Creatures

Overall, however, the Captain’s logs convey the real essence of collecting at the MBL- an appreciation and respect of the marine organisms being collected. Coded in the notes both explicitly and implicitly is that these creatures are living, breathing things that change, ebb, and flow. For example, on March 2, 1964, “the purple urchins were terrible to untangle, and the team wished they “had better luck with the coral,” which is “a hard animal to collect”. In addition to an open awareness of the complexity of these living creatures, the Captains even sometimes comment on the pure beauty of the organisms, especially when they came across a rare find or an especially big creature.