Buzz's Marine Life of Puget Sound

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Memorial Day Weekend 2013

Some of the lowest tides of the year made Memorial Day Weekend one of the best for tidepooling at the beach. Encounters with many pairs of mating crabs...Red Rock, Dungeness, Northern Kelp, and Helmet Crabs have made "Sex in the Seaweed" a good theme for current happenings at the beach. Schmitz Memorial Viewpoint park in West Seattle was the place for Sea Lemon sea slug viewing....with dozens out in the open...and lots of egg laying going on. Schmitz park has always rewarded me with views of the largest Sea Lemons I've ever seen.....up to 6 inches long....and not just one but a number that size later in the Summer....now they are rarely over 3 inches but growing quickly.
A very cooperative Bald Eagle was perched on a piling directly in line with Seattle's Space Needle making a photography stop mandatory. Two crows took turns dive bombing the rather unimpressed eagle....so the crows left and returned with 6 of their friends and finally forced the eagle to head for a more peaceful perch.

Enjoy

Calcareous Tube Worm

Lined Chiton
Red Rock Crabs Mating below

Sea Lemon sea slug eggs

Mating Red Rock Crabs

Mottled Sea Star missing a ray

Piddock Clam siphon

Porcelain Crab

Pacific Sea Lemon

Monterey Sea Lemon (G. Frankenstein image)

Lined Chiton

Decorator Crab

Juvenile Sailfin Sculpin (G. Frankenstein image)

Helmet Crab

Helmet Crab blowing bubbles

New Species - Algal-tailed Geoduck :)

Bald Eagle and Crow

Bald Eagle and Space Needle

Bald Eagle and Crow

Bald Eagle and another Crow

and another

Etc.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Cascade Loop Spring Ride

The lack of good low tides and warm weather made the choice of a Cascade Loop ride perfect.
The Cascade Loop crosses the North Cascade Highway which opened only 2 weeks ago after removal of winter snow. The route follows the Columbia River in part and returns to Seattle via the Central Cascades.
A slight detour from the normal route takes you past Omak Lake...a saline lake 10 miles long and 325 feet deep which is home to large Lahotan Cutthroat Trout. Roads on weekdays are uncrowded...to empty, weekend fair weather increases the traffic. Along the route one passes through Winthrop WA, Electric City WA home of the Grand Coulee Dam, and along the route of the Columbia River during the last ice age where one can view what is believed to have been the largest waterfall on earth (Dry Falls).....3.5 miles wide and 400 feet high.
During the maximum flow the amount of water flowing over the fall was greater than the flow of all the rivers on earth today.
The Bretz Floods created the landscape known as the Channeled Scablands in Eastern WA. These floods, perhaps as many as 40 during the last ice age were the result of ice dams collapsing and releasing vast amounts of water from glacial Lake Missoula. These floods which ended some 13,000 YBP are the largest known floods in the Solar System. There are considerable references to these floods on the Internet...just search Bretz Floods or Lake Missoula.
For anyone visiting Seattle during the time when the North Cascade Highway is open....usually mid-Spring, through October...I highly recommend this road trip which can easily be accomplished in 3 days at a moderate pace.....520 miles total.

Large Basalt boulders dropped by the Bretz Flood waters near the Columbia River . The largest one is house size.

Along Banks Lake in the Grand Coulee

Columbia River from the Columbia River Road near Omak WA.

Omak Lake - saline lake from the Columbia River Road

Electric City - Banks Lake - Sky Deck Motel back yard

Steamboat Rock and Banks Lake

Whitehorse Mt. Darrington, WA

Along the Columbia River Road

Methow River Winthrop WA

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Harbor Porpoise Strands on Alki Beach

On May 1, 2013 a male Harbor Porpoise was found dead on Alki Beach in Seattle WA. The individual was 4 ft. in length which is about the minimum size for a male that has reached sexual maturity, so this may have been a juvenile. Maximum size is around 6 feet, with females being slightly larger than males.

Food consists of small fish and squid with some shrimp.

The porpoise had some trauma to the area just forward of the tail. One eye was missing due to scavenging likely by gulls. The body was taken to Cascadia Research Collective for necropsy.

Harbor Porpoises are found the both the North Pacific and North Atlantic as well as the Mediterranean.

Puget Sound is a normal area for Harbor and Dall's Porpoise. Since the 1960's Harbor Porpoise have been absent from Central and South Puget Sound but during the past few years have been returning to the area.

Dall's Porpoise, which were relatively common in Central and South Puget Sound, now are seen less frequently. The reason for the possible switch is unknown. The ranges of these two porpoises overlap in Puget Sound. The last population surveys were a decade ago with an estimated total of 10,000 animals in Washington inside waters.

For more information:

http://www.cascadiaresearch.org/Statement%20on%20Salish%20Sea%20Harbor%20Porpoise%20Research%20Needs.pdf

Harbor Porpoise Male

Teeth

Harbor Porpoise Alki Beach

Harbor Porpoise

Anus left, genital slit middle, umbilical right

Trauma right side forward of tail flukes

Genital Slit

Trauma to left side forward of tail flukes

Left eye missing - likely gull scavenging

Left Side

Blowhole

Right eye and teeth

Location on Alki Beach of Harbor Porpoise

Saturday, April 27, 2013

SPRING IS IN THE AIR.....AND ON THE BEACH. Updated 5-1-13

Long hours of daylight.....mind you, I didn't say sunlight...that would be a lie (this is Seattle after all), encourages the rapid growth of seaweeds and reproduction in all kinds of marine animals on our local Washington beaches. Enjoy your season....Spring or Fall depending on where you reside.
Some images of action on the beach and other things....new images added 5-1-13