Night of the Flower Moon

 Dear class,


5/23 marks the night of the full moon in Puerto Pensaco. Being in the month of May, this full moon has been given the title of “Flower Moon” to honor the time of fruitfulness and new beginnings that come with the spring blossoms. This energy bodes well for our congregation from Arizona to Puerto Penasco at the Intercultural Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans (CEDO). Coinciding with the full moon is the phenomenon known as spring tides. Yesterday in class we were told about how the pull of the moon affects the tides to create either neap tides (quadrature) or  spring tides (syzygy). The former refers to the least amount of tidal range due to the sun, earth, and moon forming an angle while the latter refers to the most dynamic tidal ranges of the month due to the sun, earth, and moon being in alignment. Lucky for us, we were able to explore zone 3 marine animals when the tide sank to its lowest point of the week around 8pm on 5/23. 


While on the hunt for the elusive pulpo, or octopus, we were greeted by another friend belonging to the Mollusca phylum: sea hare. Mollusca are characterized by having three major components: a foot, a mantle, and visceral mass (internal organs). They also have radula which are chitinous teeth for grazing with soft bodies enclosed in a shell. Although the sea hare, or sea slug, looks and feels like a huge boba ball, internally they have a shell protecting their vital organs. Their chitinous teeth are used for munching on algae like rhodophyta which is red in color. This algae gives them a purple pigment which they are able to ink off when they feel threatened or attacked. Thankfully, the family of sea hares we ran into did not feel so threatened, but instead secreted sperm while I held one in my hand. Sea slugs are commonly hermaphroditic and where you see one it is likely that you will see multiple, which is exactly what transpired. It just so happened that we ran into a few of them during mating season and were lucky enough to spot their nest of eggs as well which were stuck to the top of a rock crevice and were enclosed in a jelly-like substance resembling spaghetti. 


In the photo you can see the whitish fluid off the back of one of the sea hares which was probably sperm. The bundle of yellow next to another are their eggs. 


It was a great way to end the night of the Flower Moon and I hope to see more varieties of fauna as the week goes by. 


Thanks!

Quinn




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