Wrack Line 2020

October 17, 2020

  • Trail through an Ammophila monoculture to the beach
    What treasures await?
  • Freshly beached specimen, upside down, on clean wet sand
    Chrysaora fuscescens, Pacific sea nettle
  • Freshly beached specimen, right side up, on clean wet sand
    Aurelia aurita, moon jelly
  • Surfgrass, mole crabs, and a white feather on clean wet sand
    Different ecosystems come together in sea wrack
  • Freshly dug burrows is clean sand
    Beach hopper diggings
  • Old growth stump high on the beach. View out to the surf zone
    An old friend
  • Pelagic barnacles on a fairly small diameter drift log
    Lepas (Anatifa) anatifera, pelagic gooseneck barnacles
  • Just a trace of a bull kelp stipe left behind by hoppers diggings
    Beach hoppers make short work of a bull kelp stipe
  • Mytilus trossulus, blue mussels, on a drifted piling
    Death in the drift
  • Just a claw on clean dry sand, surf zone and a headland in the background
    Dungeness pinching claw
***

August 20, 2020

  • Right side up molted carapace on wet sand
    Dungeness crab carapace
  • Molted main body and legs on wet sand
    Dungeness molt?
  • Upside down carapace on wet sand
    Dungeness carapace
  • empty shell on wet sand. There might be a bore hole on the visible valve.
    Siliqua patula, Pacific razor clam
  • Two valves, still connected, showing a lot of blue beneath the periostracum, which is mostly eroded. On wet sand.
    Drifted Mytilus californianus, California mussel shell
***

August 19, 2020

  • View as the trail drops down onto the beach.
    Sea wrack treasures just ahead
  • Big drift log with lots of large pelagic goose barnacles
    Hitchhikers | Lepas (Anatifa) anatifera
  • A small drift mass with all the usual stuff, surfgrass, seagrass, crustacean shells, and feathers
    Wondrous sea wrack
  • Dungeness crab pinching claw
    Pinching claw | Metacarcinus magister
  • Freshly dead razor clam, empty shell on the wet sand
    Razor | Siliqua patellae
  • Six thatched barnacles partially buried in sand
    Thatched barnacles | Semibalanus cariosus
  • California mussel shell, both valves
    Drifted from the rocky intertidal | Mytilus californianus
  • Sea wrack, full of diversity
    Lots to identify here
  • A molted carapace, top side up, with a couple nice barnacles on it
    Dungeness carapace | Metacarcinus magister
  • Bleached test, oral surface facing up
    Oral surface | Dendraster excentricus
  • Just a salmon-colored exoskeleton on wet sand
    Exoskeleton | Emerita analoga
  • washed up with some surfgrass
    Moon jelly | Aurelia
  • An epiphytic coralline on seagrass
    Melobesia on drift Phyllospadix
  • Just a drift mass of surfgrass with some Fucus and Sargassum
    You never know what you’ll find in the sea wrack
***

July 14, 2020

  • Molt of the hind part of the shrimp on wet sand
    Smooth bay shrimp molt | Lissocrangon stylirostris
  • About a 12" of trail, fairly close up, on wet sand
    Pacific mole crab trail | Emerita analoga
  • A small tangle of drifted surfgrass on wet sand
    Drift surfgrass, Phyllospadix
  • Carapace, right side up, on wet sand
    Molted Dungeness carapace | Metacarcinus magister
  • Molted exoskeleton, sans carapace
    Dungeness crab molt | Metacarcinus magister
  • A single stipe and blade on wet sand
    Laminaria sinclairii
  • Gruesome scene on wet sand. Dead female left behind with only its eggs eaten
    Birds excavate female Emerita to eat only their eggs | Detached telson, upper right
***

July 13, 2020

  • Trail down to the beach, thru the beachgrass on a sunny morning. Narrow bank of offshore clouds, dissipating.
    Tideline treasures just ahead
  • Freshly washed ashore, the barnacles are good-sized and in good shape. Bright sunlight
    Pelagic goose barnacles, Lepas anatifera, on a drifted log
  • The whole thing, not super fresh, on wet beach sand in bright morning sun.
    Drifted Alaria marginata
  • Carapace, right side up on wet sand in bright morning sunlight
    Molted Dungeness crab carapace | Metacarcinus magister
  • Kind of close up view of the whole exoskeleton. Looks like the crab just stepped out of it's old exoskeleton
    Fresh Dungeness crab molt | Metacarcinus magister
  • Mostly fragments of mole crab molts.
    Mostly crustacean molts in night’s tideline
  • Looking down on 2/3 of a fired egg jellyfish. This one looks a lot like a fried egg with a broken yolk. On wet sand with bright sunlight.
    Fried egg jelly fragment | Phacellophora camtschatica
  • A kind of oblique view of the top of a whole, and quite fresh, fried egg jelly on wet beach sand.
    A good-sized jellyfish |Phacellophora camtschatica
***

July 7, 2020

  • Gentle paved trail to the beach
    What finds await in the sea wrack?
  • Last night's tide doesn't have much material. Mostly small fragments from crustacean molts
    Fifty paces down the beach, a clean tide line
  • Just a small drifted eelgrass plant on wet sand
    Drift eelgrass, Zostera
  • Bleached test with a broken down center on wet sand
    Broken down sand dollar test, Dendraster excentricus
  • Just a little round show (no snail) on wet sand
    Purple olive show, Callianax biplicata
  • An unfamiliar dichotomously branching brown
    A sea wrack mystery turns out to be Dictyota
  • Dead female mole crab on wet sand. A bird has eaten its eggs and left the rest
    Unfortunate female mole crab, Emerita analoga | Birds key in on the eggs (only a remnant remains)
  • Jelly fragment on wet sand
    Sea nettle fragment, Chrysaora fuscescens
  • Looking down on the crab molt on wet sand
    Female Dungeness molt, Metacarcinus magister
  • A diverse clump of sea wrack on wet sand- lots of dead and drifted stuff
    A sea wrack treasure trove
***

July 6, 2020

  • Not much drifted material 50 paces down the beach
    A fairly clean tide line
  • Kind of a close up on molted barnacle feeding appendages.
    The molt is on | Barnacle feeding appendages
  • intimate view of the molted carapace
    Molted Dungeness carapace, Metacarcinus magister
  • A left-eyed bloke on wet sand
    A stranded pleuronectid | Starry flounder? Curlfin turbot?
  • Pacific mole crab molt on wet sand
    Mole crab molt, Emerita analoga
***

January 26, 2020

  • Large (like maybe 2 gal) white plastic jar
    Lost jar
  • Aging styrofoam net float among cobbles
    Fishing float
  • Lid to a white plastic bait jar
    Bait jar lid
  • Just a lone drifted patch way up in the cobbles; surf zone in the distance. Moody morning in the cobbles
    Drift surfgrass
  • Drift bull kelp way up on the high cobbles. Surf zone off to the upper left
    Drift bull kelp
  • Shotgun shell wad
    The wad
  • White plastic bait jar on high cobbles
    Bait jar
  • Close up of fresh branch tip on dry cobbles
    Sitka spruce branch tip
  • Approx 1 pint (.47 qtr) translucent white plastic squirt bottle, on high cobbles
    Lost squirt bottle
  • line of drifted wood on high cobbles along the base of a cliff; surf zone and spruce forest off to the left
    Wrack line
  • A large solo pelagic goose barnacle on a white plastic fragment. I wonder what its story is
    End of the drift
  • Glassy tubeworm casings on wet sand
    Tubeworm casings, Spiochaetopterus costarum
  • Lost pink plastic pony
    Pony
  • Lots of small stuff washed up, plastic fragments, hurdles, feathers, tubeworm casings, forest fragments
    Dirty drift
***

January 25, 2020

  • Atop the foredune on the trail to the beach. Surf zone just in view over an Amophila monoculture
    Any treasures waiting down on the beach?
  • Driftline mostly small brown plant material. There's a short piece of blue nylon cord too,
    Typical January drift- lots of terrestrial material
  • A rock jammed into the base of drifted tree of piling (hard to tell)
    A lot of force went into this
  • Drift bull kelp, one long stipe with the float in the foreground. Blades eroded away.
    Bull kelp, always a photographer favorite
  • Just the root nubs poking out of the sand; surf zone in the background
    Upside down drifted stump, exposed
  • Bleached white lower jaw bone on sand, I think
    Bony fish jaw?
  • Old growth stump, right side up, surf in the background, moody skies
    Drifted stump, its base extends deep into the sand
  • large drift log, the base pointing up toward the foredundune
    Big wrack
  • Purplish carapace fills most of the frame, on wet sand
    Dungeness carapace
  • Blue plastic wall anchor with a couple barnacle hitchhikers
    Plastic wall anchor with barnacles
  • Inside surface of a broken California muscle shell and some bubbles. Both emit a rainbow of colors.
    The fire inside
***


This page was updated on April 14, 2021