Service Learning

                                                             (Purple Star)
        I infer that when I saw this organism, it was in the Middle Intertidal zone, just 15 or so feet from the sea. The Purple Star was laying on its underside in the wet sand, with all its legs stretched out. I think that the Purple Star's ecological role in the intertidal zone is consuming other predators in the intertidal zone, and in result keeping the intertidal zone ecosystem from changing drastically. The most interesting thing I saw on this trip to Carkeek Park was starfishes; this interests me because I did not expect that starfishes would be present in a partially urban environment such as the environment at Carkeek Park. Something I learned today that changed my perspective about the coast of the Pacific Northwest is that on Pacific Northwest beaches, the popular specie or species in one area may change as distance up the intertidal zone increases. One question that I came up with on my visit to Carkeek Park is, how does human activity at Carkeek Park affect starfishes at Carkeek Park?