What's in the cast net today?

The instructor's demo cast hauled in some menhaden. Or do you call them shad?

Ninth-graders used cast and seine nets during a Back to the Bay class to get a peek at what's below the water's surface.

On this warm October morning at Baytown Nature Center we mostly found menhaden, brown shrimp, comb jelly and old oyster shells covered in barnacles and hooked mussels.

But it's always fun to catch something.

A guy looking for bait fish wanted this catch. Sorry, dude, this is a catch-and-release class.

One group caught a 5-inch blue crab with their seine net.

But mostly they caught little brown shrimp and comb jelly.

Catch any comb jelly lately?

Contrails made an early morning X to mark the spot Sept. 16 at Baytown Nature Center where we meet ninth-graders participating  in the "Back to the Bay" program.

It was fun watching the students try to master the cast-net toss even though all they were pulling out of the bay were Comb Jelly.

Not that there is anything wrong with Comb Jelly.

Naturalist Crissy says Comb Jelly are the McDonald's of the bay: They are everywhere and everything eats them.

And they don't sting like jellyfish so you can feel the sliminess in your finger before tossing them back into the water.

Alas, touching their fragile bodies is generally fatal for the Comb Jelly. But when Comb Jellies that survived the cast net were put in viewing containers, the students were intrigued.

Fun facts about Comb Jelly to get high-schoolers' attention.

• Most are hermaphrodites, capable of producing eggs and sperm at the same time.  
• A Comb Jelly has a mouth and an anus, but you won't find a head or tail.
• The ones around here are around 4 inches long, but offshore they can get 4-feet long. 
• They are carnivores.  
• Comb Jelly can emit light -- often seen at night on the waves. That's bioluminescence, and it makes them extra special.

There are translucent Comb Jellies in the sample viewer on the concrete ledge. Squint your eyes and use your imagination.