Smith Island Sampling

Smith Island is the small island beyond Protection Island off Whidbey. Smith and Minor Island are connected by a beach at low tide. Like Protection, Smith now has a marine reserve status protecting the DNR owned sub-tidelands. On Friday a group of seaweed scientists all went out to Smith Island to make a permanent collection of who and what are living there.

This was our third attempt to go, and the weather was finally kind to us!

Dr. David Duggins took us out on the R/V Centennial from Friday Harbor Labs. Dr. Tom Mumford set up a video camera to record the seaweeds living on the

bottom. Next we towed a dredge

behind the boat while divers

carefully collected seaweeds that were more fragile.

This photo shows the basket full of seaweed being lifted into the sorting table.

Once the seaweeds are on the table, everyone gathers around, sorts the algae and calls off species names. Voucher specimens for pressing and microscope identification are collected into buckets and returned to the labs.

Dr. Bob Waaland is shown in this photo sorting through the many foliose reds like Cryptopleura.

One thing that is immediately notable from dredge samples is that the algae on the bottom is mainly red!

The way the light penetrates down to through the water and attenuates away red and yellow wavelengths favors pigments that can capture energy in the blue and green spectrum.

Fucus in the bathtub

This past week was an exciting one. The Phycology Society of America had it's annual conference in Seattle. Along with the excitement of giving a talk about genetic diversity of Heterosigma, learning from other talks about seaweed ecology, seeing old friends, and making new ones; we discussed changing the society's name. My favorite so far is 'Premier Studiers of Algae,' which my mother rejoices over. Apparently, I sometimes mis-pronounce 'phycology.' I accidentally become obscene when my 'fy' sounds like 'fu'...

One of the highlights was a meal where every dish was prepared with seaweeds. I sat across from seaweed herbalists, Christine Hopkins, and Amanda Swinimer from Sooke. They told of wonderful effects of bathing with seaweeds, so I felt compelled to give it a try. Of course, last week, the kids gave me a seaweed/lavender facial so I felt game to give this next level in 'science immersion' a go. I collected drift Fucus from high tide, washed it off in the bay, and then plunked it into my tub. 'Fucus' is another algae word that can easily be mis-pronounced...

It turned out, Fucus in the tub was amazingly delightful. As I rubbed it over my arm, it left a lovely coating all over my skin. I felt like I was turning into a slimy salmon. Christine says Fucus goo also works wonders on a sunburn; much the same relief you get from fresh aloe.

Fucus is the lovely brown alga we often call rockweed, bladder wrack, pop-its, and deer toes. It grows high in the inter-tidal and will often dominate where a fresh water seep meets the beach. (like just west of the north shore boat ramps) Next time you are out walking the beach, pick a little bit up and give it a try. Sure beats a bubble bath!

Baby Bull Kelp in the wrong spots...

Poor baby bull kelp! They keep trying to grow in places that are simply too high on the beach. One good low tide on a hot day, or one good wind storm at low tide, and WHAMMO. They're done for. Nereocystis (bull kelp) floats along with all sorts of other unfortunate algae are all washed up along our shore lines after last week's low tide cycles.

Washed up seaweed is good news for sand fleas! Previously the sand fleas were all hungrily wondering when the manna (washed up seaweeds) was going to come. The good news is that sand fleas are named for their prodigious jumping skill and are not fleas and don't bite. Beach hopper

is a better common name for this group of amphipod crustaceans. The one pictured at right with big long antenna is named Orchestoidea californiana. (photo at right by Peter J. Bryant)

Orchestoidea are excellent food for small birds, raccoons, moles, and beetles. Those beach hoppers that are unlucky to be caught by the incoming tide seem like they would make excellent fish food. Walking the beach as the tide rises is really amazing because of all the wild gymnastics occurring near your toes.

So the next time you see that pile of seaweed at the high tide line, flip it over and be amazed by the detritivores hopping everywhere. (PS - they are safe to handle and often seen are mama's carrying their eggs).

Pick up the small plastic trash embedded in the poor kelp while you are at it!

Beach Clean-Up Time

The Fourth of July was amazingly beautiful. We were blessed with warm weather and clear skies. Beach walkers now get the fun job of ensuring all the firework waste gets picked up, so take a garbage bag with you and enjoy the cross training workout of squatting down to pick up plastics!

As everyone is sad to know... clams etc. are toxic these days. You'll have to go to other parts of the sound for your clam fix. There is also a large phytoplankton bloom in Discovery Bay right now that is turning the water brown. This bloom is the stuff I am studying (Heterosigma) and it doesn't make the clams and oysters toxic, it just kills the larvae. And fish! So don't bother dropping your pole in that area - fish with any sense will have moved to clearer waters.