Carkeek Park

As I missed the visit with the class last week, I went to Carkeek Park during the weekend with a few friends. We had a lot of fun, enjoying the morning to do the job, and unpacking our picnic for lunch, before having a quick bathing under this beautiful sun.

They all helped me in the experiment, and I got the job done, as well as a few pictures of cool marine organisms.

Our favorite organism was this big purple starfish, that we found in the low-tide zone. We called it Patrick, like in Sponge Bob.

We were interested by capturing Patrick, as he unfortunately has 2 broken arms, which slowly seem to start growing back.

Patrick wasn't doing anything special, just staying on its spot. As we tried to touch him, his arms started to retract, so we let him on the floor and played the papparazzis.

Starfishes are an important keystone specie to the intertidal zone, as they are important predators that allow to regulate the overpopulations of other intertidal organisms as mussels for example.

I really enjoyed my day in Carkeek Park. That was the first time I went there, as well as my friends. I liked exploring the organisms at low-tide. It was pretty fun job to do, and we could observe many different species that we don't usually see. I enjoyed the transect job. That was the first time I did so, and learning about how biologists make an inventory of organisms in the intertidal zone was new and very interesting for me.

The Pacific Northwest is a very biodiverse, although fragile ecosystem that we all have to protect. It made me sad to see human garbage from plastic bags to shoes, left on this beautiful beach. Once more, it made me more careful and sensitive to the protection of this environment.

During our visit to Carkeek Park, my friends and I wondered why so many crab shells (just shells) were found on the high-tide zone. We wondered what's causing the death of so many crabs.