10 minute tour

I had 10 minutes to kill, and there was a dock handy. A wooden dock, with wooden pilings. I got three underwater photos before my time was up.

The dock next door has metal pilings; no critters. On wood, on the very first piling there was a big kelp crab.

Between two dock sections. A giant plumose anemone, and a bunch of mystery  stuff. The red line at top left looks like the open mouth of a scallop.

Feather duster tubeworms, red and white, plumose anemones, a sea urchin, a barnacle, mussel shell, and what looks like a crab inside a clamshell. And what's that red oval? Maybe a sea cucumber?

And no styrofoam! Around the commercial docks nearby, the water is full of styrofoam shreds.

I'll be back there ASAP. For longer than 10 minutes.

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Entre una cosa y otra, me quedaban 10 minutos libres. Y había un muelle a la mano. Un muelle de madera, con sus pilotes de madera. Y en esos 10 minutos, encontré animales en tres sitios.

1. En el muelle comercial a poca distancia, los pilotes son de metal. Y hasta ahora no les visitan las criaturas marinas. Aquí, en el primer pilote, vi un cangrejo "kelp" grande. 
2. Entre dos secciones del muelle. Una anémona plumosa blanca y un grupo de organismos "misterio". Creo que la linea roja al lado izquiedo es la boca abierta de una vieira.
3. Toda una comunidad de animalitos.  Gusanos plumeros tubícolas, rojo y blanco. Más anémonas plumosas, estas color café. Un erizo de mar, un bálano grande, mejillones, y algo que parece ser un cangrejito dentro de una concha de almeja. Y esa cosa roja, creo que puede ser una cucumaria.

¡Y no hay nada de poliestireno (unicel)!Alrededor del muelle comercial el agua está llena de fragmentos de esta materia.

Regresaré muy pronto, con tiempo para verlo todo.

Seaweed bouquet

I went to Brown's Bay to see what was growing under the marina this spring. This apparent impressionist painting is a community of seaweeds has settled on an underwater pipe, swaying in the current.

Red algae, green sea lettuce, mussel "teeth", and white anemones.

Did you find the mussel "teeth"? Look near the top. They're actually the scalloped edge of the fleshy mantle.

More underwater photos tomorrow.

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Fui a Brown's Bay para ver que está creciendo debajo de los flotadores de la marina esta primavera. Esta foto, que se parece a una pintura impressionista,  en realidad muestra una comunidad de algas marinas que se han adherido a un tubo bajo el agua en movimiento. Se ven aquí algas rojas, algas verdes "lechuga marina", "dientes" de un mejillón, y algunas anémonas blancas.

¿Encontraste los "dientes" del mejillón? Busca cerca del borde superior de la foto. Son los bordes ondulados del manto del animal.

Anémonas y más, mañana.

Underwater bouquet

Off the docks at Brown's Bay the other day, the wind was brisk and the water surface choppy, but in a few sheltered spots I could see the communities living on the underside of the floats.

Giant plumose anemone, Metridium farcimen.

The floats are blue plastic. And we're lookiing through the reflections of the structures overhead.

Anemones, seaweeds, worms, and jellies. Click to view full size.

And here's the same photo, annotated. The gunk may be sponges.  But I missed a limpet. Do you see it?

Kelp, anemones, mussels, limpets, and a glowing red worm. The greenish spikes are on sea urchins.

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En el muelle en Brown's Bay el otro dia, había viento haciendo olas, pero en algunos lugares se podía vislumbrar las comunidades que viven en la parte inferior de los flotadores. (Que son de un plástico azul.)

Primero: una anémona "emplumada gigante".

La segunda foto tiene toda una comunidad. En la siguiente, los habitantes tienen nombres. Hay anémonas, lombrices "plumero" (son rojos), otros lombrices en tubos, un par de medusas, varias especies de alga marina, y una masa que probablemente consiste en diátomos o si no, de esponjas. Y se me olvidó una lapa. ¿La ves?

En la última foto, aparte de todo lo anterior, hay un grupo de erizos de mar; son los que tienen las espinas verdes.

Just out of reach

I'm fascinated by the pool under the erratic boulder; I went back again today, and discovered new and amazing things again. More photos to be processed!

So far, I've not found the area dry, so all the photos (and what I saw) are warped under a hand's length of wind-blown water. Some look like abstract paintings:

A cozy home to assorted chitons, various anemones, starfish, encrusting pink algae, barnacles, whelks, and many hermits in smashed shells.

5 or more chitons here. Look for the reddish girdle, with a paler central oval. 

A sample red-girdled chiton, very tiny, found on a rock. 8 pale shell segments and a red-brown girdle.

Another of the black leather chitons. Several species live under this rock.

The view from the access point. The second erratic, where the pool is, is on the far, far right.

Today I walked around the point to a third, slightly smaller erratic, but couldn't quite reach it because the tide was too high, and I was keeping my so-called "waterproof" shoes dry. They can handle an inch of water, but no more, and it's a long walk back with squelchy socks.

Another day, another low tide. At least the weather is finally cooperating.

I brought home another Giant Pacific chiton, very dead; it's soaking now in hydrogen peroxide. If all works out, I'll eventually have photos of the internal shells.

Next: surprising anemones.