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This Month’s Contents:
Blue Ocean
Society News | Experience Our Touch Tank!
Adopt-a-Marine Creature Update|
Upcoming Events
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Quote of the Month
Blue Ocean Society News
Greetings, and happy summer! It’s been a great whale watch/research
season so far, with sightings of many familiar humpbacks and
finbacks. We are excited about this week, as we are busy with
events surrounding the Independence Day holiday and the arrival of
three tall ships into Portsmouth, an event that has not happened
here for about 100 years!
It is also Clean Beaches Week, which we celebrated with a
well-attended cleanup at Jenness Beach on June 28. The week
concludes on July 5. Hopefully all the beachgoers out on the NH
seacoast and beyond will be conscientious about their trash this
week!
Hope you have a safe and happy holiday!
Experience Our Touch Tank!
By Kara Johnson, Touch Tank Coordinator
 Summer
is here and the Blue Ocean Society Touch Tank is in full swing at
the Isles of Shoals Steamship Company dock at 315 Market Street in
downtown Portsmouth, NH. We invite everyone to come down and learn
about the different plants and animals found in tidepools along the
New Hampshire coast. All of our plants and animals were collected
from local spots near Portsmouth and we would like to teach you how
to identify the animals along our coastline. We also promote proper
stewardship while tidepooling and would like to share with you tips
for finding and preserving the coastal plants and animals.
We open the touch tank to the public from 12:00 pm – 1:15 pm, after
which we bring our tidepool program on-board the M/V Thomas Laighton
for the afternoon Isles of Shoals trip. This trip is always open to
the public and we invite you to come aboard and spend the afternoon
off-shore in the cool waters around the Isles.
 What’s
in our touch tank? We feature two main habitats – sandy bottom and
rocky shoreline; discover the animals found in each area. We
currently have over 10 different kinds of seaweeds. What? Did you
think all seaweed was the same? Come down to the touch tank and
learn about the different types of seaweed and why they are
important to our coast. We also have numerous species of crabs,
barnacles, snails, limpets, and shellfish. Other animals include sea
anemones, sea stars, sea urchins, sand dollars, and a horseshoe
crab!
We add animals each week to our touch tank and switch out critters
to keep them from getting handled too much or stressed out. There is
always something new to see and learn at the Blue Ocean Society
Touch Tank! Come down to say hi, learn to properly hold a crab, and
see a live sand dollar. See you soon at the Isles of Shoals
Steamship Company dock!
Isles of Shoals Steamship
Company:
www.islesofshoals.com
Touch Tank Page:
www.blueoceansociety.org/tank/
Adopt-a-Marine Creature Update
We’ve
seen many of our creatures so far, and have some exciting
announcements!
For
updates for all the creatures,
click here. Here are the highlights:
 Finbacks
– Comet has been seen with a calf! We now know this whale is a
female! Trigger was also seen with a calf recently. Fjord was seen
this spring, and Ladder was seen with a couple different companions
over this past weekend.
Humpbacks
– Flask, Owl, Pinball, and Satula have all been seen already this
season!
Others –
we’ve seen a number of fun, active Atlantic white-sided dolphin
pods. It’s also been a great year for basking sharks so far. Not
many sunfish yet, but the summer’s still young…
 Thanks
to Leo Gagnon, Strategic Real Estate Advisor with
Keller
Williams Realty, for his generous support as our 2007 Annual
Sponsor!
We also
thank
Spectex, LLC for their generous donation to our Marine
Conservation Education Fund. For more information on sponsorship
opportunities,
click here.
Upcoming Events
Wednesday, July 4: Join us for An American Celebration at Strawbery
Banke in Portsmouth, 12-5 PM. We’ll have a table and touch tanks
near the Captain Walsh House. This is a great time every year!
Friday, July 6: Three tall ships arrive in Portsmouth - the Prince
William, the Pride of Baltimore, and the Spirit of Bermuda. We will
be aboard the M/V Thomas Laighton, which is leading the boat parade,
from 8:30-10:30 AM. We’ll have our touch tanks and lots of marine
biology information to share while we watch the tall ships come in!
Get your tickets at
www.islesofshoals.com or call 603-431-5500. Often the boat
parade is the only time the ships are under sail, so this will be a
great experience!
Saturday, July 7 and Sunday, July 8: Visit us under the tall ships
exhibition tent from 11 AM-3 PM. For more information,
click here.
Thursday, July 12: Join us at Jenness Beach for a clean up
and to hear a brief presentation about Gulf of Maine sharks in honor
of Shark Awareness Day, which is July 14! For more information,
visit
www.blueoceansociety.org/cal.htm .
Tuesday, July 24, 7-9:30 PM. Our annual
fundraiser
cruise aboard the M/V Prince of Whales. Join us for a calm water
sunset cruise on the Merrimack River with music provided by DJ Ron
Reid of Sounds Spectrum DJ’s! This is always a great time! Tickets
are $15 and all proceeds will benefit our education, research and
conservation programs. For details, call 603-431-0260 or e-mail
info@blueoceansociety.org. Online reservations are available now
at
www.blueoceansociety.org/cruise.htm.
Tuesday, August 21 – Sunset Kayak Trip. Join us for a
naturalist-guided kayak excursion and view the sunset! E-mail
development@blueoceansociety.org for more information.
Daily in
the summer: free programs at our touch tank in downtown Portsmouth
from 12-1:15 PM, and
whale watches!
Quote of the Month
"Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite
beauty."
- John Ruskin, (1819-1900)
Thanks for your interest in marine conservation. If you wish
to support our work, please click here.
Have you become a member yet?
Click here
to buy merchandise such as Adopt-a-Marine Creature
packets, t-shirts and sweatshirts online!
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