About theoutershores

Steve Morey (he/him) here. I started theoutershores because my thoughts about nature on the exposed beaches of central and northern Oregon needed curating. I call it theoutershores because that describes the surf-swept shores of my home beaches and it describes exposed shores anywhere. I hope my words and photos have meaning to people who love beaches…

A Variety of Intertidal Life

In the pages that follow, you’ll find my photographic take on lots of lots of common intertidal species and their habitats. My home beaches are in northern Oregon. If an image comes from elsewhere, I note it in the caption. There are a lot of gaps in my coverage. I only post what I find…

Wrack Line

Wrack Line through the Years– There are always interesting things washing up on the shore. Sea wrack is made up of dead sea life and plants and animals that have drifted in from sister ecosystems, the estuaries and the maritime forest. The other thing you’ll find in sea wrack are items of human origin, fishing…

Designs in the Drift

By: minustide November 14, 2021

Photo Challengebeaches, intertidal, Lens-Artists, Oregon coast, sea wrack, seaweed, wrack line5 Comments

One morning this past summer, I picked drifted kelp out of the sea wrack and spread it on clean beach sand to show the designs. Folks know the three kelps shown below as tree, split, and dense-clumped—names that more or less describe their body plans. So you probably won’t have much trouble matching the names…

Keep Walking, On the Northern Oregon Shore

By: minustide August 30, 2021August 30, 2021

Photo Challengebeaches, intertidal, Lens-Artists, Oregon coast, tidepools7 Comments

I’ve tried to find a Keep Walking vibe in these photographs; that’s my intent, anyway. So I invite you to look and be the judge. The south wind at my back was kicking up sand and pushing me along. Here was a gap to scramble through, even though the headland in the distance blocked my further passage…

One Photo Two Ways: Ahnfeltiopsis and Phaeostrophion

By: minustide June 29, 2021June 29, 2021

Photo Challenge, seaweedAhnfeltiopsis, beaches, intertidal, Lens-Artists, Oregon coast, Phaeostrophion, PNW seaweed, tide pools3 Comments

Perspective is everything, so I’m taking this opportunity to show off two common Pacific seaweeds two ways. Both seaweeds favor sand-scoured settings on the open coast. A minus tide is not required to find them, but it helps, especially if you want to enjoy their charms at eye level. As suggested by the habitat description,…

Sunrise, and the moon's still up. View is out to sea, with the moon just above the horizon. Morning is just starting to glow and a gull in flight is just above the moon, flying northbound

Tide Pool Shades and Shadows

By: minustide June 14, 2021

Photo Challengeintertidal, Lens-Artists, northern kelp crab, Oregon coast, PNW intertidal invertebrates, Pugettia producta, shadows, surfgrass, tide pools5 Comments

Shades and shadows are both on display here, where the foreground is shaded, and shadows play in the background as morning sunlight rises above the tops of coastal conifers far behind me. It’s not unheard of to discover a kelp crab backlit and dangling from a drapery of sea cabbage, but it’s always a pleasure…

Focusing on the Details: Thatched Barnacles

By: minustide May 2, 2021

barnacles, Photo Challengeintertidal, Lens-Artists, Oregon coast, PNW intertidal invertebrates, Semibalanus cariosus, tide pools20 Comments

Dropping down on a new reach of shore is disorienting enough that it takes a while to shake it off. It’s not unusual to arrive with questions about how and where to proceed. (Most of these, with a bit of planning, can be answered in advance). Once I’m on a new shore, all preparation seems…

Meeting Melanosiphon

By: minustide March 14, 2021March 14, 2021

Uncategorized14 Comments

It was just over a year ago, on March 8, 2020, when I had a chance brush with Melanosiphon intestinalis. Being my first encounter, I was grateful, but even at the moment, it seemed this seaweed was past full prime. Below, in one of the first photographs I took, before I knew for sure what it…

Inching Up To a Delicate Red Seaweed

By: minustide January 11, 2021

Photo Challenge, seaweedintertidal, Microcladia borealis, Oregon coast, seaweed, tidepools2 Comments

There is enough variety among the small, branched, and somewhat similar tufted red seaweeds to keep them forever interesting. The reds I’m talking about are delicate and limp when exposed by low tide, which adds difficulty in observing the details of undisturbed tufts. On August 19, 2020, I inched up to Microcladia borealis (I’m pretty…

Scenes from the Northern Oregon Shore, 2020

By: minustide January 3, 2021January 4, 2021

Photo Challenge, Year End Recapbeaches, intertidal, Lens-Artists, Oregon coast, seascapes, tidepools19 Comments

January 25 January 26 March 8 March 9 July 6 July 7 July 13 August 19 August 20 October 17 Favorite Images of 2020

A Is for Anthopleura

By: minustide December 6, 2020

Anemones, Cnidaria, Photo ChallengeAnthopleura artemisia, Anthopleura elegantissima, Anthopleura xanthogrammica, intertidal, Lens-Artists, Oregon coast, sea anemones, tidepools20 Comments

Anthopleura xanthogrammica, giant green Anthopleura artemisia, moonglow Anthopleura elegantissima, pink-tipped green To see more images of these and a couple non-Anthopleura anemones, head over to my sea anemones page. An Alphabet Challenge–Subjects That Begin with the Letter A

On the Rocks: Now and Then

By: minustide November 25, 2020

Comparative Photos, Photo Challengeintertidal, Lens-Artists, Oregon coast, Pisaster ochraceus, sea star wasting syndrome, starfish, tidepools, zonation6 Comments

It’s the setting, height, and shape that make the rock below an intertidal superstar. This surf zone heavy-hitter sits in an intertidal sweet spot where accessibility and rarely exposed lower reaches find the optimal balance. It’s a leviathan tall enough to support all the intertidal zones, and its steep broad faces impart visibility to the…