This Invertebrate Data Base includes the data relating to the specimens collected by my students in the Invertebrate Zoology course taught as part of the Applied Marine Biology and Oceanography (AMBO) Program at Southern Maine Community College (SMCC). SMCC was formerly known as Southern Maine Vocational-Technical College (SMVTI), and then Southern Maine Technical College (SMTC).
The collection began in 1971 and continues to the present (2010) and includes specimens collected primarily (but not exclusively) in the Casco and Saco Bay areas of the Gulf of Maine as our campus is located on the shore of Casco Bay in South Portland. There are entries from as far north as Nova Scotia and as far south as Florida.
The procedure that was followed by the students involved collecting live organisms in the marine environment by what ever means they could, i.e. walking along the shore, dredging from a boat, plankton sampling, SCUBA diving, etc. They recorded the location, substrate, date, organism characteristics when live and in the field, associated organisms, etc. They then brought the specimen to the laboratory where they used a variety of dichotomous and tabular identification manuals to identify the organism.
