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.