For the old salts... salinity of the northern Atlantic Ocean?

[av8]

Hi there fellow reefers and experimenters. Question to those with grey hair (or otherwise if you have been there, done that...):

I just measured the salinity of water that I brought home from the northern Atlantic, in a bay, in Ireland. 1.010. Needless to say, my first reaction was ***? I cleaned my equipment, did it again, and again, 1.010. Checked the instrument with water from my anemone breeder tank, and as expected, 1.025. Check Atlantic Ocean water again..... 1.010. I got the water out of the bay at the same time at I got the creatures.

And now the backstory: I have been keeping a couple of creatures, who shall go unnamed to protect the innocent, alive in 10 ounces of water for about 8 days. They seem to be doing fine now that they are in a small container with bubbles and a bit of good water. I kept them alive by removing most of the water into another water bottle, shaking the hell out of it, and returning the water to the bottle with "the guys" in it. I did this every 2 hours to 8 hours, depending on what was happening. For those that say hey, wait a minute .... they have entered the country totally legally. I declared them and passed through customs. Anyway...

So why would northern Atlantic seawater be 1.010???? I'm currently bringing the salinity up to 1.015, and will continue the slow climb, towards what we all consider appropriate, 1.025 give or take a one or two. I just do not understand how the water could be 1.010... noted: no mixing, evaporation, or any other changes that could change the salinity. One thought: could so much fresh water be dumping into the bay as to lower the salinity that much? My gut says no, but.....

Your thoughts?

Thanks,
John

[av8]

P.S.
The clown in my photo is now 22 years old.

[bertoni]

A bay might have a lot of inflow from a river. That can lower the SG a lot. That'd be my best guess.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

How are you measuring salinity?

I tested the salinity of the water in Rockport Massachusetts, fairly far from any nearby rivers, and it was around 31.2 ppt, or sg = 1.0236, so it can vary a lot, despite the fact that the "average" around the world is 35 ppt (sg = 1.0264). There still may have been substantial run off from rain on the land. There is little penetration of rain into the ground around there because granite comes just about to the surface everywhere. I'm not sure what the land is like where you collected.

[JamesJR]

Also the tides can have a huge influence on the salinity in an area like a bay.

[av8]

Thank you gentlemen for the reply(s.) I'm fairly sure the seawater must have be diluted by runoff from land. Also JamesJR's comment is interesting, but I'm not sure of WHY the tides would cause a huge shift in salinity.

Either way, I'm going to slowly raise the salinity to 1.025. I also hope to acclimate them to 78 degrees F. I'm not so sure how that will work out. I must say, however, that I have found anemones to be extremely resilient creatures. They ( in Ireland) spent a lot of time ABOVE the waterline when the tide went out. I'm sure they never dried out, but still, I was amazed.

Thanks,
John

[LobsterOfJustice]

High tide - saltwater and freshwater both flowing into the bay. Low tide, saltwater flowing out of the bay, freshwater still flowing in. 1.010 is perfectly reasonable for a "bay".