plant/animal reference) to get a bigger picture
Pisaster ochraceus |
West Sunset Beach team photo 2010 |
Archidoris montereyensis |
Here is team captain Charlie Seablom's report from West Sunset Beach: It was a good day to be on the beach. The weather was nice and the second lowest tide of the year – what more could a Beach Watcher ask for? The upper part of the beach has few organisms living there. In the first 110+ feet we saw nothing but amphipods, barnacles, and a couple of limpets. When we got to the big rock it got interesting. It has three kinds of barnacles, tubeworms, ribbon worms, mussels, limpets and more. Farther down the number of species dropped off, but there were a few boulders exposed that had enough stuff to keep us interested. Because of the good weather there were a lot of walkers on the beach. Some of them stopped to ask us what we were doing. One even wanted to get a team photo for herself. The best part was the walk back through the peat beds. Lots of clams had their necks exposed. A sea lemon and a purple Pisaster were found. Eventually we ended up at the starting point and then to home.