Mount Desert Oceanarium
Monday - 31 May 2004 - Bar Harbor, Maine:
Wishes for a Peaceful Memorial Day. Our luck with the weather continues! It
was going to be a gorgeous Memorial Day! Campers were flocking out of the RV
park this morning - heading back to reality. DT had a run this morning... I
was still hobbling... and after pancakes we spent several hours at the
Mount Desert Oceanarium. This facility is concerned with hatching
lobsters and returning them to the wild ocean. We thought it looked a little
hokey when we paid our $10 each and were sure we were getting ripped-off and
would spent 10 minutes at the Oceanarium. But we really enjoyed ourselves
and were fascinated by the workers and their commitment to the project. And
they are not striving to help little animals - they are working to get more
adult lobsters on your table! The lobster industry in Maine wasn't doing so
well, so they began gathering Momma lobsters - loaded with eggs - hatching
them in tanks and letting them grow to about 1/4-inch in size. Then they are
released to the ocean floors of Maine. In the wild, it is estimated that one
in one-thousand lobster egg will make it to the 1/4-inch size and then into
maturity. They are just trying to make the odds better. Yet, there is no way
to really know if it is the Mount Desert Oceanarium, or Mother Nature,
bringing back the lobsters.
We visited three areas at the Mount Desert Oceanarium - the museum, the
hatchery and the "petting zoo". The museum was my favorite part! There is
actually an old lobster boat you can go on and there is actually an old
lobster fisherman there to tell you everything you need to know about
lobsters and lobster fishing. The Maine industry is highly regulated,
licenses are difficult (and expensive) to obtain and it isn't an easy
occupation. He showed us how a lobster sheds its shell - yearly after they
mature, more often as they are growing. The process is fascinating! Unlike a
crab, which can just toss off its upper shell, a lobster is totally encased
in hard shell. When the "meat" inside gets too big and they need a larger
shell, they send out an enzyme that weakens a seam down the back of their
shell. The seam becomes pliable and the center of the back shell folds up
(like the doors of the Batmobile), and the lobster sneaks out the bottom.
The shell is shed in one piece and looks EXACTLY like a live lobster. Yet,
these never wash-up on shore. Why? Because as soon as it sheds the shell,
the lobster EATS IT! If a lobster loses a claw, arm, eye or feeler - it
simply grows another. Actually, if a claw or leg is trapped in any way, it
simply drops the entire limb and grows another! The fisherman also had a
"one in a million" blue lobster! (Some claim the blue lobster is really one
in ten million.) Lobsters have all three color pigments, and together they
make brown-ish and so lobsters are brown. If they do not have the correct
pigment, they are blue or red... basically a blue lobster is an albino. All
lobsters - brown, blue or red - turn red when boiled. I can now tell a male
lobster from a female, and know how to put a rubber band around the claws -
and I know which claw to avoid!
The Blue Lobster and the fisherman/museum guide
After this fascinating lecture (okay, I will admit, the
fisherman was kinda cute), we went over to the hatchery. Unfortunately,
Mount Desert Oceanarium did not have any hatchlings at this time, but we did
see so many Momma Lobsters with their thousands of eggs clinging to their
bellies. Actually, it is not a very attractive sight. The guide in the
hatchery was very knowledgeable, and we also saw a video of how they release
the teeny lobsters. They drop a hose to the bottom of the rocky sea and
siphon the little guys out to the bottom! He showed us a one-year-old
lobster. It wasn't 2 inches long and it was nearly transparent in color! Now
I was beginning to understand how difficult it would be for them to survive
in the open ocean.
Lobster belly - with thousands of eggs
Next we went to the "touch tank" where another wonderful
guide brought up all sorts of creatures and plants for us to feel and touch.
She had sea stars, sea cucumbers, urchins, horseshoe crab, moon snails, sea
potatoes, sea grapes, kelp and scallops for us to admire. Did you know that
a scallop has over 100 eyes, yet no brain to tell it what it seeing? Did you
know that most of these crawling, creeping sea creatures have both sex
organs so they can... well, you know. I learned so much today, the guides
were incredible and the people in our tour were also fun and interesting in
learning.
Because the sky was so clear and so blue, we drove back up to the top of
Cadillac Mountain and snapped a few more photos.
The view to Bar Harbor and the Porcupine Islands
We spent the rest of the day relaxing "at home". We enjoyed
a gourmet dinner - grilled butterflied chicken breast (boneless, but with
skin!), scalloped potatoes and a tomato & basil salad. We enjoyed another
pretty sunset. Tomorrow, we will head towards Boston to help Lisa with her
move-in day - we'll catch you in a few days.
The pretty bay at the campground
Our Intrigue at sunset
RV Park:
Mt. Desert Narrows Campground
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