October 19, 2019

Maria Brown, Stony Brook University. Bat Week is celebrated around the world from October 24-31, 2019. Meet with a local scientist and attend the Pre-Bat Week Event with information for families on how they can host a “Bat Week” event or make a fun Halloween party with a bat theme! Available for everyone will be the Bat Week Cookbook, Facts about bats, Information on forest-dwelling bats vs. cave-dwelling bats, information on White-nose Syndrome, Information on hosting a bat festival, and more! Come and learn about how to build your own bat houses with plans and hear what a bat call is like!

DENNIS DEMELLO © WCS (https://www.wcs.org/wildcards/posts/happy-bat-week)

Saturday August 17 2019, Emmanuelle Pales Espinosa from SBU presented visitors from LIA, mollusk bivalves and their amazing power to filtrate seawater. A lot of fun and great interaction.

August 17, 2019 –  Strange But True: Shellfish Love Sweets Too!

Emmanuelle Pales Espinosa, Stony Brook University. Everybody love sweets so do oysters, clams and mussels. Join us as we meet with a local scientist to learn how these organisms feed but also how they select their food from a complex plankton mix with no eyes, no hands, no nose and no taste buds. Meet us from noon to 3pm on August 17th.

Crazy scallop (Phoro credit E.Pales Espinosa)

Very busy day at the LI Aquarium this Saturday! Michael Ciaramella informed visitors how to choose and handle with care their seafood. Youngest were also able to build their own fish farm. Fun guaranteed for everybody!

Amazing day a the LI Aquarium with Nils and PhD Student Ian Dwyer.

Nils and Ian connected sensors to a fiddler crab and a blue mussel so visitors can observed animal heartbeats directly on a screen like doctors will do! Isn’t it fascinating?!

Norah helped the little ones coloring shellfish and took some funny pictures.

May 18, 2019 – A heart-to-heart with clams and crabs

Nils Volkenborn, Stony Brook University. Meet with local scientist from the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at StonyBrook and watch the heartbeat of hard-shelled animals in real-time and learn why and how scientists use heartbeat rate measurements to study their life in the coastal ocean. Do not miss the great show.

Infrared and Hall Effect sensors glued on the shell of a scallop for simultaneous measurements of heartbeat rates and valve gaping. (Photo credit: Nils Volkenborn,  visit Nils website for more information  https://you.stonybrook.edu/voll/environmental-variability-and-faunal-repsonses/

March 30, 2019

Gregg Rivara, Cornell Cooperative Extension, NY.

Gregg showed baby clams and oysters, their parents and the food they eat. He explained Long Island aquarium visitors the importance of shellfish not only for aquaculture but also for the environment.  Everybody enjoyed!

Huge success for Chris Brianik this week at the LI Aquarium. Big eyes and some winces and grimaces! But a lot to learn.

January 19, 2019 – Small fish, bug worms

Megan Hahn and Christopher Brianik, Stony Brook University. The world of creepy-crawlies parasites is just fascinating and they are all around us! Join us and meet local scientists to learn more about the parasites and microbiom found in local and distant fish.

Three spinned stickleback and its huge macroparasite (tapeworm).

Photo credit: Christopher Brianik. 

December 15, 2018 – How Old is My Striped Bass?        

Zachary Schuller and Stephanie Rekemeyer, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

Striped bass is a valuable species for New York’s commercial and recreational fisheries. They spend the majority of their life in the ocean, returning to our local bays and rivers to spawn in the spring. Come learn how to age striped bass scales and learn how you can help contribute to management of this species.

Photo Credit: D Ross Robertson