Fred Howard Park!!

Snorkeling at Fred Howard Park

Date: September 18, 2014
Weather: About 85 degrees and 24% cloud coverage
Site Description: The area was managed


When the class first arrived at Fred Howard Park we headed over to the beach to observe different fish that we caught in the seine net. We used this method several times and each time we found different types of fish. An example of what we found the first time using the net was a little horseshoe crab and a bigger crab, these belong to the Phylum Arthropod group as a crustacean. The second time we found a sponge which belongs to the Phylum Porifera group, algae, and shrimp which is similar to the crab since it also belongs to the Phylum Arthropod group as a crustacean. The third round we found what I like to call a miniature sword fish but it is actually called a needle-fish and they swim at the speed of lighting, or something close to it. After using the seine net we began to snorkel. I saw two sponges and way too much seaweed. The seaweed that I saw most of was the turtle grass. It is flat and flimsy and can reach the surface of the water. I know this because I was swimming above the seaweed as high as I could go but still felt like it was being attacked! I also saw a few red mangroves. They don't look like seaweed because they're very round and don't bend and they float on water. They are propagules so it detaches itself from a plant and forms a new plant. The last type of seaweed I saw was manatee grass. Manatee grass was more friendly to me than the turtle grass because they're very short and there isn't an overwhelming amount! Fred Howard Park was a fun experience, but I still hate seaweed.

Turtle Grass                              
 

Red Mangroves
 

Manatee grass


(Pictures from Google)

Victoria Millman

fred howard BY ERIN DWYER

a needle nose fish; we caught one in the seine net. He escaped!

Seining and Snorkeling Fred Howard Park

9/18/14 at 2:20 PM
Location:      Fred Howard Park
Conditions:  87 degrees Fahrenheit; winds <10mph
                     Mostly sunny with 20% cloud cover

Area where the seine net was used.  Photo taken facing east toward mainland Florida from the northeast area of the park.  Howard Park Causeway can be seen on the right side of the photo.

Fish of the Belonidae family caught in the seine net.

The class huddled around the seine net.

The above video shows the movement and speed of the Belonidae fish caught in the net.

A starfish found in the shallows.  Phylum Echinodermata.

A hermit crab found in the shallows. Phylum Arthropoda.

     Fred Howard Park is a man-made beach approximate 1.5 kilometers off the coast of Tarpon Springs.  We visited the park to practice using a seine net as seen below:  

"Seine (PSF)" by Pearson Scott Foresman - Pearson Scott Foresman, donated to the Wikimedia Foundation. Licensed under      Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
     http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seine_(PSF).png#mediaviewer/File:Seine_(PSF).png

The net has buoys on top to keep it afloat and weights on the bottom to keep the net open underwater.  With one person holding each end post standing parallel to the shore, one person rotates in place while the other walks in a semicircle away from the shore and around the stationary person until he or she is standing on the opposite side of the stationary person.  The end posts are then brought together to form a circle of net near the shore.
     This area was chosen to observe three of the Florida seagrasses:  manatee grass (Syringodium filiforme), a narrow, cylindrical saltwater grass, shoalweed (Halodule wrightii), a narrow, flat saltwater grass, and turtle grass (Thalassia testudinum), a broad, flat saltwater grass.  We saw all three of these species growing in patches in the shallow (.5-1.5 meter), sandy areas east of the park.
   
Species List:
Birds:
     great blue heron (1)
     snowy plover (many)
     royal tern (many)
     black skimmer (3)
     laughing gull (many)

Plants:
     cabbage palm
     sea grape
     dune sunflower
     red mangrove and propagules
     black mangrove propagules
     turtle grass
     manatee grass
     shoalweed

Fishes:
     mullet
     mahara
     pinfish
     needlefish
   
Miscellaneous
     blue crab (Arthropoda)
     hermit crab (Arthropoda)
     unknown sponge (Porifera)
     Gracilaria (Rhodophyta)
   

FRED HOWARD

 

Saying Net^

Ok, so this weeks field trip was to Fred Howard and if you don't know what Fred Howard is it's a man made beach. It was a very fun trip, we got to snorkeler in 4ft of water, use a saying net and caught some really fun things. We were able to catch a sponge, a blue crab (which was the biggest thing we caught), a bunch of little crabs and some mhare fish we're a pretty common catch.  Even though it was 84 degrees and had, at most, 20% cloud coverage it was a pretty stellar trip.
By: Ashley Wolpert