By Ann Evankow, Ocean Genome Legacy

Northeastern Huskies took to the tide pools on Sunday, Sept. 10, for the Nahant Coastal Bioblitz, an annual public survey of marine life on the beaches surrounding the Northeastern University Marine Science Center (MSC) in Nahant, MA. Ocean Genome Legacy, the NU marine-dedicated DNA bank, hosts the event to promote appreciation for the vast, extraordinary biodiversity of the oceans.

Equipped with boots, buckets and datasheets, citizen scientists of all ages representing 18 different cities and towns in Massachusetts ventured out onto the wet, shiny rocks early in the morning to catch the exposed intertidal zone, the area uncovered each day during low tide. Northeastern students, including members of the Three Seas Program, Marine Biology Club, MSC Graduate students, and MSC Outreach, assisted participants to find and identify sea stars, hermit crabs, and various species of seaweed. By lunchtime, nearly all of the rocks were submerged again by the daily flow of the incoming water of high tide.

Photo by Justin McClarey

Participants brought their bucket full of biodiversity into the underground MSC bunker classroom. There, they had the opportunity to take a closer look at barnacles and plankton under the microscopes, construct DNA barcoding bracelets of sequences from their favorite marine species, and create artful pressings with their seaweed collection.

During the event, participants marked off the marine species they found using datasheets. This year, the images of the marine species will also be available at Nahant Coastal Biodiversity project on iNaturalist, an online community of naturalists.

Photo by Justin McClarey

Photo by Justin McClarey

Photo by Isabel Gutowski