On August 20th, members of the Raritan Valley Branch joined Save Coastal Wildlife, a nonprofit organization dedicated to wildlife preservation and education, to survey the coastal biodiversity along the New Jersey shore, for the second time. The members had a lot of fun with the first fish survey, so they wanted to do it again. Members of the branch were asked to measure the water temperature, salinity, and turbidity before the net was casted to catch and survey the aquatic life. After the net was casted and returned to the shore, volunteers went in, with wet hands, to retrieve the aquatic life and placed them into buckets of ocean water. These aquatic creatures were identified, counted, and recorded before volunteers returned them to the water and got fresh buckets of water. Many of these creatures included crabs, small fishes, jellies, small shrimps and several types of seaweed and moss. Furthermore, volunteers with the Save Coastal Wildlife explained the biology of different types of fish, horseshoe crabs, and blue crabs to the members who were curious about the diversity of aquatic life that was caught. Overall, it was a great experience learning about the incredible biodiversity that flows past New Jersey and volunteering to help improve the coastal environment along the shore.
Thank you to those who participated in this event!
Reported by Austin Ing
Activity Leads (2.5 hours): Albert Y He, Austin Ing
Participants (1.5 hours): Ethan Zhou, Chloe Zhou, Alvin Zhang, Kyle Xu, Emma Zhang, Cindy Wu, Daniel Yu, Brendan Zheng, Brianna Zheng, Dylan Ing
