Intertidal Monitoring - 2005 Summary

The low daytime tides of summer 2005 are behind us but Island County Beach Watchers did not let them go to waste. As you can tell from the following summary of their monitoring activities, they were very busy exploring the shoreline and gathering data .

South Lagoon Point is traditionally among the first beaches monitored every year and this year was no exception. In spite of foggy weather, the team was out on April 26th. The team captain reports that due to the fog, they were unable to see the horizon to take readings of slope change. Luckily, she has a sight level, which saved the day. If not for this handy little gadget, they would have had to reschedule. The team found the carnivorous polychaete worm Hemipodus borealis, a green ribbon worm (Emplectonema gracile), and lots of gunnel eels. In addition, one team member identified birds and the group saw rough winged swallows, a bald eagle, and an osprey. The team captain notes that DNR used to own the bluff above their monitoring site but it is now county owned and she isn't sure what the county plans to do with it. She also says that the team felt that the number of organisms found was fewer than they have seen in previous years.

Crescent Harbor had an 8-member team and beautiful weather as they set out that same day. (South Lagoon Point is on southwest Whidbey Island and Crescent Harbor is on the northeast side, which accounts for the different weather conditions on the same day.) One member of the group spotted a big Cerebratulus sp. (rose) ribbonworm. These are really impressive worms and the one he found was about 10 inches long and ¾ of an inch wide. As he examined it in his hand, he was suddenly holding 2 smaller worms. This species, like many ribbon worms, tend to fragment when disturbed. Another team member tipped up a rock to find a blue mud shrimp (Upogebia pugettensis). When the animal was turned over, a pair of parasitic isopods, Phyllodurus abdominalis were clinging to the abdomen. While the flat white female was thumbnail size, the much smaller male was about half an inch long and had an appearance similar to that of a white scaleworm. A third participant, in the meantime, was also looking under rocks where she found a giant flatworm, Kaburakia excelsa . This remarkable worm was about 2 ½ inches long and almost as wide as it was long.

The team leader for South Lagoon Point had her team out again on May 28th, this time at South Whidbey State Park . She says they had had lots of fun and saw several things they had never seen before, including brittle stars (Amphiodia occidentalis). The big surprise of the day was a nudibranch found within 30 feet of the start point at about the +3 foot level. At first they thought it was a jelly but after getting a closer look with a magnifying glass, they identified it as a nudibranch from the family Dendronotidae, possibly D. frondosus . While the 1-cm. creature was generally white, they could see areas with pink, orange, and brown coloration and it also had 5 pairs of branching projections. The team describes it as "elegant looking". Another sharp-eyed team member found a western toad (Bufo boreus). Although these are actually toads, they are also commonly called "wood frogs". One more interesting critter the group spotted was an insect known as a horntail or wood wasp. (Family: Siricidae) This winged sawfly relative was about 1-½ inches long with a cylindrical body and having black and yellow bands. This one is believed it to be Tremex columba , a species that is widespread across North America and whose larvae burrow into dead or dying deciduous trees. Horntails get their name from a long spear like projection coming off their posterior. The projection is not a stinger but is used when they deposit eggs into a tree.

The Langley Seawall team was out on the beach on May 10th . One of the niftiest things about this beach is the hot tub sized feeding pits left in the sand by gray whales. The team started the day with their faces pressed up against the seawall peeking into cracks in the concrete looking for and finding the cockroach-like isopod Ligia pallasii .

The team captain notes in her monitoring report: "In our digs we once again found lots of ghost shrimp (baleen escapees), proboscis worms, and small clams and cockles. One highlight was noticing small (1-3 inches) lines in the sand near the waters edge. Closer inspection revealed that each track was made by a small clam (1/4" or less in size) which we found sitting at the end of every track. We called them clam racetracks! We also found our signature animal for this beach, Melanochlamys, the small brown and gold nudibranch, and its egg masses in the pools near the waters edge. Hurray! However, our big find in the eelgrass was a 2-foot long giant sea cucumber, Parastichopus californicus, resting on the sand! This apparently is a new find on any beach for Beach Watchers! The Langley team does it again!"

The -2.3 foot tide of May 23rd brought Beach Watchers to two beaches. The team captain had a broken arm but in spite of that, she was at North Hastie Lake with her team. What a day they had! One new Beach Watcher, monitoring her first beach ever, spotted a large purple ribbon worm ( Paranemertes peregrina ) swallowing an even larger polychaete worm. The size disparity between the two worms was apparent and the Paranemertes looked like it would probably need a few Rolaids after it finished that gigantic meal. Another monitor spotted opalescent (Hermissenda crassicornis) and shaggy mouse (Aeolidia papillosa) nudibranchs. Stalked jellies were also found. Amazingly, as the team worked, they were visited by two friendly Columbia black tailed deer and two curious river otters.

Ala Spit was also monitored on the 23rd . That team captain reports that the find of the day was a small but gorgeous opalescent nudibranch. The monitors also saw a ctenophore (also called comb jellies) and noted several small flatfish. One was out of water and flipped upside down. The fish's skin was so translucent that they could view its intestines. Spartina has been found at Ala Spit in previous years. This year's team saw two small patches and dug it up before it could spread. One Beach Watcher showed her dedication by driving all the way from Camano Island to monitor at Ala Spit on her birthday!

Ledgewood got its yearly checkup on the 24th . The leader for that group reports that two folks from the new Beach Watcher class joined the team this year. The profile line for this site is near a fresh water outfall that has recently been enlarged. She notes that the biota on this beach used to be much richer but if you move 100 feet to either direction, the beach is rich in seaweeds and invertebrates, "almost like a mini-Partridge Point".

Rosario had a good turnout of volunteers on May 25th and they were rewarded with a real diversity of organisms. Amongst the discoveries were the tiny striped anemone Haliplanella lineata , a number of small nudibranch cousins commonly known as leather limpets (Onchidella borealis), and a sea lemon (Archidoris montereyensis). The most unusual species of the day was a 3-inch wide turtle crab (Cryptolithodes sitchensis). (The fellow who found the crab thought "Darth Vader crabs" would be a better name for them!) Dr. Kozloff's Seashore Life of the Northern Pacific Coast calls them "the strangest crabs found in the intertidal region" and tells us that they are more closely related to hermit crabs and porcelain crabs than to true crabs. Beach Watchers drove all the way from Clinton and Camano Island to help monitor at this beach.

The team captain at Double Bluff Wahl Farm reports that the highlight for her team was finding numerous shaggy mouse nudibranchs (Aeolidia papillosa) and their egg ribbons. She tells us they had hot but otherwise beautiful weather and there were several new people on the team. The group also saw two species of sea cucumbers (Cucumaria miniata and Eupentacta quinquesemita), lots of bryozoans, and piddocks (Zirfaea pilsbryi). Piddocks are bivalves with shells that have a rasp-like surface and are used to burrow into clay and other firm substrates. Some species are known to burrow into solid rock. Zirfaea is known to live 7-8 years and continues growing and burrowing throughout its lifetime. Wahl Farm was monitored on May 26th.

May 27th set a record high temperature but that didn't keep Beach Watchers off the beach! The Rolling Hills team was one of two monitoring groups out that day. Among the highlights was the discovery of a bright orange Nucella lamellosa (dog whelk) and that of a graceful rock crab (Cancer gracilis) that was trying to beat the heat by hiding under a moon snail egg collar. The crab must have molted recently because the carapace had a soft leathery feel. The team enjoyed watching a busy pair of kingfishers as they spent the day flying in and out of their nest high in the bank above the monitoring site. Taking advantage of the clear day, the team captain pointed out White Horse Mountain, Three Fingers, and Glacier Peak along the horizon, all of which are more than 50 miles distant.

The Double Bluff Cirque Point team also picked May 27th to monitor at their beach. The team captain was pleased to have two new team members from the BW Class of 2005. The group saw quite a number of moon snails and their egg collars and also 2 small gumboot chitons. Several dead sea stars and moon snails were found near a big erratic high in the intertidal. Team members speculated that they had been carried up there by beachgoers and had succumbed to the heat of the day. There were large numbers of folks out enjoying the beach that day. Participants estimated there must have been 300 people digging clams, sunning themselves, and playing in the water. This good-hearted team tried to resuscitate a wilted looking clam by pouring water down its siphons.

The Pratt's Bluff team was out on June 6th . The team captain says the best thing about the day for her was that although the weather forecast called for showers, it didn't rain. The team found a ghost shrimp (Neotrypaea californiensis), a species, not found previously found when monitoring at this beach. The team captain says she was also pleased to have a new member from the class of 2005 join the team.

The team captain for Honeymoon Bay was also happy that it didn't rain while his team was out on June 7th . Once again the weather forecast had called for wet weather but the team lucked out. Reports from this beach indicate that they found a white plumed anemone ( Metridium senile ) and the nifty little ice cream cone worm (Pectinaria sp.), which they looked at under a microscope. The sand grains making up the tube of the little polychaete are so perfectly butted up against one another that they look like they were arranged by a stonemason. The team says he was pleased to have veteran team members returning to help on the beach this year and also to have a new Beach Watcher from this year's class join the team.

Cama Beach is traditionally the first beach on Camano Island to be monitored in the summer. For the past two years it has been surveyed twice a year, the last "winter survey was held on January 28, 2005. The 15 Beach Watchers searched out critters in a light rain on June 8. The usual creatures were there but no nudibranchs or sea stars were found this year. There was a belted kingfisher offshore, searching for food. This bird is easy to identify with its large shoulders and head and long, strange bill. They require clear water in order to see the small fish they catch by diving headfirst into the water. They can be spotted hovering over the water (an osprey does this also) looking for their prey. The belted kingfisher is blue and white, with a white ring around its neck and a shaggy crest on the back of its head. The nest consists of burrows or holes in banks adjacent to the beach.

The Camano Beach Watchers did a bio-survey of Elger Bay on June 21. This year the species included a river otter, who took one look at our group and decided to change his approach to the beach to another time. We identified young green sea urchins that were about ¼ inch in diameter; however, they weren't easy to spot. With the capable BW team, we all searched for critters as we did the profile of the beach. Elger Bay is unique because there are rocks, bull kelp, and sand all within the profile parameters. It's an interesting beach to hunt for critters.

Two veteran Beach Watchers monitored at West Sunset Beach on June 23rd . They report that they had a good day and that the weather was with them. The team leader says that they see quite a bit of change in this beach every year. This year, instead of sand, the substrate was more cobble and gravel. One of the members of this team has really taken an interest in species identification and has gotten to be quite good at it. He tells us that they saw three species of nudibranchs- the opalescent ( Hermissenda crassicornis ), shaggy mouse (Aeolidia papillosa ), and sea lemon ( Archidoris montereyensis). They also saw big Pisaster ochraceus sea stars and rough piddocks (Zirfaea pilsbryi).

A team of four monitored at Harrington Lagoon the following day. They did not find brittle stars this year, although they have seen them in past years, and the leader of this group says they only saw one small sea star. They also noted that the beach seemed to be higher this year. It was a nice day to be outside, the warmest monitoring day picked for monitoring this beach in the past 6 years.

This (June 24th) was the second intertidal monitoring at Cavalero Beach , a small county park with picnic tables and a boat ramp on the east side of Camano Island on Port Susan Bay. Eleven Beach Watchers participated. The weather was fair and after several days of monitoring we feel comfortable with the procedures. We changed the survey line from last year to avoid a developing spit protruding in the small bay.

The Camano Island, Port Susan Bay sites have fewer invertebrate species than the sites on Saratoga Passage. Near the end of the survey in the sand lightly covered with silt, we found the invertebrate Eupolymnia heterobranchia (a small dark brown or greenish brown worm). It catches food with many extensile tentacles coming from its anterior end and eats mostly detritus and diatoms. This polychaete lives in a parchment-like tube and extends its tentacles through and over the substratum.

On June 25th , the Coupeville Town Park Beach team started their monitoring day under dreary skies but it soon brightened up and warmed up until it was downright hot. One participant dug up a ghost shrimp (Neotrypaea californiensis) with a big lump on the side of its carapace that is believed to be the parasitic isopod Ione cornuta . The team found a number of green sea urchins ( Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis ) including some that were very tiny. A cockroach-like isopod Ligia pallasii and the lichens Verrucaria and Caloplaca were identified on large boulders near the start point. Shortly after the team got started, at least 50 bucket wielding members of a church group arrived to dig clams nearby. Large sections of the beach soon looked like it had been bulldozed. Team members suggested to the clam diggers that they refill their holes so as not to smother other intertidal organisms but the diggers did not seem to understand English very well and left dying gaper clams and large piles of sediment all over the beach.

The Sunlight Beach team got together on June 21st. The team captain calls this "a fun beach with all kinds of little creatures and worms". Located in Useless Bay, Sunlight is a very long beach with the profile line extending out in excess of 3000 feet from the start point. This team takes profile readings at 50-foot increments instead of the 10-foot readings done on most other Island County beaches. The team found tiny clams that were leaving tracks as they moved along the surface of the sand and also saw lots of bubble snails (Haminoea vesicula) amongst the seaweed. The tiny clams are thought to be littlenecks. Bubble snails are nudibranch relatives and are closely related to the Melanochlamys that monitors find at Langley Sea Wall. They're small, only about an inch long and have a shell but much of it is buried in the mantle leaving only a small area of it exposed in the middle of the critter's back. Bubble snails are most frequently found where eelgrass grows in mud and Sunlight Beach has both native (Zostera marina) and Japanese (Z. japonica) eelgrass. After a great day of monitoring, the Sunlight Beach team topped off the day with a nice barbeque.

June 23 about 9 a.m., somewhat early for some of us older folks, found us gathering at the entrance gate for the Onamac Beach area on Camano Island (did you know that Onamac is Camano spelled backward?). After finding our start points and some interpretation of the profile data directions, the quadrats and profile lines for the two different surveys were marked. The beach captains had a brief meeting with over 23 helpers, in the hopes of channeling some of the excitement and enthusiasm into the task. Team One was to work the south survey line, and Team two, the north. One ambitious team member managed to recruit about 10 local residents to help the Beach Watchers get the task completed in a reasonable amount of time.

With a beautiful day in the making the teams roared into action. Team One started out of the gate by doing their nine quadrats with a small but dedicated crew, while the others manned the poles doing their profile survey. This strategy worked great, as in the end Team One finished about 45 minutes ahead of Team Two, which was left catching up with the overall effort. Having one group do quadrats while the other work is going on seems to be a good plan, providing you have the volunteer capacity.

Team Two was fortunate to have a running photo shoot by an accomplished photographer. He documented both the critters and the critter finders as the morning developed, and later made a bound photo journal of the day for the Camano Beach Watcher office. Another local resident was instrumental in finding several critters, as he has helped us in years past. Most agreed the best find for the day was a little octopus that was well-photographed while putting on a great run-and-hide routine.

The early afternoon found some participants partaking goodies at the team captain's place, featuring a medley of liquid palate pleasers, produced and offered by our own Beach Watcher vintners.

The beach captains wish to thank all the helpers and Beach Watchers who again braved the beautiful day and the screams, yells, and comments (some not so kind) of data-recording folks.

On July 5, a beautiful clear breezy morning welcomed 15 Beach Watchers to the annual beach monitoring of Sunny Shores on southeast Camano Island. We had hardly arrived on the beach when one participant spotted two snails new to Sunny Shores- Assiminea californica and Ovatella myosotis. It was a great day for finding new species. Under the gaze of our watchful eagle, our keen eyes spotted Haliplanella lineata , Nuttallia obscurata , Tresus capax (gaper clam), Pagurus hirsutiusculus , and Ligia pallasii -new species which have joined the resident ghost shrimp, mussels, and crabs that dominate the beach.

Although gray whales have been spotted in Port Susan Bay, they really missed their chance this year for breakfast, lunch and dinner; once we moved into the sand substrate, there were 300 feet of their favorite Neotrypaea californiensis (ghost shrimp). We had a really good day of beach monitoring, and a small group of beach walkers thanked us for taking care of their beach.

Another great monitoring team checked out eelgrass rich Columbia Beach on July 20th . That team captain says that the number of moon snails and their egg collars have gone down since last year, as well as the number of clams. He notes that they did find a lot of littleneck clams with drill holes in them however. The team saw a porcelain crab which was a new species for this beach and also spotted a number of eelgrass sea slugs (Phyllaplysia taylori) and several small opalescent nudibranchs (Hermissenda crassicornis).

There was a team of 8 out the next day at Possession Point. The team leader for that group says the team included several new members this year and that everybody had a really good time. This is another beach lush with eelgrass and he notes that the eelgrass had a nice growth of the red epiphytic seaweed Smithora on its blades. While the team found good numbers of butter ( Saxidomus giganteus ) and horse clams (Tresus capax), there was a notable absence of littlenecks. "They're just gone." he says. Numbers of littleneck clams had dwindled at this beach for several years until last year when none were found at all.

The intertidal monitoring of Utsalady beach on July 22nd was far from routine. 18 Beach Watchers participated, divided into two groups. One recorded the beach profile readings and 10-foot swath of substrate, while the other group worked on the quadrats and species list.

Two Beach Watchers arrived early to wield weedeater and pruning shears to down the eye-high Canada thistles and thigh-high grass. We were able to open the gate and drive four vehicles to the steps with gear and food.

New finds of note were a small black brittle star with long awkward legs, and a rock covered with Onchidella borealis (leather limpet).

Many thanks to a most enthusiastic group.

Five Beach Watchers were joined by two guests to monitor at the Maxwelton Tidepools on August 19th . The crew enjoyed a morning of warm sunny weather and a -2.4 tide. The upper beach at this site consists of a rocky area with a huge erratic and beyond that, a wide expanse of sand. This was the first beach one new Beach Watcher had ever monitored and she did a great job recording data. The highlight of the day for her was seeing the anemones. Three species were found, the aggregating (Anthopleura elegantissima), moonglow (Anthopleura artemisia), and white plumed (Metridium senile) anemones. Highlights noted by other team members were flatworms, red sea cucumbers (Cucumaria miniata), and a polychaete (probably Hemipodus ) with a long blunt proboscis that it repeatedly shot out much to the delight of the entire team. The team captain was fascinated by a pod of dolphins spotted zipping by a short distance offshore. Another participant brought binoculars to identify birds and she zoomed in on an osprey, a bald eagle, and several Heermann's gulls.

A dedicated team of six turned out to monitor Partridge Point on August 20. The -1.9 foot tide did not allow the team to get out as far as they have the last couple of years but they still found a real diversity. Two team members split off from the profilers to work on quadrats. With the luxuriant seaweed cover, scrutinizing and documenting life in the quadrats was a time consuming process. In the meantime, the profiling contingent recorded more than 50 species of animal life, 25 seaweeds, and one seagrass. One monitor, a Partridge Point veteran, spotted two sea lemons (Archidoris montereyensis) with their egg ribbon. He reports that another highlight was nailing down the identity of a small crab with orange tipped claws. It turned out to be a graceful kelp crab ( Pugettia gracilis ). Another participant said she enjoyed seeing the red sea cucumbers ( Cucumaria miniata ). Other great finds were brooding anemones (Epiactis sp), clingfish (Gobiesox maeandricus), and pygmy rock crabs (Cancer oregonensis). The team noted considerable beach erosion between two areas of bulkheading. In addition, erosion has caused the county to fence off the usual beach access as they have deemed it too hazardous.