Hudson River Snapshot Day October 8, 2009

On a day when approximately 3000 students with teachers and education partners gathered data on the Hudson River the Autumn day was crisp, clear and windy! This event was all part of 'A Day in the Life of the Hudson River 2009', or more affectionately known as SNAPSHOT DAY! A blow out tide had left extensive mud flats in many sampling sites. Would this have any effect on the data collected? A few student observations from Booker T. Washington follow:

• Glass shrimp’s tail felt and looked like real-glass- hard and see through and brittle. They had 2 eyes and antennas.  They were the size of my ring finger and didn’t move much.  
• The moon jellyfish were clear and almost invisible.  Their mouths are microscopic and they do not swim.  Since they are almost invisible, species swim into their mouths – that is how they catch their prey.  They look like a blob and felt like hand sanitizer, They are very slippery and hard to pick up.
• Silversides are silver and grey and are not bottom feeders.  They swim very fast and in a school.
•  Asian shore crabs looked like American crabs and they were red and white with 2 antennas and six legs.  Their heads are slightly larger than the American crabs of the same size.

Almanac Entry: Oct. 8th, 2009 - Garrison - The seventh grade students from Garrison Union Free School stood in the sun along the riverside, sleeves pulled over their hands, this cool and breezy morning. The temperature was soon forgotten when a summer flounder dropped out of the net and splashed into our tray. He startled the small, dark naked goby we had placed in a nearby jar just moments before. Cathy Bakker, Kevin Keegan, Charley Wilkinson, Rich Anderson, Eric Lind

Images from the day - ppt or pdf version