Maryland Environmental Service Visits WLMS

This past Tuesday, 6th graders at WLMS were visited by the Maryland Environmental Service (MES).
They spoke to us about the Port of Balitmore, Poplar Island, and Diamondback Terrapins.

Students learned how the Chesapeake Bay has to be dredged to allow ships to transport our goods into the port of Balitmore. The sediment that is removed is being used to build up Poplar Island, which was a vanishing island.  On Poplar Island a wetland is being built to help preserve and protect the wildlife, including Diamondback terrapins.  On Poplar island there are no predators so the population can survive/thrive.

Each year about 250 turtles are removed from the island and given to schools to be raised for the first nine months of the turtle's life.  These turtles are given a head start in growth and learn how to hunt their own food, while the turtles on the island hibernate, do not grow, and still need to learn how to survive in the wild.  The hope is to collect data to see if the turtles that are tagged and in the head start program have a better rate of survival.

Students were able to measure the weight, carapace, plastron, shell width, and shell height of one of ten turtles MES brought with them using calipers and a scale.

Here are some links to more information about Poplar Island: http://www.aqua.org/conservationevents_poplarisland.html and  http://www.nab.usace.army.mil/Projects/PoplarIsland/

Bubbles, the terrapin hatchling that our students have been raising this year, will be tagged in April and released on Poplar Island in June (we got it in september).  We are currently waiting for approval from central office for this trip and if its approved, 9 students from aquahavens will have the opportunity to go to Poplar Island to release Bubbles back into its natural environment.

Thanks to Amy Musgrave, our Science Team Leader, for organizing these activities for our students.