An Otter Trawl

The back of the R/V Alabama Discovery with an otter trawl set up on the A-frame. Otter trawl is the most common way to collect a bunch of random fish from the middle of the water column for educational purposes.

So basically what happens is that the trawl comes up with fish in that green net currently on the table, and then they dump all the fish onto the table to look at.

And then when they're done looking, just put the fish back overboard.

Two Kinds of Spartina and Possible Peas

The plant in front has darker green, wider leaves than most of the Spartina along the boardwalk. And there's lots of other ones around there that look like that, so it's not just a fluke. Must be a different species.

Meanwhile, a candidate plant for future peas? The central stem is pretty woody. There's lots of these around where the dead pea trees are. I still think that's an awful lot of energy to expend on building a structure that large and stout for only one year, but then, I'm neither a plant nor a botanist.

Two Gulls on the Same Post

Two laughing gulls standing on the same post. That's a new one on me. They usually chase each other off, and the biggest bird wins. I'd guess these must be mates.

Construction Notes

Looks like something bad happened to the rails on the way to the DISL weather station.

Meanwhile, a board sticking up. I noticed it last week, forgot about it and tripped over it today, then watched someone else trip over it on my way back. Wonder how long it'll be like that before someone fixes it.

Random Scenery Shot

A view of the bridge to the end of the pier, from the end of the pier. I just realized as I was turning around the other day that I'd never taken a picture from this direction before.

Some Pink Flowers

Today I saw some medium-sized pink flowers. These were the only ones I saw, and they were pretty far from the boardwalk. 

Also, these plants look kind of cool.

Big Boats

The Gulf Glory as it heads away from dock, from behind the Jodi D. I hadn't seen it in a while, so I took a picture. The Jodi D, meanwhile, looks pretty much exactly like the MS Joy, which I also haven't seen in a while.

Status of the Peas

It's the beginning of May, everything else started blooming and putting out leaves months ago, and so far they're still dead. These were the trees that almost completely overgrew the beginning of the pier last fall with massive amounts of peas. I would've assumed, given that they're fairly tall trees, that they aren't annuals - but they don't even have buds on them. And it's not just one dead-looking pea tree, they're all like that.

I also don't see anything sprouting up from the ground that looks like it'll turn into a pea tree later. So weird.

Some Random White Flowers

These are blooming in the higher parts of the boardwalk marsh, at the edges of the dunes.

More Pelicans on Posts

They're where the R/V E.O. Wilson is normally berthed. I guess these poles are wider than the ones by the boardwalk pier. That's the Gulf Faith in the background, maneuvering to dock.

At the boardwalk pier today, there were a pair of laughing gulls mating on the rocks (but they were done before I got out the camera), and a big group of gulls bombarding some screaming kids on the other side of the marina. I wonder if the kids learned anything about why it's a bad idea to feed the gulls.