few sea friends at this year's Goodwill Bot event hosted at Good Robot. A huge thank you to all the amazing volunteers and to the people who generously donated prizes to make this night possible for us. We are so thankful for the opportunity to spread awareness about our society, and to raise money in order to keep our Touch Tank Hut running all season.  

A special thank you to Good Robot for hosting the event and to all those that participated! The Back to the Sea Society is beyond grateful for the opportunity to have raised $550 at this event. 

Program Bookings

Any camps or day cares that would be interested in attending a private program at the Touch Tank Hut, please email our Program Coordinator Aki Nisbet and fill out the booking form on our website for any inquiries. 

We offer a 1 hour program on Wednesdays and we have separate programs for ages 5 and under, as well as 6 and above. There are only a handful of weeks left in the summer so book your groups ASAP to experience this unique and educational opportunity at the Touch Tank Hut! 

A fun and healthy way of supporting the Back to the Sea Society is by purchasing from Stoke Food Supply.  This company is dedicated to creating yummy protein bars with grass fed whey protein and no additives or preservatives. 

Support Back to the Sea Society by purchasing a dozen bars from Stoke Food Supply.  They will forgo the plastic by wrapping the bars in compostable parchment paper and the total packaging saved amount will be donated to Back to the Sea. To check out all their delicious flavours, visit their website. 

Delightful Raspberry White Chocolate bars made by Stoke Food Supply 

Sea Suds Soap

Are you interested in wonderful all-natural handcrafted soaps? If the answer is yes, you should stop by the Touch Tank Hut and check out our selection of amazing soaps from Sea Suds Soap.  This company is a mother and daughter duo who create all natural hand-made soaps and are committed to reducing plastic pollution through the use and promotion of natural bar soap.

Sea Suds Soap has generously donated some of their wonderful soaps to us which are on sale at the Touch Tank Hut. When purchasing the soaps through us, all proceeds go directly into supporting our society. 

We invite you to come visit the Touch Tank Hut this summer before our season ends. You will be amazed by the many animals that can be found in our own backyard. Best fishes to all!
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​ Sarah Holleran is our Touch Tank Hut Coordinator and Executive Assistant. Read her bio here