We met a lobster that was 7 years old. Karen told us some strange facts about lobsters. Did you know that to communicate with each other lobsters wee (out of their eye) on each other! The chemicals in the wee allow them to understand each other.

Lobsters don’t have teeth in their mouths, but in their stomachs! They have hair on their feet that they use to taste what they touch. We saw some starfish; on each tentacle they have one eye to see, in fact they are so small that you may not see them! We watched a playful octopus; it was playing with oxygen bubbles, trying to touch them! Did you know, they have 3 hearts and they have a siphon to puff out water, ink and poo? Sometimes they stick their tentacle in to clean it. We found out that the only jellyfish that live around out coast is called the Moon Jelly. We looked at a mangrove habitat where we found some upside-down jellyfish. They disguise themselves as seaweed so that predators can’t see them.  Did you know that sharks were around before trees, crocodiles and dinosaurs? They also have unlimited teeth and always have more to grow. They don’t lose them, but push them forward. They have a skeleton of cartilage—that’s the thing in the middle of your nose and what  your ears are made from. This is very flexible, meaning sharks can twist lots of ways simultaneously. They can smell a teaspoon of blood from 100 metres away! We saw some clownfish (Nemo). Clownfish clean anemones whiles anemones provide shelter for the clownfish. Because of their smooth skin, they don’t get stung. Parrot fish at bedtime create a snotty bubble out of their own snot to protect themselves from predators. In the morning, this is eaten as their breakfast. We also learnt that some big fish open their mouths so that smaller fish can clean their teeth. The smaller fish are happy because they get food and the big fish are happy they get gleaming white teeth! Thank you very much to Mr Coupe and Mrs Brierley for organising this brilliant tour—we have learned so much!  by Lewis, Stan and Luke, Class 5