Today we were fortunate to have a great calm day to compare Island Bay beach and rock pools to the more local conditions we've already explored at Worser Bay and Breaker Bay. There was quite a big difference in what we found - many more varieties of snails and some shrimp, even a small dead octopus, but almost no starfish at all! There were also much fewer varieties of seaweed, and no sea lettuce. We were wondering why we found different things here.
We were able to get hands on with many sea creatures we'd seen a little of already and learn more about them by touching the creatures we've been researching up close to see some of their features. Did you know starfish have five eyes at the end of their arms - they sure don't look like ours though!
We explored the beach to learn a little about the food chain on the beach especially looking at how seaweed, sandhoppers and crabs affect life in the sea. It's all connected... We also looked inside bull kelp and saw how it's internal structure has lots of air packed in a way so it can float. This allows the kelp to reach towards the light to that it can get it's energy from the process of photosynthesis, just like plants do on land.
Thanks again to those parents who were able to support our trip by joining us. We're all really excited at the thought of coming back towards the end of the year to do some snorkelling here.
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