Jellies, red and white

The tide was just off the peak when I stopped at Oyster Bay this afternoon. There was no wind and the waves, barely there, nibbled at the high tide line. A fair number of jellies had come in with the tide, still fresh and whole after their mating dance, but ready to call it a day and stay on the shore when the water left.

Lion's mane jelly, Cyanea capillata. This one was just over 30 cm. across, measured against my shoe, but without stepping in the water.

Moon jelly, Aurelia labiata. About 12 cm. across.

Empty sea, empty sky. A quiet afternoon.

I walked down the shore to the breakwater, across the dunes, around the lagoon, over the meadow and through the little wood. There were birds; photos tomorrow. And in the little wood, mushrooms. It was starting to rain again, but I managed to get a few photos before the camera got too wet.

A Skywatch post

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Cuando llegué a Oyster Bay esta tarde, la marea estaba a su máximo. No había ni un soplo de viento, y el agua reposaba tranquilo. Las ondas, apenas mereciendo el nombre, unos pocos centímetros de agua, temblaban al tocar la arena. Un buen número de medusas habían llegado con la marea, todavía frescas y enteras después de sus actividades reproductivas, pero listas para dejarse secar en la playa cuando se va el agua.

1. Una medusa melena de león ártica, Cyanea capillata. Esta medía un poco más de 30 cm., medida con mi zapato, pero sin meterlo en el agua.
2. Medusa luna, Aurelia labiata. Mide unos 12 cm. de diámetro.
3. Todo quieto, todo tranquilo.

Caminé por la playa hasta el rompeolas, cruzé las dunas, di la vuelta a la laguna, pasé por el campo abierto y me interné en el bosquecito. Y había pájaros; mañana subo algunas foto. En el bosquecito había hongos; empezaba a llover ya, pero saqué algunas fotos mientras no se había mojado mucho la cámara.

Un poste de Skywatch; ve a mirar fotos de cielos alrededor del mundo.

Under the donut shop

I took a short detour this afternoon, downtown, looping through a small dock area, peering between floats and under ramps.

Where the sun managed to reach, and where the waves stopped dancing, I caught a few glimpses of a vibrant community.

Plumose anemone, Metridium senile.

Back in the shade, there's a glassy bulb, possibly a tunicate. And a branch that may be a hydroid.

A small lion's mane jelly, Cyanea capillata

This was a youngster, only about a hands'-breadth across, and swimming actively, folding itself up, then opening again rhythmically.

Spreading out, heading under the wharf. With a green sea urchin.

On the bottom of a float (blue) and the pipes under a cabin.

So many critters! So many colours and shapes! I can't identify most of them, but there's a beautiful purplish feather-duster worm, limpets, orange and pink sponges, another plumose anemone, and something bright orange that may be the lips of a scallop.

And everywhere, there were tiny fish, breaking the surface so that it looked as if it were raining.

With the reflection of a donut shop.

Present, but too dark or too blurred by waves, hundreds of green sea urchins, mussels and barnacles, many orange starfish, a kelp crab and another two, too well hidden to identify, a fair number of chitons. And a kid fishing for shrimp. Who scared them all away.

Oh, and a big seal. Photos tomorrow.

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Tomé un desvío corto esta tarde. Pasando por el centro, di una vuelta por un pequeño muelle, buscando entre los flotadores y debajo de las rampas. Donde alcanzaba la luz del sol, y donde las olas dejaban de bailar, llegué a ver señas de una comunidad vibrante.

Fotos:

1.  Una anémona plumosa, Metridium senile. En la sombra hay algo que parece un foco; posiblemente sea un tunicado. Y lo que parece una rama de árbol puede ser un hidroide.

2. Una medusa melena de león, Cyanaea capillata. Muy chica aun; apenas medía unos 10 cm. Iba nadando, estirándose y encogiéndose repetidamente.

3. Aquí está estirada. Con un erizo de mar verde.

4. Debajo de un flotador (azul) y en la tubería debajo de una cabaña. ¡Tantas criaturas! ¡Y de tantos colores y formas! No puedo identificar la mayor parte de ellas, pero se ve un gusano plumero color mora, lapas, esponjas anaranjadas y color de rosa, otra anémona plumosa, y algo anaranjado brillante que posiblemente sean los labios de una vieira.

5. Y dondequiera había un banco de pececitos, tocando la superficie del agua hasta que parecía que estaba lloviendo. Aquí están unos con los reflejos de una tienda de donas.

También hubo, pero escondidos en lo oscuro, o borrosos bajo las olas, cientos de erizos de mar verdes, mejillones y bálanos, muchas estrellas de mar anaranjadas, un cangrejo "kelp" y otros dos, sin poderlos identificar por estar bien escondidas, y bastantes quitones. Y un muchacho que pescaba camarones. Los cuales se habían hecho escasos.

Y también una foca grande. Mañana subo las fotos.

Better late ...

Shut up in my house, without all the busyness that took up my time before the virus struck, I've turned to catching up on all those "when I get a round tuit" tasks. One has been sorting and culling over a decade's worth of photos on my hard drive.

I found these photos, taken in the Campbell River aquarium three summers ago, and never converted from the RAW files.

Lion's mane jellyfish

All the species in this aquarium are found locally and captured in the spring of the year. The lion's mane is commonly seen washed up on our beaches. Those long tentacles carry a sting; never pick up a lion's mane with bare hands!

Coonstripe shrimp, commonly found beneath the docks next to the aquarium.

Orange sea pen. This is a sub-tidal species.

This is not a single animal, but rather a colony of polyps arranged along a common stalk, the first polyp. (See Biodiversity of the Central Coast.)

Red sea urchin, on kelp.

At the end of the summer, all these critters were taken back to their respective homes and released.

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Ahora que estoy encerrada en casa, sin todos los compromisos que me mantenían ocupada en los dias "antes del virus", he vuelto a todos esos quehaceres que había dejado para mas tarde. Uno de estos es revisar y seleccionar las fotos guardadas desde hace hasta diez años en la computadora.

Encontré estas, tomadas en el acuario local hace tres años, y abandonadas desde ese dia.

La primera es una medusa melena de león, muy común en nuestras aguas. Esos tentáculos llevan nematocistos venenosos. Nunca hay que tocar una des estas animales con las manos sin protección.

La segunda es un camarón rayado; estos viven debajo del muelle al lado del acuario.

La tercera foto es una pluma marítima; se encuentran debajo del nivel de la marea. No es un solo animal, sino una colonia de pólipos.

Y la cuarta es un erizo de mar rojo.

Todos estos animales fueron capturados en los alrededores de esta ciudad en la primavera. Cuando se cierra el acuario para el invierno, se les regresa a su lugar de orígen.

Stones and jelly

Stones under water:

Near the high tide line, Boundary Bay

Stones under jelly:

Lion's mane jelly, Cyanea capillata. A small one. The first I've seen washed up this year.

It's the end of the Lion's Mane's life cycle; they've raised their young, and now they drift, dying, onto the nearest beach.

The female jellyfish carries its fertilized eggs in its tentacle where the eggs grow into larva. When the larva are old enough, the female deposits them on a hard surface where the larva soon grow into polyps. (Wikipedia) 

The jellyfish are pelagic for most of their lives but tend to settle in shallow, sheltered bays towards the end of their one-year lifespan. (

The top few metres of the intertidal zone along the southeastern coast of Boundary Bay are stony and a bit steep (in comparison to the rest of the tidal flat plain.) Jellyfish that get tossed up here are often shredded before they arrive. I must go down to the flatter shore east of White Rock, to see how many are coming in this year.

Tangled jelly

The tide was at its peak in Boundary Bay and had brought in a number of lion's mane jellyfish. They lay, drying and shrinking, on the roll of brown eelgrass, or disintegrated as the waves scraped them across rocks.

We found one a few feet away from the shore, apparently still alive, floating in about 6 inches of water. And I had the underwater camera with me; I held it down on the rocks to get a view of the underside of the jelly.

Lion's Mane, Cyanea capillata,  mirrored on the undersurface of the water. The upper and lower skins of the "umbrella" are visible.

The tangled mass is made up of the four oral arms (mouthparts). The stinging tentacles are thin and silvery; I barely see a hint of them here.

Top view. 

The lion's mane has eight lobes, clearly marked in this one by the pinkish Vs at the inner curves and the tips of rays at the widest points. Each of those Vs is a rhopalium:

The rhpoalia (singular rhopalium) are the small pink structures, 8 in number in our model, which can be seen located around the bell margin at regular intervals, between lappets. These are sensors. Each rhopalium contains a gravity sensor, which allows the jellyfish to tell which way is up and which way down, and to know how much its body is tilted. These organs may also contain what look like olfactory (smell) sensors and in some species each rhopalium has a tiny eye. These eyes may be simple light sensors, or they may be complex eyes equipped with a lens. Some jellyfish do not have eyes, but even these can detect light by other means. (From Cronodon.com.)

Around the center mouth is a crown-like rim. Just outside that, if you look closely (or click on the photo to see it full-size), you can see the rings of muscles that close and open the bell.