The images below were taken in the mid and high tide zones on Alki beach....Constellation Marine Reserve in West Seattle.
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| Aggregate Anemone |
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| Hairy Shore Crab |
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| Sitka Shrimp with Eggs |
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| Scale Worm |
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| Aggregate Anemone tentacles |
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| Checkered Periwinkles |
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| Grainyhand Hermit Crab |
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| Green Sea Urchin |
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| Hairy Hermit Crab on Shaggy Mouse Sea Slug eggs |
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| Hairy Hermit Crab in Checkered Periwinkle shell |
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| Spines of Mottled Sea Star |
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| Oregon Pillbugs |
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| Oregon Pillbugs |
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| Bigtail (Fantail) Isopod on Shaggy Mouse eggs |
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| Shaggy Mouse Sea Slug |
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| Cerata of Shaggy Mouse |
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| Hairy Shore Crab - one of many color morphs |
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| Hairy Shore Crab |
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| Shore Crab eye |
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| Hairy Shore Crab |
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| Bryozoan |
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| Grainyhand Hermit Crab |
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| Rockweed Isopod with hitchhiker |
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| Mating Rockweed Isopods |
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| Moonglow Anemone |
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| Moonglow Anemone |
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| Opalescent Nudibranch |
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| Opalescent Nudibranch |
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| Oregon Pillbug |
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| Oregon Pillbug |
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| Oregon Pillbugs |
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| Juv. Purple Sea Star |
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| Red Rock Crab -orange |
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| Rockweed Isopod |
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| Rockweed Isopod |
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| Rockweed Isopod eye |
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| Juv. Purple Sea Star and Isopods |
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| Juv. Sea Stars |
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| Shaggy Mouse Nudibranch cerata |
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| Sitka Shrimp |
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| Wireweed floats (Sargassum) |
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| Woody Chiton plates |
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| Juv. Wrinkled Whelk and egg capsules |
Hi Buzz! Found your page through looking up Tidal Pools in Seattle. My husband and I just moved here and we love your blog!! We are pondering going up to Tongue Point on June 23rd (starting from Issaquah at 4am... ouch!) to see the low tide. Looks like it will be at -2.6 at 7:10am but also rainy that day. Do you think this would be a good time to visit? We'll be driving 3 hours so we want to be sure we plan right. Also... any recommendations for tidal pools that are closer? We chose Tongue Point because it just looks like the best!
ReplyDeleteHi,
DeleteTongue Point does have great tidepools. My wife and I are going out June 23 also, but will be hiking in Olympics that day and camping at Tongue Point the 23rd and 24th. Low tide on 23rd is 8:18am as per NOAA tide tables. We have done the one day thing but prefer 2 or 3 days for a more relaxing trip. Seattle low tide is 11:22am on the 23rd. Constellation Marine Reserve in West Seattle just south of the Alki Lighthouse on Beach Dr SW has great intertidal life also and there will be beach naturalists from the Seattle Aquarium there to answer questions about marine life.......a good sleep in choice.
Happy tidepooling,
Buzz
Thanks so much for your reply! I really appreciate it. We've got the right time down-pat now. That's great to hear you're also venturing out to Tongue Point also! Maybe we'll see you there. We absolutely want to take a relaxing trip to Olympic but it might have to wait a bit. We're thinking about saving that for another low-tide occurrence and heading out to the Shi Shi Beach. We actually went to Alki a couple of weekends back and found Anemones, Sunflower Seastars and some other critters we're not too sure about. We weren't aware of the Marine Reserve. That sounds fantastic! Might do that as a back-up. Thanks again! :)
ReplyDeleteHey Buzz - speaking of small creatures, I've seen a ton of tide pool sculpins almost one inch long. They're all green, but I wasn't sure if they'd keep that coloring their entire lives since the adult sculpins seem to be the black variety?
ReplyDeleteWe're headed out to tongue point Sunday. Hopefully there will be a few unreservable campsites still available! Hope to see you and Gretchen there!
~ Deborah
Interesting question: I have seen many references to Tidepool Sculpin color change but none have been in the scientific literature. O'Clair and O'Clair "Southeast Alaska's Rocky Shores" states that they only see the green form in Southeast Alaska, which would lead you to think they don't change color. Hart "Pacific Fishes of Canada" mentions nothing about color change. Our local beaches are home to other small sculpins...like Smoothhead, Scalyhead, Sharpnose..the Sharpnose has no scales same as Tidepool but the Smoothhead and Scalyhead do have scales. So close examination of the fish can at least eliminate some choices.
ReplyDeleteOther actual research on the species suggests that they do not change color....but so far I have only found one reference addressing that.
We will be in campsite 50 the 23rd and 24th.