I saw two sea stars and both were in the intertidal zone, they were just on different horizontal points. Ochre sea stars are very important, matter a fact they're keystone species. Which mean that if Ochre sea stars are hurting, everyone in their neighborhood is hurting so it really important to keep tabs on them if we want to know how our puget sound is doing. They're consumers so they also help maintain populations of organisms they consume under control. The most interesting thing I saw was a thin snake like fish which I was like 100% sure little snake fish bud was alive, but then Riley killed my dreams and pointed out just how 200% dead it was so that was a bummer. Another bummer was that one of the sea stars had the sea star wasting disease. You could clearly tell it was sick, its color was almost completely faded, one of its arms tissue was deteriorating, and compared to the other guy this one just looked terrible. I did not learn anything that changed my perspective about the coast of the Pacific Northwest, I continue to think its beautiful and that we should put more effort in maintaining it that way with life and low pollution. Question: If we could calculate how much life and habitat destruction little kids are responsible in beaches or tide pools, about how much would you think it would be? and if we already do, how much it is?
Most likely the little fish in the water are Gunnels. 🐟 I saw a lot of marine organism abuse by little kids... but I think adults do far more destruction in terms of habitat destruction, pollution, and ocean acidification!
ReplyDeleteThat is one fun colored starfish, I did not see one that bright, I did see a orange one but not a bright purple. I wonder if the purple color is actually helping that starfish to blend in, or maybe it is serving another purpose?
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