plant/animal reference) to get a bigger picture
Searching in sand |
Sheila digging down deep |
Team searching for critters |
We met at 8:30 am by Sally Goodson's garage to do our annual intertidal monitoring of Sunny Shores, this date August 19, 2009. Present were Pete D., Lynn R., Judi McD., Carol G., Sheila M., and Bill B. to support this event. We were led by beach captain Skip I. We located our starting point and sighted the landmark dock at Kayak Point on the opposite shore. Following are the critters list found and the general conditions of this year.
Erosion of the beach which is the fore foot of the bluff is negligible to unnoticeable from previous years. Within the first 60 feet, which is a mix of sand, gravel, and cobble we found amphipods, anemone, barnacles, clams, crabs (Hemigrapsus), limpets, isopods, mussels, and segmented worms (Polychaetes). Sea weeds were mostly of the green varieties with some brown in limited evidence.
Eagle watching us |
Very small shrimp found |
The next 300 feet, out to as far as one could go, to the edge of the receding tide, is all sand with some silt mixed in. This area is pocketed with clam and ghost shrimp holes; digging produced some samples of these two. The day was sunny and warm, and there were eagles, crows, and gulls present. We completed our line with the low tide of -2.0 at 10:23 am. Folks gathered afterwards for refreshments after returning up the bank.
One interesting sight was noted by all. On the next beach to the South of Sunny Shores we saw an interesting structure in the very low tide area. Pete walked over to investigate and reported that some large diameter plastic pipe inserted into the bottom was supporting the mesh bags that are used to raise shellfish. He said he could see oysters in the bags. This looked like a creative solution to avoid having the bags covered with silt at various stages of the tides. Skip promised to find out which neighbor has this installation and find out how successful it has been. This new beach activity emphasizes the importance of monitoring on a regular basis.
Thanks to Skip I. for this report and Bill B. and Judi McD. for the photos.
