Join Island County Beach Watchers as they explore and survey the rich intertidal zone.

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Friday, April 4, 2008

Crescent Harbor 2008

Lined chiton

Crescent Harbor critter check

Paranemertes with polychaete

Crescent Harbor monitoring team photo 2008



Crescent Harbor's crackerjack team kicked off the 2008 monitoring season on April 8th, braving chilly temperatures and intermittent April showers to collect data from that beach. Eight veteran BWs turned out and set right to work. Charlie Eddy took care of data sheets as Monem Mahmoud Abdel, Oz Allen, and Melissa Merickel laid out the profile line. A lined chiton (Tonicella sp.) proved to be a popular find as was a polychaete that demonstrated its remarkable eversible pharynx with tiny jaws that popped into view as the pharynx shot out. Mike Eddy tagged another species of polychaete as a "fangworm" or "sabertooth worm" because of two protruding structures emanating from its mouth. A mottled seastar (Evasterias troschelii) was found, its rays encircling a black mussel-sized rock that it was apparently trying to feed on, setting up a situation that was possibly the invertebrate version of the Hardrock Cafe. All concurred that the outstanding find of the day was a predatory purple ribbon worm (Paranemertes peregrina) with its proboscis lassoed around a larger polychaete, the doomed polychaete destined to be its dinner.
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