Newport | dive-in

Skates are such funny little characters sometimes!

Hello friends! Today I am following the journals adventure to the Save The Bay Aquarium in Newport. Their mission is to engage the community in marine life in an interactive way. How cool is that?! I thought I'd catch up with some of my friends from the bay and see what they are up to.

Save the Bay

Skate Mermaid Purses Lots of little baby skates in their egg cases (also called mermaid purses) getting ready to be born!	Baby Skate A young clearnose skate smiling up against the tank glass	Dogfish Babies Dogfish egg cases are also known as mermaids purses! Dogfish are a kind of shark, which are closely related to skates.
Pacific Shore Crab Pacific shore crabs waiting to be eaten by the octopus for lunch	Nocturnal Short Bigeye Fish Their red color helps to camouflage them during the day, as red has the longest wavelength and is the first color to be blocked out as the light travels through the water. Blue is the last to go, which is why in most underwater photos, everything looks blue!	Whelks Rhode Island has three types of whelk: channeled whelk, knobbed whelk and lightning whelk. They are commercially fished in Narragansett Bay in the spring and fall and they all lay these really cool spiraling egg cases.
Spider Crabs Spider crabs are common inhabitants of coastal Rhode Island.

Wow these step-by-step sketches in the journal are really helpful!

This baby skate already knows how to walk! It's called punting, and those "legs" are actually modified pelvic fins. Right now he is only three inches long but he will grow to 30 inches as an adult, and he will still be using those fins to walk along the ocean bottom.