Plankton eaters
A famous Bay bivalve that can move through the mud with its foot and filters plankton and bacteria from the water up to a gallon a minute.
Quat is a Quahog?
A ancient creature closely related to spiders and scorpions that feeds on bivalves, worms, and other invertebrates by tearing them apart with its long, slender claws
What is a Horseshoe Crab?
These fish aren't the best swimmers, so to feed they hold themselves in place with their tail and suck large amounts of water through their straw-like mouths and out their gills.
What is a Seahorse?
A succulent salt marsh snack for people, some species are also used to feed stock animals and make biodiesel.
What is Sea Pickle (Salicornia)?
This is garbage that looks like jelly fish to sea turtles.
What is a plastic bag?
A crustacean with plates permanently attached to a structure (or animal) that open when submerged so it can extend feathery feeding legs to catch plankton.
What is a barnacle?
This creature drills a pencil point sized hole in the shell and secretes acid to remove the flesh of its bivalve prey.
What is a moon snail?
This fish eats only invertebrates, chomping their shells apart with its big back teeth.
What is the Tautog?
There used to be so many of these they could be caught by hand along the shore and were considered food for the poor. Now they are served in many popular, iconic dishes.
What are American Lobsters?
A type of extremely small trash that can travel all the way up the food chain and even end up in humans.
What are microplastics?
A free-living (unattached) bivalve that filter feeds without a siphon
What is a bay scallop?
A crustacean whose aggression and ability to eat almost anything could be one of the reasons for its success as an invasive species from Japan
What is an Asian Shore Crab?
A fish that has three lower fin rays that it uses as feelers to detect pray as it "walks" along the bottom.
What is a Sea Robin?
These creatures are widely consumed in Asia despite having little nutritional value or flavor other than salt. They are dried and then cooked and sauced like noodles.
What are jellyfish?
Trash known to easily break apart and float making it one of the most common types of litter found in animals that filter feed or skim the surface for food. We use it in coolers, to-go containers, and as packing material.
What is polystyrene foam (Styrofoam)?
A marine snail that scrapes algae off of rocks and marsh grass with its radula, or tiny sandpaper-like teeth. This snail is also edible to humans and was introduced from Europe.
What is a Common Periwinkle?
After prying open its shell with its tube feet, this animal pushes it's stomach out of its body and secretes enzymes into its prey to liquify and digest it.
What is a sea star?
A cartilaginous fish that sometimes hunts in packs and will eat almost anything, especially lobsters.
What is a Spiny Dogfish?
This "right-eyed" species cannot be harvested within the Narragansett Bay. RI DEM will give you a free hat if you catch a tagged one!
What are Winter Flounder?
This is the most lethal form of ingested trash in seabirds so it is very harmful to release them at parties.
What are balloons?
A fish that can sometimes be seen skimming the surface of water for phytoplankton
What is an Atlantic Menhaden?
A creepy nocturnal hunter with powerful jaws that thrust out of its proboscis to grab prey such as worms, clams, crustaceans and algae.
What is a Clamworm?
This omnivorous marsh fish is small but mighty. It can use its sharp teeth to take down much bigger fish.
What is a Sheepshead Minnow?
Calamari is the culinary name for this sea creature.
What is a squid?
A form of ocean trash that can be more deadly to sea creatures when it is lost in the ocean than it is when being used to catch fish.
What is ghost fishing gear?