Many-Ribbed Hydromedusae
Aequorea sp.
Related to jellyfish but alternates between this freeswimming Medusa stage and attached hydroid stage in its life cycle.
Unlike the ciliated comb jellies, this animal uses stinging cells to capture food. Nematocysts contain a "poison dart" that will numb their prey.

Northern Puffer
Sphoeroides maculatus
"Blowfish" can inflate their bodies by gulping water or air and become quite a large mouthful. Their scaleless and elastic skin makes this balloon-like behavior possible.

Northern Puffer
Sphoeroides maculatus
Teeth fused to form beak which cut and crush hard-shelled invertebrates.

Although an excellent food source, care must be taken when preparing their meat. Tetrodotoxin is a lethal poison that concentrates in their skin and some body organs.

Juvenile winter flounder
Pleuronectes americanus
The right-eyed flounders are named because their left eye migrates to the "right" side of their body. As fry, they swim like any other fish...so it is more accurate to say that flatfish really swim on their side.

Juvenile winter flounder
Pseudopleuronectes americanus
2"length.
Eel grass beds serve as nursery grounds, providing a rich source of food and substrates to which it can rapidly camouflage with.

Inshore Lizardfish
Synodus foetens
Found from Maine to the Gulf of Mexico. This fish is known to be a fierce predator. Approx. 5in.

This juvenile sculpin is aprox. 1/4 in. long.

Horseshoe Crab
Limulus polyphemus
Known as a living fossil, its ancestors have remained unchanged for over 300 million years. They are native, or indigenous to our coast, and return to the place they were born to mate and spawn.

Horseshoe crabs are more closely related to arachnids (spiders, scorpions, ticks, mites...) than to crustaceans, such as crabs. This chelicerate plows through the sand in search of shellfish and worms. Its telson not only functions as a rudder, but can be used to right itself if it's accidentally turned over.