Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
The green sea urchin feasts on Irish moss, however, as well as devouring periwinkles and even mussels and
barnacles.
The erosive power of Fundy's famed tides have carved these curious “flower pots” from the inner bay's soft sand-
stones.
Seabird Republics and Seal Rookeries
Some five thousand islands lie in the Gulf of Maine off New England's rocky coast, but only 10 percent of
them provide potential nesting sites for gulls, terns, cormorants, petrels, guillemots, and other seabirds. Se-
abirds require three conditions to raise their young safely. First, the island must be free of large mammals, like
foxes, mink, coyotes, and rats, which can prey on their eggs, their hatchlings, and the adults themselves. Se-
cond, most seabirds prefer an open habitat, free of trees, for nesting. Finally, the islands must be close to
abundant offshore resources. These conditions are met mostly on the outermost islands and rocks around the
gulf, including Machias Seal Island at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy; Schoodic and Great Duck, off Mount
Desert Island; Matinicus Seal, Matinicus Rock, and Metinic Islands in outer Penobscot Bay; and the sandy is-
lands off Cape Cod, such as Manomet and Monomoy. The most important of these islands is Machias Seal,
which may be the most important seabird-nesting colony south of Newfoundland.
