Sea Life

School buses aren’t the only harbingers of summer’s end. The last daytime minus tides of 2010 will be over the next four mornings. The tides for Bremerton over the next few days are…

We usually boil Dungenes crabs before we eat them but what the hay. Photo: Jeff Adams

Saturday – 8:00AM, -0.3
Sunday – 9:00AM, -0.7
Monday – 9:50AM, -0.7
Tuesday – 10:40AM, -0.5

What a better way to enjoy a relaxing morning than a walk on the beach. Or maybe you could enjoy a morning shellfish harvest for lunch. Thanks to toxins from plankton (paralytic shellfish poisoning or PSP) and Vibrio bacteria, many of our beaches currently have health department restrictions or advisories. Check the Washington Department of Health Shellfish Safety website before you head out.

Not only are we losing our low tides, most of us in Hood Canal, central Puget Sound and Whidbey Island area are seeing our final days of crab season. Male Dungeness and red rock crabs await the boiler, but you’ll have to catch them first.

Male and female red rock crab (Cancer productus) molts. Photo: Jeff Adams

Sexing crabs is a pretty easy business if you can get them to hold still long enough to turn them over. The abdomen of a crab is one of the things that separates the different groups of 10 legged crustaceans.

In hermit, king, porcelain and related crabs, it’s asymmetrical, somewhat exposed and (in the case of hermits) soft enough to need a shell to keep important organs from becoming fish food. In lobsters and crayfish or even shrimp, the tail is symmetrical and large with powerful muscles.

True crabs, like the graceful, red rock, Dungeness and shore crabs we commonly see on the beach, have a symmetrical abdomen that is relatively flat and tucked snugly under their body between all their legs. The male’s abdomen is narrow, generally shaped like a triangle and only fills a portion of the space between the legs. The female’s is broad, filling most of the space between the crab’s legs. This broad abdomen helps her protect her eggs while she broods them.

Female grooved mussel crab (Fabia subquadrata) loaded with eggs. Photo: Jeff Adams

I hope you had a fabulous summer and were able to enjoy all that water has to offer. Now that autumn is upon us, I hope to be a bit more regular about blogging. There is so much I’d love to share and to learn from you. Thanks and have a great weekend! JEff

Jeff Adams is a Washington Sea Grant Marine Water Quality Specialist, affiliated with the University of Washington’s College of the Ocean and Fishery Sciences, and based in Bremerton. You can follow his Sea-life blog, email to jaws@uw.edu or call at 360-337-4619.

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Foulweather Bluff Preserve looking north across expansive eelgrass beds. Photo: Jeff Adams

The new moon in June is upon us. Accompanying it are likely the lowest daytime tides of the year. Better yet, the forecast suggests we’re in the 70′s and sunny to partly sunny this weekend. What a great time to get out to the beaches!

Some planned events for Saturday (June 12th) are included below, but you can also plan your own adventure. It varies by your location, but the approximate tides and times are…

Kitsap Beach Naturalist volunteer Stephanie Lewis-Sandy (in the hat) approaches a child to explore her beach find. Photo: Jeff Adams

Friday, -2.3 @ 10:50AM
Saturday, -2.9 @ 11:30AM
Sunday, -3.2 @ 12:15PM
Monday, -3.1 @ 1:00PM
Tuesday, -2.5 @ 1:45PM

When the tide is this low on summer days, the plants and animals are stressed by the sun, wind, and heat, so please remember to tread lightly. Watch your feet and walk instead of running, wet your fingers before touching plants and animals, don’t turn over any rocks bigger than your head, and walk around the edges of the eelgrass or kelp beds. If you’re digging clams, don’t forget to fill your holes back in (don’t want to smother the next crop!).

A a really low tide, large geoduck siphons extend well above the sandy beach surface of the Foulweather Bluff Preserve. Photo: Jeff Adams

This Saturday (June 12th) you might want to join one of the following events…

-  From 10am-1pm, join me and the Kitsap Beach Naturalist volunteers as we enjoy and explore the Foulweather Bluff Nature Preserve (Hansville).

- Beach Walk and shellfish harvest/cooking demonstrations at Twanoh State Park (Union) – led by the Puget Sound Mycological Society.

- Water celebration (9am-2pm) and low-tide beach walk (late morning) at the Kingston Farmers Market – coordinated by the Stillwaters Environmental Education Center (scroll half way down the page).

A bit of gentle excavation of a cracked and raised area on the beach often revels large moon snails burrowed safely under the surface. Photo: Jeff Adams

Enjoy the beaches and feel free to send me notes, questions or images of what you experience this weekend. Cheers! JEff

Jeff Adams is a Washington Sea Grant Marine Water Quality Specialist, affiliated with the University of Washington’s College of the Ocean and Fishery Sciences, and based in Bremerton. You can follow his Sea-life blog, email to jaws@uw.edu or call at 360-337-4619.

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Thanks in large part to this blog and to professional connections in the Sea Grant network, I had the amazing privilege of being a guest naturalist the April 3rd performance of the the nationally syndicated radio show A Prairie Home Companion. The show was broadcast live from the Paramount Theater in Seattle on April 3rd. I was referred as a potential guest for the show on Wednesday March 31, had a conversation with Garrison Keillor (host of Prairie Home Companion) on April Fools Day (the voice make and date prompted a double take) and on Saturday enjoyed a casual conversation about marine life in front of 4000 people and 4,000,000 listeners.

Jeff Adams and Geoduck with Nell Robinson of the Henriettas (second from left) and the Royal Academy of Radio Actors (others left to right) Sue Scott, Fred Newman and Tim Russell. Photo: A kind person holding Jeff's camera

You can listen to the show (I was in the third segment 01:21:37 into the show), and see a picture of Garrison Keillor, Geoduck and me.

It was a fabulous feeling and an honor. I have to admit though… I couldn’t help but be a bit nervous. In the past, my musical alter-ego has been on stages big and small, singing everything from country to opera. This was different. I was going to be talking about something I loved, both personally and professionally, with a master of wit and improvisation… with no real preparation. Eek!

However, after watching everyone else in the show, my nerves eased and it felt natural once the time came to step up to the mic. Oddly enough, the curtain call felt even more comfortable, when I could join in a chorus of Johnny Cash’s I Still Miss Someone.

One-year-old Cisco Adams-Tres with common reaction to a geoduck. Photo: Jeff Adams

Orcas, octopuses and geoducks were the sea life we spoke most about on the show. Since a geoduck (Panopea generosa) was my companion on the show, I’ll give them a bit of attention here.

You can’t help but be immediately struck by the obscene enormity of its neck and its resemblance to something you might see in the pasture. Yet, there’s so much more to this Salish Sea icon.

This clam’s name originated from the Nisqually tribe in South Puget Sound as “gweduc”, meaning “dig deep”. As Europeans transcribed the name, they manged to go from gweduc to gooeyduck or goeduck to geoduck. Gee-o-duck? No matter how it’s written, Salish Sea residents still call them by their proper name, while those outside our region tend to be confounded by the matter.

The geoduck can be found from Kodiak, Alaska to Newport Bay, California, but it’s probably best known from the Salish Sea.  The geoduck wins the title of “world’s largest burrowing clam”, averaging over 2 pounds but sometimes weighing 10 pounds or more with necks over a yard in length. They are also among the oldest animals in the world, living in excess of 140 years

Geoduck siphon show. Fairly easily identified by the smooth, cream colored appearance of the openings. Photo: Jeff Adams

A geoduck’s long neck actually consists of two hose-like siphons. The incurrent siphon brings plankton and detritus rich water to the body, 3 or 4 feet down into the muck. The water passes across the gills which extract oxygen but also use mucus to glean food from the water before it makes the long journey through the excurrent siphon, back up out of the sediments.

Of course, you’d never know any of this from what you see on the beach. Only the tip of their siphons extends above the seafloor, though it may be several inches of the tip.

Digging a duck is a challenge since they’re so deep and so low in the intertidal. You have to race against the tide to dig deep before the tide overtakes your hole.

Geoduck siphon "show". The neck may sometimes be sticking several inches to a foot out of the sand at low tide. Photo: Jeff Adams

If you do manage to get one (from the beach or the market), you’re in for a treat. There’s a lot of meat to a geoduck, and amazingly enough, the meat is quite sweet. Tenderize it a bit, slice it up, role it and flour and toss it in a frying pan. Mmmmm. You can find several recipes and a everything else you could want to know about geoducks in Field Guide to the Geoduck by David Gordon, who is now Washington Sea Grant’s science writer.

You may also enjoy the lyrics and sheet music of Dig a Duck a Day. More recently, a Canadian band called the Bottomfeeders and a Seattle area Band called the Whateverly Brothers both have great geoduck songs. You can here the Bottomfeeders and Dig a Duck a Day on the fabulous duckumentary 3 Feet Under: Digging Deep for the Geoduck (trailer). So much great stuff about geoducks! Enjoy and may the force be with you if you hope to dig a duck a day. JEff

Jeff Adams is a Washington Sea Grant Marine Water Quality Specialist, affiliated with the University of Washington’s College of the Ocean and Fishery Sciences, and based in Bremerton. You can follow his Sea-life blog, email to jaws@uw.edu or call at 360-337-4619.

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Here’s where I start to explore a broadened definition of “Sea” in Sea Life to include all things aquatic. Fresh and saltwater are one continuous body of H2O (water) molecules. However, tossing a bunch of salts in the mix makes for a major division between things that live on the salty side of the line and those that live on the fresh.

Forestfly (Nemouridae) with an Ensatina salamander. Photo: Jeff Adams

The community of visible critters in freshwater (streams, lakes, rivers, etc.) is dominated by aquatic insect larvae, but these juvenile insects are nearly absent in salty waters. There are some groups in which species have crossed over. Snails, clams, mussels, sand fleas, rolly pollies and crabs all have relative in fresh water. I’m sure I’ll touch on some of those over time, but first I wanted to get to the bug on the back of my neck.

A couple weeks ago, I swatted at something that was sending shivers down my back as it crawled across my neck. When I drew my hand away, the small, dark insect had decided my hand was an equally suitable crawling space. It was small and delicate, with long thin wings that laid flat on its back. When I finally blew it off outside, this forestfly (or little brown stonefly, Nemouridae) fluttered clumsily away from the relative safety of my hand to the dangers of the air.

Final molts (exuvia) of large predatory golden stonflies (Perlidae: Calineuria). Photo: Jeff Adams

Forestflies are a family of stoneflies (Plecoptera = Greek for braided [plekein] wings [pteryx]) and very primitive insects. Like dragonflies and several other insect groups, the larvae (or nymphs) look similar to the adult insects. Instead of having the pupa stage that a caterpillar uses to change into a butterfly, these nymphs just shed their skin one last time, extend their wings and fly. Flying is clumsy business for a stonefly though. You’ll most often find them hanging out on vegetation, relatively close to water. As a group, they are particularly sensitive to human activities in the watershed and effective indicators of stream health.

Three different forestfly nymphs. Photo: Jeff Adams

The forestflies and a few other small, vegetarian species of stonefly crawl from the water and sprout their wings  in the winter or early spring. Forestflies are particularly big fans of small streams and and are often the last of the stoneflies to remain in streams that have been impacted by human activities. They aren’t predatory like some of their larger stonefly cousins, but serve an important role helping break down leaves and other plant matter.

Forestfly (Visoka sp.) with gills on the underside of its head. Photo: Jeff Adams

Something I find pretty cool about the forestflies is that several species have gills on their neck and head. These gills aren’t like those of fish. They look more like little soft fingers but provide that important function of helping them get extract dissolved oxygen from water. Hard to imagine those gills don’t get in the way though. Because their metamorphosis is so simple, you can often spot nubs of gills on the underside of the adult’s head as well, even though they’re no longer needed.

So next time you want to squish an unseen creepy crawly, maybe try to take a closer look. Your friendly neighborhood stonefly may be paying you a visit during it’s short adult life. Hope you’re having a wonderful spring! JEff

Jeff Adams is a Washington Sea Grant Marine Water Quality Specialist, affiliated with the University of Washington’s College of the Ocean and Fishery Sciences, and based in Bremerton. You can follow his Sea-life blog, email to jaws@uw.edu or call at 360-337-4619.

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Banana slug (Ariolimax sp.). Photo: Jeff Adams

Slug is a term used for shell-less gastropods (stomach foots). The sea slugs are remarkably diverse, ornate and favorites of beach combers and divers. Then there’s the oft maligned land slugs… I pulled a board off the ground this weekend as saw a dozen small slugs, probably of two difference species, both introduced and all probably waiting to mow down whatever I might plant in the garden. But then I found a banana slug nearby. Who could malign a banana slug? Naturally, I had to show my kids. It sat in my hand for a moment before one optical tentacle slowly peaked out, then another, then its sensory tentacles… Left a heck of a slimy, sticky mess on my hand. Cool banana slugs reminds me of a recent story that involved two sea-through land slugs, an engaged citizen and a University of Washington scientist. It’s an absolute treat to scientists when interesting creatures or images are brought to our attention. Please share your observations. I’d love to include some in this blog.

Frosted nudibranch (Dirona albolineata). Photo: Jeff Adams

Oh right, aquatic things… The other reason I had slugs on the brain is that we encountered two lovely creatures during a recent beach walk. One was the sea lemon (Anisodoris nobilis), a fruity-smelling sponge eater. The other and most striking was the frosted nudibranch (Dirona albolineata). It’s also called the white-lined Dirona (albo-lineata = white-lined). The white edges of its cerata (the frilly things on its body) are distinctive, while the body can be white to light orange or purple.

The frosted nudibranch is a predator, crunching away on bryozoans and even small snails. It doesn’t eat anemones like some of its similarly frilly aeolid cousins and thus doesn’t incorporate the anemone’s stinging cells into its cerata. However, when threatened by a predator, it will readily shed its cerata and makes a run for safety.

Serendipitously, this weekend my wife found a photo in a gallery with a frosted nudibranch front and center and a stunning opalescent nudibranch (Hermissenda crassicornis) in the background. The label on the photograph said “Lion’s mane”, while the label for the lion’s mane jelly (three photos down) said “Redondo nudibranchs”. We quietly switched the labels. The opalescent is an aeolid with stinging cells in its cerata and is known to be voracious and cannibalistic. Maybe the photo’s title should be changed to “Killer in the shadows” or something similarly dramatic.

My love of slugs extends back to before I ever saw the ocean. A favorite story of my parents – boy follows slime trails, boy brings home 3 slugs, slugs escape jar, father enjoys slime exfoliant between toes… Enjoy following your own slime trails! JEff

Jeff Adams is a Washington Sea Grant Marine Water Quality Specialist, affiliated with the University of Washington’s College of the Ocean and Fishery Sciences and based in Bremerton. You can follow his Sea-life blog, email to jaws@uw.edu or call at 360-337-4619.

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A snail egg example in a minute, but first I wanted to invite you to an upcoming beach walk where we’ll probably find eggs and snails in the flesh. Beach Naturalists in the Kitsap WSU Beach Watchers program (and me as the co-coordinating UW Husky) will lead a walk on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 from 7-8:30PM (-1.1 tide at about 8:15PM).

Frilled dogwinkles (Nucella lamellosa) eggs on a rock. Photo: Jeff Adams

A few parking spots are available where Sebring Dr. splits off from the ferry line. You can also park roadside on Cherry or possibly in the Southworth Grocery Parking (don’t know their hours). I’m sure there’s street parking elsewhere in the community. I think the big lot next to the ferry line is $5. We will start at the point of entry at the end of SE Sebring Drive (click for map) and walk south under the ferry dock and beyond. In Seattle area? For the price of a walk-on ticket from Fontleroy (~$6) you can enjoy an awesome evening on the water.

Bring flashlights/headlamps and warm waterproof clothes and boots. We’ll see lots of life under the ferry dock and and along the beach. We’ll also see a cool eroding high bluff (as much as we can in the dark anyway). If we catch some sea pens in the right mood, maybe we can check out their bioluminescence. We’ll also keep our eyes out for snail eggs…

Frilled dogwinkle (Nucella lamellosa) with eggs. Photo: Jeff Adams

Some marine snails lay very distinctive eggs. The most commonly encountered is the frilled dogwinkle (Nucella lamellosa). These beauties aggregate and produce eggs in prodigious quantities. The bright yellow, rice shaped blankets of eggs on a rock will catch your attention. Then look at the base of the rock and you will likely see a few or even heaps of adult snails. Frilled dogwinkles range in color from brown to cream to orange and purple. They aren’t always frilled either. More often than not, I see them with rather smooth shells. Their shells thicken and lose the frills in response to the presence of predators (red rock crab for example). Frilled dogwinkles are slow compared to a crab, but their speed is plenty adequate for their immobile prey (barnacles and mussels). I’ll share other snail egg images in the future.

Frilled dogwinkles (Nucella lamellosa) eggs on a rock. Photo: Jeff Adams

An amazing site I came across for images of marine mollusk (clams, snails, limpets, chitons, abalone, etc.) shell, live animal and egg images is the Pacific Northwest Shell Club website. I can’t imagine this escargot or caviar on my dinner plate, but I hope you enjoy looking at it as much as I do. Enjoy the afternoon and evening low tides this week! JEff

Jeff Adams is a Washington Sea Grant Marine Water Quality Specialist, affiliated with the University of Washington’s College of the Ocean and Fishery Sciences and based in Bremerton. You can follow his Sea-life blog, email to jaws@uw.edu or call at 360-337-4619.

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One of my fondest memories in while submerged in waters of the Northwest was an encounter with an angel. I was snorkeling around San Juan Island when I shifted my focus from the awesome seaweed and invertebrate life on the rocky outcrop, to the plankton mere inches in front of my face. There floated one of the loveliest and most graceful creatures I had ever encountered (it would be a few years yet before I cast eyes upon my wife). The sea angel (Clione limacina) gets up to 3″ long, though the one I shared the water with was smaller. During late winter, sea angels populations can explode in the plankton, though chance encounters can happen any time.

It seems I’m not the only one smitten with Clione. It has apparently reached cult status in Japan where sea angel figurines have even been packaged and sold with beer.

Of course, Clione‘s not the only angel in the plankton. Sea angels actually like to eat sea butterflies (Limnacina helicina). In fact, the sea angel’s species name is the same as the sea butterfly genus (limnacina). This is one of the many cases where taxonomists (people who identify things) name name creatures in a way that tells us something about them or their relationship to their environment.

Like the sea angels, sea butterflies are also planktonic gastropods, though in the case of butterflies you can actually see the shell through their clear tissue. Their wings (a snails foot that has evolved into two large parapodia [translation: near foot]) can beat rapidly, and since they have to compensate for the added weight of their shell, their wings have to keep busy when they’re close to the surface. They are minute fishermen (only 1/2″ long),

The graceful flappings of the winged sea slug (Gastropteron pacificum). Photo: Jeff Adams

stringing up mucus nets 4 times their size to capture tiny copepods and other microscopic plankton. When the net is full, they reel it in, gobble it up and spit out a new one.

While on the Bremerton Marina docks recently, I was able to get a few blurry shots of a winged sea slug (Gastropteron pacificum). It only reaches half the size (1.5″) of a large sea angel, but is such a pleasure to watch swim. It’s opaque, darker color and graceful swimming make it easier to spot from the surface than a sea angel. When not swimming, it often curls up on the bottom to rest.

All these species are not directly related, though they’ve evolved away from their snail, sea slug (nudibranch), limpet, and chiton cousins. They have left the sea floor to take advantage of the bounty of the plankton.  Here’s to the angels in our lives! JEff

Jeff Adams is a Washington Sea Grant Marine Water Quality Specialist, affiliated with the University of Washington’s College of the Ocean and Fishery Sciences and based in Bremerton. You can follow his Sea-life blog, email to jaws@uw.edu or call at 360-337-4619.

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Giant Pacific octopus jetting through the water. Photo: Jeff Adams

While piering over the edge of a dock, taking pictures and looking for an invasive (but beautiful) marine bryozoan, I saw a flash of dark. In the second that followed, my first thought was a large salmon, but its movement was too fluid and agile. My next thought was small seal, but the shape and size weren’t right. Since I had my camera in the water, I pointed in that direction and took a shot. An instant later, the flash opened like a parachute and came to an abrupt halt a dozen feet from the water’s edge.

The octopus changed colors in two quick waves before dashing under the dock. I was afraid that was the last I’d see of it, but it then “tip toed” (for lack of a better description) with much less urgency across the boat launch to the next dock. This was an odd time and an odd place to find a giant Pacific octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini) which is generally nocturnal and spends the day in their favorite crevice.

Particularly before recreational diving came into being, it’s easy to imagine how tall tales grew out of the existence of such a terrifically unusual creature. I have an old marine biology text, where the author refers to our Pacific Coast species as devilfish (not uncommon still today). At the same time, the author decries the misnomer and describes the creatures in colorful language not found in modern textbooks. The fear people had of old was clearly derived from ignorance. It was not unusual for the octopus to be depicted with pincers at the end of its arms or other nightmarishly concocted details. Today… many divers consider encountering these intelligent creatures like bumping into an old friend – except the friend’s under water… and doesn’t actually get very old (only 3-5 years!).

The speed with which an octopus can change color is mindblowing! Photo: Jeff Adams

I mentioned above that this octopus changed its color. For a creature with so many striking features, this is probably one of the most impressive. Octopuses and their kin (squid and cuddlefish) have four types or groups of cells that can influence their color. The most useful for this octopus is the chromatophore. The pigment-containing chromatore cell is surrounded by more than a dozen muscle cells and at least one nerve cell to trigger an instant contraction or relaxation of the chromatophore, thus changing the visible pigment. In the image to the left you can see the shudder of light running across the octopus. Other amazing features include their beak, their suckers, their lack of many hard parts, their diet, intelligence, ink, hydropropulsion, fishing pressure …). Maybe I can blog about those later.

We have two octopus species in the shallower waters of the Pacific Northwest – The giant Pacific and the Pacific red octopus (Octopus rubescens). The red is small (up to 20″ with arms spread), while the Pacific giant can reach 160 pounds and stretch their arms 24′! Much larger individuals are thought to exist. The octopus in these photos was a more modest size – 3 or 4′ while swimming and basketball sized while walking. Other identifying features include lots of flat, rounded skin flaps on the giant Pacific and more cylindrical, pointed skin flaps on the red. Also, the red has three skin flap eyelashes just below each eye; the giant Pacific has none.

You can see tightly coiled arms around the edge of this resting octopus' body. Photo: Jeff Adams

Divers enjoy regular visits with giant pacific octopus, but for those who don’t get more than wader deep in the water, it’s worth keeping an eye out for them when you’re exploring the intertidal, particularly in rockier areas.  They can survive for some time out of water as long as they stay cool and damp.

To get a wonderfully close look at these critters, check out the Port Townsend Marine Science Center or Seattle Aquarium. Octopus week at the Seattle Aquarium is coming up (2/13 – 2/20). A highlight is the annual Valentine’s Day “blind date”. A male octopus has already been introduced into the tank with the female, but they are currently separated by a perforated gate. The holes allow them to sense each other but not to come into contact. At noon on Valentine’s Day the two will be allowed to meet in octoperson.

On the Kitsap Peninsula, the Poulsbo Marine Science Center is a fabulous place to visit an octopus and enjoy other marine life. Currently “Mr. Bob” is the resident octopus. You can see a couple pictures under News on the PMSC website. Exploring the Center is free of charge and the doors are open 11-4 Thursday-Sunday.

There are lots of places to look for more information. A couple good starts might be The Giant Octopus Web Page or The Cephalopod Page. May you be so fortunate to enjoy a devil of your own! JEff

Jeff Adams is a Washington Sea Grant Marine Water Quality Specialist, affiliated with the University of Washington’s College of the Ocean and Fishery Sciences and based in Bremerton. You can follow his Sea-life blog, email to jaws@uw.edu or call at 360-337-4619.

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For some, the keyboard has replaced the pen. Of course, the ball point has long since replaced the plume. Fortunately, for you retro folks, you can still enjoy the lovely plume of the orange sea pen (Ptilosarcus gurneyi – “Ptilo” is Greek for feather or down) gracing the subtidal (if you’re a diver) or in sand or mud of the the lower intertidal. On the Kitsap Peninsula, I’ve only seen them intertidally at the Southworth ferry dock. In fact, I dropped a camera in the drink trying to take a picture of it. That salt encrusted camera carcass now hangs in my office. … My new camera is waterproof. … I wonder if they’re higher in the intertidal at the ferry docks because the ferry wash kicks them up and they reroot at a shallower depth? Hmm, need more info for that question. Let me know where you find it intertidally.

Orange sea pen (Ptilosarcus gurneyi) - Photo: Jeff Adams

When exposed on a low tide, this beauty squeezes out its water and recoils into something resembling a small orange brain. Add a little water though, and presto! They expand to a lovely plume, feeding on the plankton that wash past. Now for the even cooler part… They aren’t really a single living creature with a body and some sort of feathery feeding appendages (like a feather duster worm or plumose anemone).

They’re related to corals, which have many tiny polyps that build and add onto the calcium carbonate base they all share. The hundreds of polyps in a sea pen have different functions but work together as a single organism. The big “stem” of the pen is made up of one enormous polyp that no longer has tentacles and formed a big bulb at the bottom that it uses to fix itself in the sediment. The feathery parts of the pen that branch out from the stem are made up of tiny polyps that feed on plankton, intake water or produce sperm and eggs.

Orange sea pens may fall prey to several species of sea stars, but are the primary prey of the striped nudibranch (Armina californica). Alas, the pen is not mightier than the slug.

Oh yeah, touch them at night …  They’re bioluminescent! We’ll probably see these during a beachwalk at the Southworth ferry dock on Thursday, February 25th (7:pm). We’ll see if we can coax them to illuminate the tide. Hope that splash of color brightens your day, JEff

Jeff Adams is a Washington Sea Grant Marine Water Quality Specialist, affiliated with the University of Washington’s College of the Ocean and Fishery Sciences and based in Bremerton. You can follow his Sea-life blog, email to jaws@uw.edu or call at 360-337-4619.

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We’re approaching a full moon! That means minus tides and more beach to explore. If you get a wild chaeta and want to check out sea life by flashlight, you can join the naturalists of the Kitsap Beach Watchers Program and partner organizations for low tide beach walks tomorrow (Wednesday 1/27) from 7 -8:30PM at the Lions Park boat launch (Bremerton) or under the Bainbridge Island ferry dock. (Google map, zoom on in!)

In case you want to explore on your own, the lows are approximately as follows …

• Wednesday (27th)     8:40PM      -1.9′
• Thursday (28th)          9:30PM      -2.4′
• Friday (29th)               10:15PM     -2.4′
• Saturday (30th)           11:00PM     -2.0′

If you want to new scenery for the price of a walk-on ferry ticket, the newly formed Vashon Beach Naturalists program will be hosting a beach walk at the north end Vashon ferry terminal Friday (26th) from 8-10PM. You can also wait until February 25th to join the Kitsap crew again at the Southworth Ferry dock (7-8:30). These are great opportunities to learn more about the life on your beaches.

The weather looks great for Wednesday and Thursday this week. Enjoy the night life! JEff

PS. “chaeta” is new Latin from the Greek word for long hair. … wild hair… At least the marine worms might get a giggle out of it. Most marine worms are polychaetes (many bristles/hairs).

Beach walk partners include: WSU Kitsap County Extension, Washington Sea Grant and People for Puget Sound – Contact: Peg Tillery PTillery@co.kitsap.wa.us or Jeff Adams jaws@uw.edu for questions or more details.

Jeff Adams is a Washington Sea Grant Marine Water Quality Specialist, affiliated with the University of Washington’s College of the Ocean and Fishery Sciences and based in Bremerton. You can follow his Sea-life blog, email to jaws@uw.edu or call at 360-337-4619.

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