Cub Scout Pack 793 - 2007 Tide Pool Exploration Photos

2007 Tide Pool Exploration

Our Pack once again took advantage of one of the lowest weekend tides of the Summer and went to the Alki Beach Tide Pools to do some exploring. Our Pack was lucky to have an Environmental Marine Biologist and other tide pool veteran parents who came to help the Scouts identify plants and animals as well as volunteer beach naturalists from the Seattle Aquarium who were also on hand to help tide pool visitors. We met on the boardwalk where Alki Avenue meets Beach Drive, South of the light house and across the street from the Alki sewage treatment facility.

We started out by talking about the different tide zones and learning how to care for the creatures and their habitats during our visit. We decided to walk very lightly and carefully on the beach since all of the wildlife can be damaged by being stepped on. We learned to put all rocks back the way we found them since they are homes for the creatures that live on and below them. We also decided not to take any of the sea creatures home.

We found an amazingly varied and huge amount of creatures this year. Our rock turners uncovered barnacles, chiton, mussels, snails, limpets, Piddock clams, jingle-shell oysters, red, purple, and orange ochre sea stars, sunflower stars, sea cucumbers, anemones, sponges, tube, spaghetti, and scale worms, sharp-nosed, red rock, kelp, and hermit crabs, shrimp, cling fish, gunnels, midshipman, an English Sole, several kinds of nudibranch, lots and lots of kelp and sea grass, and we even had a run-in with a Pacific Red Octopus! Check out the cool wildlife findings below.

Lots of folks showed up for the low tide	We got right down to it
Some of our graduating Boy Scouts joined us	Our rock-turners are thorough
Each rock has the potential for an exciting find	Check this out!
A squirmy gunnel	I think this striped sun star is dead
I hope it doesn't pinch me	Eeewww!
Three Boy Scouts from Troop 282 joined in the fun	Scouts stopping for a photo
The Boy Scouts caught an English Sole	and eveyone was in awe
A sunflower star waving hello	Piddock clam
Kelp crab	Sharp-nose crab?
Cool-looking closed up anemone	Interesting formed sponge?
Blue topsnail	Wrinkled Amphissa snail?
Scale worm	Spaghetti worm
Sea cucumber	Purple ochre sea stars
Cling-fish	eggs?
A Plainfin midshipman and her eggs	We annoyed Momma...
Jingle-shell "rock" oysters	? chiton
Lined chiton	Lined chiton
Lined chiton	Orange spotted nudibranch and gumboot chiton
Orange spotted nudibranch	Cancer productus juvenile crab
Shaggy mouse nudibranch	Shaggy mouse nudibranch eggs
Sea lemon	Sea lemons
Sea lemons and sea cucumbers	Sea lemon eggs
Sea anemone	Sea anemone and gunnel
Pacific Red Octopus?	Pacific Red Octopus?
Don't play with octopi! They can bite with their beaks and inject a toxin