Our exhibit featured a tank with fiddler crabs, whelks (a gastropod mollusk), sand dollars and spider crabs. We also had various artifacts on display and a microscope set up to view zooplankton (small marine organisms like sea monkeys) and baby whelks. Many of the organisms and artifacts on display were found along the beaches of the Chesapeake Bay.
One of the specimens that attracted a lot of attention was our fossilized oyster shell from the Bay. People were amazed at the size of this thing – probably 3 times the size of oysters that go to market today. People were curious as to why they don’t get that big anymore – there was no simple answer to that question. There are many reasons why: environmental degradation; oyster diseases; and over-harvesting all play a role.
It was so much fun to have people recognize the specimens, then show such surprise when I told them what it was! So many people were surprised to learn that the “black bug looking thing”
was a skate egg case washed up on the shore. Or the “yellow rattle thing” was a whelk egg case.The kids were fantastic and asked questions that some college kids don’t even think about. When is the curiosity lost in people? I guess being curious just isn’t cool. I want to change that. How will people learn about environmental issues without that first sense of wonder?
