Footprint Rock

Footprint Rock team photo 2010 Footprint Rock team photo 2010

..Gobiesox meandricus.. Clingfish Gobiesox meandricus Gobiesox meandricus

Charlie Seablom and his Footprint Rock team had a gorgeous sunny day with a million dollar view of the Olympics to enjoy as they hiked along the beach to their monitoring site on June 12th. They did some exploring along the way and caught sight of a bald eagle perched in a tree high on the bluff. Charlie reports that the upper part of the profile line went quickly but slippery Ulva covered rocks slowed things down a bit as they approached the water line. The day's highlights included finding a sea lemon, a northern clingfish (Gobiesox maeandricus), and an inch long wormlike organism thought to be a burrowing anemone. Team members also enjoyed seeing a number of polychaetes and a real variety of seaweeds.

Footprint Rock-May 28, 2009

Black oystercatcher

Footprint Rock team photo 2009

Dungeness crab

Haliclystus

Charlie Seablom’s team had beautiful sunshiny weather and a -2.4 tide when they made the long hike to Footprint Rock on the west side of Whidbey Island on May 28. The team was made up of five adult monitors with one sunbonnetted little one along to supervise. Melody Kuschnereit got a good look at a stalked jelly and Libby Hayward spotted a Dungeness crab (Cancer magister). Other highlights for the team included polychaete worms and a black oystercatcher.

Footprint Rock - July 5, 2008

Rockweed isopod

Team photo

Black clawed crab

Sea lettuce

Haliclystus2

Pisaster ochraceus

Team captain Charlie Seablom led a crew of three on the mile long trek to Footprint Rock on July 5th. This is a rocky beach on the west side of Whidbey Island. Charlie reports that the weather was fine for monitoring and everything went great. In fact, this was the first beach Murray Aston had monitored when it wasn't raining! When they finally arrived at the monitoring site, they found hundreds of rockweed isopods (Idotea wosnesenskii) among the algae and Libby Hayward spotted a stalked jelly (Haliclystus sp.) clinging to seaweed in a small tidepool. A black clawed crab (Lophopanopeus bellus) was also seen. Charlie reports that they found nothing but sand in the quadrats at the 0 and -1 foot levels and only a little sea lettuce (Ulva) and one Lacuna snail in those at +1 foot. As the team hiked back, they took time to explore among the large boulders along the way and found several large purple sea stars (Pisaster ochraceus) and multiple large colonies of feather duster worms (Eudistylia vancouveri).