Seining at the Shore!

So just what is seining anyway?  A seine net is a very large fishing net that has floats on one side and weights on the other.   The 4th grade students got to experience seining first hand on the shore trip. We arrived at Cape Henlopen State Park and then headed to the Seaside Nature Center for our seining program on a picture perfect day.  The students all had a turn taking the seine net out into the bay to capture all kinds of marine creatures.  The students held the net at the ends and then walked in a wide circle to capture as many plants and animals as possible.  Once the students headed back with the net, they all picked up the plants and animals and put them into buckets to study when we were done. We caught a lot, including horseshoe crabs, hermit crabs and jellyfish.  We caught an impressive list of fish, including the northern stargazer, mullets, silversides, mummichogs and pipefish.  Of course there were lots of crabs, including blue crabs and lady crabs.  We also caught some tasty seaweed, including sea lettuce and mermaid's hair.  The staff from the Nature Center told us that since a hurricane had just come through, it brought some things normally found in the tropics with it. It was a pretty exciting afternoon!  Back in the classroom, the students are choosing a sea creature to study in science class.