Olympic National Park by McNulty Tim

Author:McNulty, Tim [McNulty, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780295743271
Publisher: U of Washington Press
Published: 2018-09-15T05:00:00+00:00

Like virtually all seaweeds growing off the coast, the common kelp, feather boa, is an alga. Algae absorb nutrients from seawater and photosynthesize sunlight through their blades. Only a few marine plants, such as surfgrass and eelgrass, have roots, stems, and flowers. PHOTO BY JANIS BURGER.

One last seaweed, the rainbow, or iridescent, seaweed, deserves mention—not only for its abundance along rocky shores but for its sheer beauty. Its smooth, wide blades are coated with a lustrous cuticle, which imparts to this red alga a shimmering blue-green iridescence. Its rainbow colors shift with the angle of the viewer or as sunlight moves across the sky.

On the lowest of tides, kelp fronds drift on slack offshore waters, and creatures more common to the subtidal area sometimes make themselves known. On other explorations at very low tides I’ve been lucky enough to spot bright orange sunflower stars. Up to three feet in size and with as many as twenty-four rays, sunflower stars are the largest and fleetest of foot among the sea stars, and they inspire in their prey dramatic acts of escape. Scallops will clap their valves together frantically to swim away; large sea cucumbers have been known to “gallop,” and the common cockle will kick its foot in a rapid retreat across the substrate.

The smaller sun stars are a striking orange to rose color with gray or blue stripes extending from the center of their backs down the lengths of their ten rays. I find neither of those on this visit, but the much smaller blood stars are out and about, their five slender rays a brilliant orangered. Like brooding anemones, these sea stars share the unusual habit of brooding, or keeping their eggs with them, until they hatch.

I keep an eye over my shoulder, watching the two or three high rocks I used to skip across channels, making sure they’re still there for my retreat. Like darkness on a forest trail, the change in tide can come suddenly, often when I’ve got my face in a tide pool and my hind end to a wave. As the tide turns and I begin to retrace my route to shore, I find a giant Pacific, or “gum boot,” chiton—looking quite like the cast-off sole of an old rubber boot—clamped to the wall of a channel. Up to a foot or more in length (much larger and more leathery than the hairy and mossy chitons also found here), the gum boot is the largest chiton in the world and can live more than twenty years. As I hop and skip back to shore, I hear the clicking of crabs hidden beneath seaweeds—kelp crabs and other spider crabs no doubt, stealthily working their weedy worlds. Spider crabs such as the decorator crab adorn themselves with stuck-on bits of seaweed and shell. Hairy and helmet crabs sprout less elaborate growths of seaweed. No doubt all are grateful for the return of the tide and the departure of unwelcome visitors like me—turning over rocks, poking through seaweeds, and making a general nuisance of myself.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.