Worm Like Animal in Sand in Northwest Ocean
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Terrific Tides
The daytime minus tides that began on Thursday are the last of the lowest for 2013, so this week'due south a great time to get out and explore. All tides below are for Seattle and can vary depending on where you go in the Salish Bounding main.
- Saturday seven/20: -2.iii@9:25am
- Sunday 7/21: -2.9@10:15am
- Monday 7/22: -three.i@eleven:03am
- Tuesday 7/23: -two.8@xi:50am
- Wed 7/24: -2.one@12:37pm
- Thursday 7/25: -1.1@ane:23pm
The Kitsap Embankment Naturalists will be sharing cool finds at Scenic Beach State Park Saturday (viii:30-10:30), Fay Bainbridge Park Sunday (9-11), and at both Kitsap Memorial State Park and Lions Park (Lebo Blvd. in Bremerton) Monday (11-1).
I had the pleasure to terminate the piece of work week by teaming up with the slap-up Harbor WildWatch staff and volunteers to share sea life wonders with about 100 girl scouts, team leaders and some family members at Manchester State Park. We had a lot of lovely finds and a couple that really piqued my interest…
A cruel crustacean
Reactions to a dead shiner perch (Cymatogaster aggregata) were varied, peculiarly as we showed off the evidence of parasites that may have hastened the perch's demise. Turns out the poor fish'south torso was domicile to a small coven of vampires!
Out from under each gill embrace poked what looked like a pair of modest Slinkys. A colleague who trained every bit a fish pathologist, informed us that the coils were the gonads of a parasitic female copepod called Haemobaphes diceraus.
Copepods are crustaceans, better known as arable members of the microscopic animal plankton. Of class, in certain circles, their fame derives from Plankton, the tiny, one-eyed nemesis from SpongeBob SquarePants. Plankton was a reasonable depiction of typical copepods, which have teardrop bodies with a single eye and long antennae. Their parasitic cousins, nonetheless, wind up looking more like a bit of offal from the cleaning of the terminal grab.
Haemobaphes diceraus has a long trunk that extends through the gill arch and directly into center, where… information technology siphons off blood. Information technology's super cool creepiness fifty-fifty garnered the laurels of Parasite of the Day in 2010.
Inquiry from Nanaimo, British Columbia in the early 2000's establish that about x% of shiner perch unwillingly hosted their personal claret sucker. Interestingly 97.9% of the infested fish they studied had only a unmarried copepod inhabiting them. Our sad specimen sported two. Bummer.
Polish operator
Dazzler and grace combine on a bed of slime. Imagine shaping yourself to the basis as you move through your daily life. While halfway up the stairs, I'd exist thinking "Oh yeah, I'm pretty cool." (And so again, I'd be choking on dust and dog fur.) Alas we remain upright and rigid, but we can yet relish watching a flatworm live the glide life.
While collecting for the touch tanks, Harbor WildWatch staff found a beautiful giant flatworm (Kaburakia excelsa). Their typical home is under rocks, though you may observe them on floats and docks and among masses of mussels. Since they tin read 4″ long, these are the giants of the flatworm earth and a flake tougher than their smaller cousins.
You can see the highly branched digestive sac in the picture of information technology's underside. Though branched, the sack is made up of dead ends. Later using an eversible throat to capturing an unfortunate victim, partially digested nutrient is moved into the digestive sac. Since there's no point B for the indigestible bits to leave the sac, poo must go out where the food came in. Yum.
Wandering the beach is an iconic part of the Salish Sea summer. Summer's going fast, and then explore a beach this calendar week. Go tedious. Be observant. There's ever some new bit of wonder tucked on a rock… or sticking grotesquely out of the side of a dead fish'southward head!
Jeff Adams is a Washington Sea Grant Marine Water Quality Specialist, affiliated with the University of Washington's Higher of the Environment, and based in Bremerton. You lot tin can follow his Sea Life blog, SalishSeaLife tweets, FaceBook and video posts, send email to jaws@uw.edu or call at 360-337-4619.
Really… elaborate disguises or moonlight dances are not necessary. If you'd like to get a beach naturalist, opportunities begin effectually the Puget Sound over the next few weeks. Scroll beneath for more data.
Explosive Dear
Every bit for a moonlit nuptial trip the light fantastic, we need to chat with a sea nymph (Nereis sp.). Sea nymphs are large (some very creepily and then!) worms that stretch out of their burrows and use inordinately trigger-happy looking jaws to catch a crumb of algae or mayhap a soft invertebrate. Notwithstanding, when the moon and tides and light are correct, they take a different priority.
Kind of similar a werewolf, their bodies change with the coming of the total moon. The once burrow-home omnivore becomes an actively swimming, gutless baby-making machine chosen an epitoke. On full moons in the winter and summer, the males epitokes will vigorously swim from their holes and ascent into the water cavalcade, shedding sperm as they go. Once the females sense the males in the water, they follow closely spewing eggs. The sperm and eggs are often released through ruptures in the body wall (ouch!). The close proximity of eggs and sperm help ensure many of the eggs will become fertilized, but mom and dad contribute to the next link in the nutrient concatenation.
Ricketts' words painted a fabulous paradigm of the experience of coming beyond giant sea nymph worms in their nuptial fervor:
" Specimens may be nearly a meter long, and are wide in proportion — a probable source of sea-serpent yarns. To the nighttime collector, already a bit jumpy because of weird noises, phosphorescent animals, and the ominous classy of surf, the advent of ane of these heteronereids swimming vigorously at the surface of the water must seem like the final attack of delirium tremens." (Between Pacific Tides, 1939). … I had to await upwardly delirium tremens… shudder!
In early March, merely subsequently the full moon, a volunteer brought the epitoke remains pictured here to a beach exploration and said they were all over her beach. Thanks for sharing!
During that aforementioned time on the embankment, we got a closer look at another really cool worm…
Beach Scrap Castle
When y'all're on a Puget Sound beach that's not entirely dominated by gravel and cobble, you're likely to see worm tubes sticking out of the sand. The tubes represent several of the nearly g species of marine worms in our region. Peculiarly mutual in the lower intertidal is the jointed 3-section tube worm. Unwieldy mutual name aside, information technology tin be abundant enough to look like mini woods of leafless bamboo in the sand.
The tube of the ornate tube worm (Diopatra ornata) is well busy by $.25 of found, beat debris and algae and may be overlooked even when abundant. The tube is not as sturdy every bit some and may lay on the beach when the tide is out. Under the sand, the tube is much narrower, doesn't have whatsoever decoration and feels like tough parchment. It can likewise extend a foot deep into the sand, giving the worm a safe place to retreat. As complex as the tube may be, the worm can carelessness information technology and build a new on if demand arises.
Ornate tube worms are thought to be scavengers but eat a lot of algae. In The nutrition of worms: A report of Polycheate feeding guilds (actually a really absurd newspaper to cruise through), Fauchald and Jumars described the diverse things this tube worm has been observed eating, but clarified that it'south apparently non picky, "feeding experiments have shown that it will take any institute or animal textile, expressionless or alive, fresh or rotten (R.R. Emerson, pers. comm.)." Yum.
The image to the left is likewise from The diet of worms. When the tide's out, you don't become to see this kind of activeness, but it'due south fun to imagine a agglomeration of these worms bickering over who gets the all-time bit of the kelp.
Finally, if yous're lucky enough to get a look at the beast inside the tube, you become to see that the tube isn't the only ornate graphic symbol in its life story. The v black-tipped feelers on the front end of information technology'south caput are purported to have smelling abilities though I couldn't find whatsoever more than particular on that.
The gills extend for scores of segments behind the head and await like skinny cerise Christmas trees with branches spiraling up toward the tip. The worm my have more than than 100 segments across that.
Segments are obviously disposable since the worm can compression off segments from its hind stop, presumably to requite a predator something to nibble on while the important bits head off to build a new tube.
Embankment Naturalist Opportunities
Similar opportunities are available all over the Puget Audio area.
- The Seattle Aquarium'south training program is total for this twelvemonth, only yous can visit their website and go on a list for next yr.
- If yous in the Olympia expanse, the South Audio Estuary Association's training begins April 19th.
- Beach naturalist elements are also part of the WSU Beach Watcher trainings in Island and Jefferson counties. For other grooming opportunities, check with your county WSU extension office.
If you don't necessarily want to be role of a preparation and volunteer plan, check with any of the groups above for naturalist led beach exploration opportunities. Hope to run across you in a classroom or on the beach!
Jeff Adams is a Washington Sea Grant Marine Water Quality Specialist, affiliated with the University of Washington's Higher of the Environment, and based in Bremerton. You can follow his Ocean Life blog, SalishSeaLife tweets, FaceBook and video posts, transport email to jaws@uw.edu or call at 360-337-4619.
Terrific tides
This morning was the offset in a bang-up set of minus tides.
- 6/29, -0.four at 7:43AM
- 6/30, -ane.half dozen at 8:36AM
- 7/ane, -2.5 at 9:27AM
- 7/2, -3.1 at ten:16AM
- 7/3, -3.iv at xi:03AM
- 7/iv, -3.2 at 11:50AM
- 7/five, -2.7 at 12:35PM
- 7/6, -1.vii at 1:20PM
- 7/7, -0.5 at ii:04PM
Remember that these are predictions for Seattle and can vary depending on geography and atmospheric condition. Should get yous in the ballpark though. Kitsap Embankment Naturalists volition be on several beaches at different times over the adjacent week if you tin have reward of the bang-up critter stories they have to share.
When you head out to explore the beaches, keep a few things in mind to protect and respect those who phone call the embankment home.
- tread lightly and walk more than run (you stay safer and encounter more than absurd stuff when you're walking anyway),
- look around the edges of eelgrass and kelp beds instead of tramping through them,
- explore mostly under rocks that are smaller than your head and render them to the manner y'all plant them,
- refill any holes you dig, and
- remember, shellfish license or not, information technology'south illegal to accept most living sea creatures off the beach, including shore venereal, hermit crabs, sea stars, sand dollars, snails, etc.
Midshipman (croakers)
In the big rock category, if you do turn over a large rock this time of year, you may discover male plainfin midshipman (Porichthys notatus) guarding pea-sized xanthous eggs that are attached to the underside of the rock. Information technology'southward a really cool matter to see, merely over-handling of the fish and awkward replacement of a heavy stone may be tough on the fish and it's progeny. If you exercise get a skilful expect at one, maybe stick to the "rocks smaller than your caput" rule and leave the rest of the big rocks be.
These amazing deeper water fish have lite producing spots called photophores under their head to concenter prey, and some seriously sharp teeth with which to munch them. Each belatedly spring/summer, they ascension up to the intertidal to stake out nests under large solid objects and brand grunting noises to attract the ladies (the reason they're sometimes called croakers).
Plainfin midshipman are important predators, simply also fall prey to seals and ocean lions and can exist a very important part of eagles' diet. It'southward non unusual to find the bodies of eviscerated midshipman far from the shoreline, delivered at that place by an eagle or crow. They are also sometimes abundant bycatch in commercial shrimp trawls.
Crab season
For those of y'all who have been drooling for dungeness since Christmas… The recreational crab flavour opens this Lord's day, July 1st, for much of Puget Sound and lasts until September 3rd. Blain/Bellingham/San Juans are the exceptions with a slightly later start and close to the flavor. Y'all can but crab Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. I guess Tuesday and Wednesday is the crab weekend.
You're notwithstanding measuring between where the outermost points meet the carapace. In Puget Sound, you're looking for up to 5 male Dungeness that measure at least 6.25″, and upwards to half-dozen red rock crabs of either sex that are at to the lowest degree five″. Make sure their shells are hard and that you record your Dungeness. For crab sexing, you lot tin can bank check out an earlier post, and for lots of peachy information including gear and regulations, see WDFW's excellent recreational crab site.
Enjoy the holiday week and the fantabulous tides, and our intertidal treasures!
Jeff Adams is a Washington Bounding main Grant Marine Water Quality Specialist, affiliated with the Academy of Washington's Higher of the Surroundings, and based in Bremerton. You can follow his Body of water Life blog, SalishSeaLife tweets, FaceBook and video posts, send e-mail to jaws@uw.edu or call at 360-337-4619.
In recognition Puget Sound Starts Here Calendar month, Kitsap Commissioner Charlotte Garrido is sponsoring a showing of Beach Walk: A Naturalist's Review at the Dragonfly Cinema (822 Bay Street, Port Orchard) on Th, May 24th at 6:30. As an added bonus, we'll be exploring the Port of Bremerton's Port Orchard Marina's sea life immediately subsequently. Every bit office of the Sustainable Cinema Series, this showing is offered free of accuse, and donations are gratefully accepted.
Beach Walk was produced by Nancy Sefton of Unicorn Studios with participation by Washington Sea Grant and WSU Kitsap Extension. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to narrate and poke my caput onto the screen a few times. It's original intent was to be a refresher video for volunteer embankment naturalists earlier they participate in a embankment exploration with the public. However, the 35 minute flick has appealed to a much broader audience, giving a flavour of the seaweeds and animals you tin discover on Puget Audio beaches when the tide is out.
You can preview or watch the moving-picture show on YouTube in three parts.
- Part ane – 5 min, introduction and all-time beach behavior
- Part 2 – 15 min, sea life of cobble/boulder beaches
- Part 3 – 14 min, sand/mud embankment life and things you lot tin do anywhere in the watershed that protect marine habitats
After the picture show and a brief discussion, we're going to head across the street to the public entrance of the Port Orchard Marina. I hadn't been to the marina before, so I checked it out last week and found lots of sea life treasures.
In item, I was struck by the jellies, finding almost a dozen species. Many people accept seen the moon jellies and even the large, ruby lions mane or yellow fried egg jellies. But look closely and the sea is live with a variety of these predatory, floating, gelatinous anemone cousins.
The compilation below shows several species. From left to right, meridian to bottom…
- aggregating jelly (Eutonina indicans) with it'due south dangling oral cavity.
- gregarious jelly (Clytia gregarium) is very similar to the accumulation. These tin be so abundant the water surface is writhing with them. They too make a good meal for larger jellies.
- eight-strand jelly (Melicertum octocostatum) has eight large sex organs around its body. It's a weak swimmer. Trade off for reproductive prowess?
- red-eyed jelly (Polyorchis penicillatus) has tiny, lite sensitive cerise spots where the tentacles meet the body. The spots help it figure out which way is up in the water.
- body of water gooseberry (Pleurobrachia bachei) has ii feeding tentacles that tin stretch to 8x the length of its body. Since it'due south a ctenophore and non technically a jelly, it has 8 rows of tiny comb plates that wave to assistance it swim. In the sunlight, they make a cute pulsating rainbow.
- many-ribbed jelly (Aequorea sp.) looks similar a bike wheel. Can we rename information technology spoke jelly?
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Opalescent nudibranch taking a slime across my manus. Photo: Jeff Adams
I also encountered several gorgeous opalescent nudibranchs (bounding main slugs), one of which was floating bottom upwards on the water's surface (perchance looking for a new home?). I gave information technology a perch on my hand before putting it on the dock side by side to a small anemone (sorry anemone). They eat hydroids, little coral-similar creatures, simply may nibble the occasional anemone or sea squirt.
Nosotros may come across these creatures at the Port Orchard Marina after the evidence, and we will certainly see others…. pelting or shine. Hope to meet you in that location. Be sure to dress for the weather and savor spring!
Jeff Adams is a Washington Bounding main Grant Marine H2o Quality Specialist, affiliated with the University of Washington's Higher of the Environment, and based in Bremerton. You tin can follow his Sea Life weblog, SalishSeaLife tweets, FaceBook and video posts, send email to jaws@uw.edu or call at 360-337-4619.
- How can sea squirts exist our cousins?
- Why practice barnacles hold the record for masculine endowment?
- Why is nori and then good for you and sweet kombu so tasty?
- What would a skeleton shrimp Halloween costume expect like?
- Why doesn't muscle stand a chance against hydro power?
It's my belief that whether life led to a career in structure, law, food services, biomedicine, administration…, everyone who has e'er wanted to be a marine biologist should have that opportunity. I'm non talking most a graduate pedagogy and cruises on the Calypso, but y'all can larn more than the 99% and share your wonder with others by becoming function of the Kitsap Beach Naturalists or other programs effectually the Puget Audio (Seattle Aquarium, Due south Sound Estuary Association, Isle Canton Beach Watchers, Harbor WildWatch, Bainbridge Beach Naturalists).
Starting Friday March 23rd, join the Kitsap Beach Naturalists for our 5th year of training, and acquire more about some of the questions to a higher place. Classes are Fridays from March 23rd to May xi, 2012 at the Norm Dicks Government Building in Bremerton. You tin annals ($sixty for materials) by contacting WSU Kitsap Extension at 360-337-7157. You tin can become the flier online (click here) or experience free to contact me or comment to this blog with questions.
Volunteers who have completed the training accept a diversity of citizen scientific discipline projects (eelgrass, expressionless birds, beach diverseness,…), embankment and dock explorations and youth and family outreach opportunities they tin can be a part of.
We've expanded the training this year to include more than field opportunities and more speakers, covering everything from intertidal invertebrates to seaweed cosmetics. I look frontwards to meeting some of you for what should be another great yr of jubilant and understanding the shorelines that are such an important office of our gimmicky and traditional Pacific Northwest civilisation.
Jeff Adams is a Washington Sea Grant Marine Water Quality Specialist, affiliated with the University of Washington'due south College of the Surroundings, and based in Bremerton. You can follow his Ocean Life web log, SalishSeaLife tweets, FaceBook and video posts, ship e-mail to jaws@uw.edu or call at 360-337-4619.
OK, and so nosotros're unlikely to witness the rise of a leviathan, just tomorrow evening (Saturday ii/18 from 7:30-8:30), yous tin join Kitsap Beach Naturalists, along with me and my WSU Kitsap Extension colleague Peg Tillery at the Bremerton Marina (map). We're taking a break from the dark time depression tides to explore the subtidal and gratis-swimming life that can be enjoyed on almost any floating dock, at any time. Night time on a dock can bring fifty-fifty more ocean life to the surface with the aid of a bright light.
You never know what might reply to lights pointed into the water at nighttime. Always watched squid jiggers at work – oft in the common cold, ofttimes in the wet, e'er in the dark? Their porcupine lures ascent and sink through the water in or around a column of brilliant lite. Schools of squid are attracted by the lights and frequently tin't assist but cover that brightly colored tube, entangling themselves in the lure's spiny skirt. The jiggers are taking advantage of the many-armed tasty's attraction to calorie-free.
What else volition be attracted to the light? Many creatures spend the daylight hours below the photic zone – the acme layer of the water where there's enough light to support plant growth but also plenty to exist hands seen by predators. Every evening they come up to the surface to feed under the rubber of darkness, then return to the deep every bit the sun rises.
The spring blooms are yet to arrive but some pocket-size organisms and even some jellies still float effectually near the surface. Imagine you're a tiny copepod (about as long as the thickness of a dime) and you're happily filtering tiny particles out of the water. Leviathan being something of a matter of scale, the hairs near your cycloptic heart may rise in fear as dusk settles in and from below swims an torpedo-shaped arrow worm (Sagitta elegans). Information technology'south twoscore times your size (well-nigh the length of a football field compared to a tall human) with rows of hooked hunting spines on either side its head (ironically not unlike the squid jig). Yikes! … Back to your human self, just shake off your imagination and recall the arrow worm's simply an inch and a one-half or then long.
No guarantees on what we'll see swimming in the water, only there's always a spectacular show to take in on the submerged areas of the dock.
Most animals and plants on the docks don't motion through the open up water and rely on the difficult surfaces of the dock to give them a stiff foothold that they would otherwise only find from rocks below the exchanging tide. Among these will be seaweeds, chitons, anemones, crabs, barnacles, stars, cucumbers, urchins, slugs and squirts… and (my personal favorite) the ugly clam.
Clams on a floating dock y'all may ask? This is no ordinary clam. In a natural environment, yous'd discover the ugly clam (Entodesma navicula) growing out of a scissure or between rocks, it'south shell deforming to fit its surroundings. It's far easier to discover these clams on docks where they are frequent inhabitants.
Another bivalve that lives on docks an grade fits to its dwelling house is the imitation jingle shell (Pododesmus macroschisma). Information technology's bottom shell has a pigsty through which it attaches to information technology's substrate. It too has bright orange lips that yous tin see while it'southward feeding.
Speaking of lips, maybe we'll exist lucky enough to run into a scallop or two flashing their bright smile.
Like the squid jiggers, information technology'due south likely to be common cold, wet, and night, so bring flashlights or headlamps (something with a strap so it doesn't autumn in the water). Life jackets are a good idea for kids. Wear warm, waterproof clothes so you tin can fifty-fifty get downward on abdomen if you similar and get a closer expect off the dock.
If yous can't join u.s. tomorrow, go to the public docks nearest you any time they're open up. If you lot encounter something cool, allow me know and even send a picture. I love that stuff and am happy to let you know more about what you found!
We'll also exist doing this again, and so if you'd similar to exist kept in the loop, please contact me or Lisa Rillie 360-337-7157 x 3244 or lrillie@co.kitsap.wa.us. Happy dock exploring!
Jeff Adams is a Washington Sea Grant Marine H2o Quality Specialist, affiliated with the University of Washington's College of the Environs, and based in Bremerton. You can follow his Sea Life blog, SalishSeaLife tweets, FaceBook and video posts, send email to jaws@uw.edu or telephone call at 360-337-4619.
Few of u.s. get a chance to see the total diverseness of the Salish Sea's crabs. Many species never venture onto the beaches. Others are small and hide well. Some even remain tucked away inside a big clam or mussel. For all the wonder, economic benefit and gastronomical pleasure crabs provide, there are several species that we don't want to run across in our waters, including the invasive European green crab, Chinese mitten crab and Asian shore crab.
Such invasive species can have dramatic economic and ecological consequences. That'southward why I'm e'er very appreciative of folks who ship notes or pictures or specimens of something unusual. Controlling the spread of marine invasive species is hard at best, but the earlier they're detected, the meliorate adventure we have.
I received images of a potential greenish crab in late August from an informed individual who had establish an unusual crab at Birch Bay State Park (virtually Blaine and the Canadian edge).
The European green crab has been present on the outer declension of Washington and up the Pacific side of Vancouver Island since the tardily 1990'south, but the populations have not been highly successful to engagement and have not found their way into the Salish Sea. Hopefully, that arrangement will continue since these buggers consume shellfish and outcompete Dungeness crab of like size, for both nutrient and habitat. Red stone crab on the other hand, tend to requite the green crabs a serious abdomen whooping.
Fortunately, this is a helmet crab. It has the few large points on the front of its carapace like a green crab, and was probably a similar size (~three″ beyond the carapace), but helmet venereal are covered in stiff hairs and have points all the fashion around the back side of the carapace.
The helmet crab is probably the species almost commonly mistaken for a green crab. The individual in question is particularly tricky to identify since it has so many barnacles on information technology.
Alive helmet crabs and even molts may seem unusual even to experienced embankment goers. I see scores of them while snorkeling over eelgrass that's exposed at low tide, but I rarely see them alive on the beach when the tide is out. I guess it's no surprise that equally one of the fastest Pacific Northwest crabs, a helmet crab would rather retreat with the tide than attempt its luck hiding from gulls in the eelgrass and algae.
Back to the European light-green crab… Fortunately, it isn't living upwardly to the initial business organisation in our country, but there are a lot of unknowns if information technology gets into the Salish Bounding main or if conditions change in our waters. It'south certainly important to keep a watchful centre.
E'er feel free to send observations, pictures or thoughts of things extraordinary or out of the ordinary. If I can't share part of its story, I relish looking for someone who can and learning together.
Oh, and only a reminder for all you crabbers… Whether y'all defenseless Dungeness or non, don't forget to put your Puget Audio crab catch cards in the mail service or enter the data online by October 1 to avoid a $10 penalty and to assist managers determine how much crab should exist harvested in the winter season. Happy autumn!
Jeff Adams is a Washington Sea Grant Marine Water Quality Specialist, affiliated with the Academy of Washington'southward College of the Environment, and based in Bremerton. You lot can follow his Sea Life web log, SalishSeaLife tweets and videos, email to jaws@uw.edu or telephone call at 360-337-4619.
Thanks to Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP) toxins produced past microscopic marine algae… King and east Kitsap Counties are airtight to harvest of all shellfish species including clams and geoduck, oysters, mussels, and other invertebrates such as the moon snail (which are no longer legally harvestable anyhow).
The meat from crabs is non known to comprise the PSP toxin. The guts (butter) tin contain PSP levels that are non safe, so carefully clean your crabs and toss the guts. (I guess I'd better stop letting the chickens gobble the guts lest I wake up to a poultry Jonestown.)
Invasive purple varnish (mahogany) clams concord the toxin longer than any other bivalve in the region. Butter clams also hold onto the toxin for longer than about shellfish. Sometimes shorelines will exist airtight to varnish clam just or to both species but, so read the health maps and warnings carefully. Even when beaches are open, it'southward a proficient thought to cut off the blackness tip of the butter mollusk's siphon before eating it since toxins are concentrated in the tip.
The DOH clickable shellfish biotoxin/pollution map is an excellent resource to bank check every fourth dimension you caput out for shellfish or might collaborate with others who are digging dinner. Y'all tin as well learn more than nearly the toxin and it's origins from the Department of Health PSP fact sail and the links it provides.
Washington Bounding main Grant besides has a actually neat publication chosen Gathering Safe Shellfish: Avoiding Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning . The document has lots of great info and fabulous blackness and white drawings of some of the harvested shellfish species in the Salish Bounding main (corking identification resource). Information technology also discusses the difference between the striking blooms you lot may run into and those creating biotoxins.
This too shall pass. In the meantime… bask the the beaches in Puget Sound'south Master Basin, but only go on the butter out of your abdomen and your shovel out of the sand.
Jeff Adams is a Washington Bounding main Grant Marine Water Quality Specialist, affiliated with the University of Washington's College of the Surroundings, and based in Bremerton. You can follow his Sea Life web log, SalishSeaLife tweets and videos, electronic mail to jaws@uw.edu or call at 360-337-4619.
- Become dwelling house from a day'due south labor, crack a beer, sit down on the porch and capeesh a butterfly nectaring on a nearby flower and the evening summer sun that makes a dragonfly glow while it hunts with incredible speed and precision, eating on the fly.
- Is that bush blooming already?
- You lot but won a tough case and you're doing your best Leonardo DiCaprio against the forward fence of the ferry ascertainment deck, a smiling on your confront, the wind rushing by. You look into the h2o… SMACK! (no, not ocean gull poop to the side of the head or a disgruntled defendant… we're talkin' jellies!).
What do these scenarios have in mutual? Denizen scientists. Elements of science may remain in an ivory tower, but in ever-increasing numbers and in very attainable ways, scientists and managers are harnessing the interests and time of every Tom, Dick and Jane to explore hard problems like climate alter, water quality and habitat loss. We tin also add together to the understanding of the what, where and when for our favorite groups of critters in ways nosotros were never able to in the past.
There are lots of opportunities out there, just I'll highlight a few of my favorites. Under the unofficial category of "report what you run into, where you encounter it, when yous want to"…
- jellyfish and more (JellyWatch)
- dragonflies (Odonata Primal)
- water quality (Audio Citizen)
- shellfish safety (State of the Oyster)
- butterflies and moths (Butterflies an Moths of Due north America)
- plants (and more at the USA National Phenology Network)
- birds (peachy backyard bird count or ebird)
Don't have experience in identifying critters? No worries. Some programs only require y'all to know/report on a single species or, in the case of Sound Citizen, to collect and return a sample. For butterflies, birds, dragonflies and jellies, in that location are excellent physical and online guides and identification resources available. On superlative of that, people like me love to get the email with a subject line "what's this?".
I recently posted a YouTube video that should assistance with mutual jellyfish ID's. With all the ferry riders, dock and embankment visitors, boaters, divers, harvesters, anglers and shoreline homeowners in the Puget Sound and Salish Body of water… nosotros should exist able to help scientists at jellywatch.org better understand jellies and blooms in our region. It'due south an expanse of increasing interest as our climate and sea activities evolve.
The opportunistic reporting of the listing above tin give a scientist valuable information in role past sheer volume of data. Volunteers willing and able to put in more time can get involved in a project that typically includes some class of training and standardized protocols and reporting. Some first-class examples in our region include…
- dead bird beach surveys (COASST)
- Spartina (cordgrass) surveys past kayak (People for Puget Sound)
- intertidal embankment surveys (through some WSU Embankment Watchers and Washington Ocean Grant)
Other programs like Nature Mapping are geared toward schools, simply also give individuals an opportunity to written report findings. You can even explore lots of potential projects on your own at sites like scienceforcitizens.internet and citizensciencecentral.org or like citsci.org for projects geared specifically toward invasive species.
Washington Bounding main Grant volition get live with a Washington-specific denizen science clearinghouse some time in the next year. Or you can just contact local organizations to explore opportunities. In Kitsap you might start with me at Washington Body of water Grant (contact info below), or with organizations such WSU Beach Watchers or the Stillwaters Environmental Educational activity Middle.
The all-time of the citizen science networks provide something in return for our efforts. No, not a key chain or a shopping tote (although some provide those as well). Nosotros get maps and checklists and image collections and newsletters and data analysis and publications… All of which reverberate our contributions to scientific exploration and the greater body of scientific knowledge. None of which would have happened without our participation.
COASST is an excellent instance of providing feedback to volunteers. In return for their dead bird surveys, COASST volunteers receive a newsletter explaining some of the trends in the information and featuring natural history information about sea and shoreline birds. … Plus, volunteers go cool bird postcards (pictures tend to exist of the alive birds and a scrap more attractive then the dead ones). A free COASST training will be hosted by Washington Body of water Grant and WSU Kitsap Extension in Bremerton on July 28th (RSVP to info@coasst.org). Other dates and opportunities are available on the COASST calendar.
Thank you for your interest in contributing to the body of scientific cognition that nosotros need to make informed decisions and to effectively care for the Puget Sound, Salish Sea and beyond. … Oh, gotta become… I need to chase downwardly a dragonfly!
Jeff Adams is a Washington Sea Grant Marine H2o Quality Specialist, affiliated with the Academy of Washington'southward College of the Surround, and based in Bremerton. You can follow his Sea Life blog, SalishSeaLife tweets and videos, e-mail to jaws@uw.edu or telephone call at 360-337-4619.
Dust off the crab pots (both the ane with holes and the one with boiling water), it's crab season! The long awaited day has arrived (as of seven:00am today, 7/1), and many will feast on freshly caught crabs for the holiday. Later on all, Dungeness crabs are equally Northwest'erican as espresso and apple pie. Don't forget the red rock crab though. Information technology's tougher to crack, merely abundant and mighty tasty.
Chris Dunagan shared a story on the recreational harvest this crab season, and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has a 1 cease recreational crabbing website with a 4 minute video, regulatory, harvesting, cleaning and cooking tips and more. A few things to annotation…
– A fishing license and crab endorsement are required. (Don't forget y'all need to pay to go into Washington State Parks at present.)
– You can keep upward to xi venereal a day!
- five hard-shelled, male Dungeness crabs and
- 6 hard shelled scarlet rock crabs (male or female person).
– Use pots (with degradable cords to forbid ghost angling) or collect past hand.
– Don't forget to Tape AND REPORT your catch! (Says the guy who'southward committed to doing his part for the fishery… and to not paying the $10 penalisation over again this year.)
While your on your way to or from your favorite destination, check out some of these splendid holiday weekend beach walks and events. Have a crabby day! JEff
This calendar week's minus tides for the Fundamental Puget Sound (remember you may need to add together up to an hour or more for out of the way fingers similar Dyes Inlet, and much of South Puget Sound)…
- 7/ane Fri; -two.6 ~11:30am
- 7/2 Sat; -ii.7 ~12:15pm
- seven/iii Sun; -ii.4 ~1:00pm
- 7/four Mon; -ane.viii ~i:40pm
- 7/v Tues; -0.7 ~ii:15pm
Kitsap Embankment Naturalists
– Silverdale Waterfront Park, one of my favorite urban Kitsap beaches, Sabbatum July second from 12:30-ii:30pm
– Scenic Embankment State Park, Seabeck, WA, July two, Noon-two:00pm
– Fay Bainbridge Park, Bainbridge Island, WA, July three, Noon-two:00pm
Harbor WildWatch (Gig Harbor and the southward of Kitsap Peninsula)
– Kopachuck and Penrose State Parks, July 1, 10:30am-2:30pm
– Penrose and Joemma State Parks, July two, 11am-3pm
– Kopachuck and Penrose Land Parks and Narrows Park, July 3, xi:30am-3:30pm
– Kopachuck and Penrose Country Parks, July iv, 12:30pm-4:30pm
Gloat Oakland Bay – Family Fun with the Stars (site with link to flyer)
– Walker County Park, Shelton, July 3, 11am-4pm
Vashon Low Tide Festival
– Betoken Robinson Light Station and Park, July two, 10am-3pm
South Audio Beach Naturalists
– Priest Point Park, June two, 12:15pm – 3:15pm.
– Burfoot and Tolmie Country Parks, June iii, 12:30pm – iii:30pm
Seattle Aquarium Beach Naturalists are on a diverseness of east Sound Beaches
– Richmond Beach, Carkeek Park, Golden Gardens, South Alki, Lincoln Park, Seahurst and Des Moines Beach Park, July two, eleven-two:thirty; July iii, 11:30-iii; July 4, 12:30-3:thirty
I'1000 sure at that place's more than! Please share other opportunities through comments.
Jeff Adams is a Washington Sea Grant Marine Water Quality Specialist, affiliated with the University of Washington'south College of the Environment, and based in Bremerton. You can follow his Sea Life web log, SalishSeaLife tweets and videos, email to jaws@uw.edu or call at 360-337-4619.
Worm Like Animal in Sand in Northwest Ocean
Source: http://pugetsoundblogs.com/sea-life/category/the-spineless/
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