Iverson Spit Beach - June 19, 2008

Balanus glandula top view

Balanus glandula crowded

Balanus crenatus2

On a breezy June 19 morning Donna W-S led nine Camano Beach Watchers to perform intertidal monitoring at Iverson Spit Beach which is located facing Port Susan, on the shoreline of Camano Island. This is a very sandy beach which has been monitored for several years, but last year, 2007, it was re-established from a new start point. For the interested reader, return to the profiles of 2007 and read about this unique shoreline.

A profile line was set out to the -1.9 foot low tide which occurred at 12:06 pm. This was the second year that this new profile line location (north end of the paved road to the public access entrance for the beach) was monitored. Species found pretty consistently along the profile line from about 270 feet to the end of the profile line at 572 feet included the barnacles, Balanus glandula

Balanus glandula top view

and Balanus crenatus,

Balanus crenatus2

and green seaweed, Ulva

Ulva

Crabs, clams, isopods, mussels and amphipods were also found, but much more sparsely. Crabs were found more consistently and abundantly along this profile line in 2007.

Thanks to Cathy M. for this data collection summary and Mary Jo A. for her photos.

English Boom, Camano Is. - June 17, 2008

Photographing a specimen

Monitoring team group

Recording data - Handhelds

English Boom mud flats

English Boom, a county park at the northern end of Camano Is, was monitored on a rainy, chilly and grey June 17 morning starting about 8:45 am. Twelve Beach Watchers braved this muddy shoreline, known for "clutching" the feet of many. The profile line was set out to 90 feet at the -1.5 foot tide. Quadrats were not set based on the tide levels, but instead centered along the profile line. The first quadrat (Q1) was 30 feet from the start point, with the subsequent quadrats (Q2-Q7) set at 10 foot increments up to the final set at 90 feet. Two Beach Watchers ventured the technology path, supplementing hard copy data recording with recording monitoring data using two handhelds. Seaweed density was the greatest at the 30' Quadrat (Q1) with 75% green seaweed, Ulva. Invertebrates density and diversity were the greatest from the 30 to 50 foot Quadrats (Q1-Q3) where the acorn barnacle,

Balanus glandula

Balanus glandula, the Blue mussels, Mytilus trossulus and the green shore crab, Hemigrapsus oregonensis were found in most abundance The lined anemone,

Haliplanella2

Haliplanella lineata, found in 2005 and 2006,was again found this this year. The shore crab, Hemigrapsus nudus, and hermit crab, Pagurus, previously identified at English Boom were not found, but the shore crab, Hemigrapsus oregonensis, was present.

Hemigrapsus oregonensis

Hemigrapsus oregonensis, the green shore crab has no spots on its claws and has tiny bristly hairs on its walking legs.

For the first year, it was not pouring during the surveying period. Mary Jo Adams came over from Whidbey to join us on this beach; Mary Jo provides the Camano teams with refresher training each year and is very appreciated. Cindy C. and Joyce L. provided great food afterwards for all. Thanks to Cathy M. for this data collection summary and Judi McD for gathering in the photos and details.

Coupeville Town Park

Hemigrapsus oregonensis

Clammers

Moon snail egg collar

Taking a profile reading

Recording data

Look at that!

Coupeville Town Park Beach monitoring team photo 2008

Twelve folks hiked down the trail to monitor at Coupeville Town Park Beach on June 7th; five were veteran monitors but for the rest, this was their first beach monitoring experience. It was a great day for learning and thankfully, for the first day all week, it didn't rain! The worms took center stage for this team. They saw flatworms, purple and green ribbon worms (Paranemertes perigriana and Emplectonema gracile), and polychaetes with a large Hemipodus stealing the show when it everted its club-like proboscis to the point it appeared to be turning itself inside out. John Purcell was amazed by the countless number of shore crabs (Hemigrapsus oregonensis) hiding under the rocks. Skagit County BW coordinator Adria Banks came along for the day and identified a moon snail egg collar. This was the weekend when Washington regulations allowed clamming without a shellfish license and with the very low tides, lots of folks hit the beach. There was a real crowd of clammers at this beach. Sadly, many of them were not refilling the holes where they had been digging, smothering other organisms located under the piles of excavated sand and creating dangerous holes for others to twist an ankle in.

Rosario Beach

Acrorhagi

Team 2

Anthopleura elegantissima

Dodecaceria sp.

Fucus sp.

Onchidella borealis

Archidoris montereyensis

Littorina scutulata

Lottia digitalis

Rosario Beach team photo 2008

Nine dedicated Beach Watchers showed up to work on quadrats at Rosario Beach on June 6th. This beach is located in Deception Pass State Park and its substrate consists of solid bedrock. Once again, Mother Nature challenged with rain, wind, and cold but the team persevered and got the data they needed. The group split into 3 teams, with each doing a portion of twenty-one quadrats. Team 1 with Susan Nunn and Bob Gentz noted rockweed (Fucus sp.), finger limpets (Lottia digitalis), and aggregating anemones (Anthopleura elegantissima) some of which had their acrorhagi (fighting tentacles) out and apparently ready for battle. This was the first beach Bob Gentz had monitored and he was surprised by the number of periwinkles he found. Coloration of the little herbivorous snails closely matched that of the bedrock and many were tucked away in crevices or empty barnacles making them hard to see. Charlie Seablom, Lenore Minstrell, and Ranger Rick made up Team 2 and they found white and red ribbon worms ( Amphiporus sp. and Tubulanus polymorphus), and Ranger Rick pointed out a nearby gumboot chiton on the underside of a boulder that he has been keeping an eye on during the recent low tide days. Team 3's Jan Holmes, Pattie Hutchins, and Sammye Kempbell were back in the "trough area" and report that they found a leather limpet (Onchidella borealis), a sea lemon (Archidoris montereyensis) and a big purple sea star (Pisaster ochraceus).

Onamac Beach Monitoring - June 5, 2008

Handhelds in pouring rain

BW's searching in hard rain

Pisaster brevispinous

view of humans from a sea star

Working on Quadrats

John weathering really bad rain

Extensive seaweed at low tide

The very cold, wet crew

22 Camano Beach Watchers and 4 Onamac Neighbors met on June 5, to monitor the beach.

John C., Bill G., Bill B. and Duane H. came an hour early to help John lay out the 2 lines.

Just as they were finishing, around 10:15 a.m., the sprinkles began. As the others arrived, the rain became more pronounced. The group divided into 2 groups to do a North and South Line. Around 11:00 a.m. the wind came up and we had whitecaps rolling in.

Imagine how I felt, while trying to hold onto the paper you can write on in rain, and the wind kept whipping it up over my hand. It was even more difficult to turn it over, because when it did stick to the clipboard the rain made it almost a permanent bond.

At low tide we did see a magnificent orange sea star . And in one of the grids was the smallest sea star I have ever seen. It was the size of my thumb nail.

As soon as the teams were done, we scrubbed the planned outdoor cookout on the beach, and headed for our house (Jan and John's). A good time was had by all. That is, after everyone warmed up.

Written by Jan N., this beach host along with John, June 16,2008

Notes: Onamac has 2 lines established. This date the tide was a -3.9 at 12:34 pm on a very hard rain, windy day. Very bad conditions for monitoring.