plant/animal reference) to get a bigger picture
South Lagoon Point team photo 2010 |
Great Blue Heron |
Look at this |
Blood star |
Sunflower Star |
Paranemertes ingesting polychaete |
June 11th was not only Jacques Cousteau’s 100th birthday, it was also our annual beach monitoring day at South Lagoon Point. Libby Hayward coordinated a team of 12 in checking out this rocky beach as the tide receded to the -2.6 foot level. The team included a special guest, a grad student interested in finding out more about monitoring procedures and getting a glimpse of Puget Sound intertidal life. The large number of boulders and erratics all along the profile line and lush eelgrass beds at lower levels support an amazing diversity of species at this beach.
Gould's Baby Chiton |
Honkenya |
Mossy chiton |
Smithora |
Team members were unanimous in choosing the discovery of a large purple ribbon worm (Paranemertes peregrina) ingesting an even larger polychaete as the most unique find of the day. They also documented four species of chitons (mossy, Gould’s baby, lined, and gumboot), four species of sea stars (mottled, sunflower, blood, and purple), and five species of anemones (aggregating, moonglow, brooding, white plumed, and Christmas). The eelgrass was veiled by a lush coating of the epiphytic red seaweed Smithora and the beach overall sported quite a variety of green, brown, and red seaweed. Backshore plants included Honkenya and sea rocket. The team worked under dim skies with on again/off again light precipitation as a nearby great blue heron searched among the shallows for small fish.