Collecting!

Went out collecting with a friend of mine in the Long Island Sound. He has a cold saltwater set up and he wanted to collect some local critters to maintain. Basically, this entailed both of us slogging around in the Long Island Sound with three different kind of nets, scraping the bottom of the sound and picking through sludge. Yes, it is possible that I have a warped sense of "fun". Clearly we attracted all sorts of attention from passers-by, all of whom were desperate to offer helpful "advice". New York is the only place I have ever lived where complete strangers are always happy to get all up in your business.

Here is some of the stuff we found:







We also got a little scorpionfish, mud snails, hermit crabs, grass shrimp, two northern pipefish and various pretty macroalgaes. Good fun! And then when we were done, we had seafood at the beach. All in all, a fun day out.