Shoreline Outing Reports: Oyster Bay, May 8th, 2019

Betty Brooks led a great outing around Oyster Bay Shoreline Park last Wednesday. We got a bit of history, a bit of botany and a lot of interesting invertebrates, including an octopus. Species list to the best of my recollection and notes follow below. Thanks again to Betty for leading and sharing all her knowledge about the park and its biota.

The group was surprised to see a giant octopus withering on the sand flat. There were hints of an active nervous system so we attempted to take it to cooler, open water. Lest this was a particularly slovenly octopus that practiced self-desiccation, it seems we caught it at the end of it’s life as there was no reviving it. This species can grow to more than 50 kg and up to 6 m wide. We saw what was presumably a juvenile octopus, weighing maybe 5kgs and measuring maybe 1m across in life.

The sea slugs are perhaps the most tropical element of our local shorelines. Their dramatic forms, colours and patterns can stand out. We saw three different nudibranchs: (1) The hum-drum Barnacle nudibranch, laying thousands of eggs on the bottom of a wood piling. (2) The colourful Taylor’s Sea Hare (right image), which grazes the eel grass. (3) Ian G. put in the extra time to identify the spectacular 3″ long Dendronotus iris (left image). He sent a great photo and noted that this nudibranch likes to graze on the green burrowing anenome (Anthopleura artemesia), which we also saw.

Species Seen (please email with corrections and additions)

Species List- Oyster Bay Shoreline Park, May 7th, 2019
Plants
Deltoid Balsamroot		Balsamorhiza deltoidea
Strawberry		Fragaria sp.
Biscuitroot		Lomatium nudicaule
Red-stemmed spring beauty		Claytonia rubra
Eelgrass		Zostera marina
Seaweeds
Ribbon Kelp		Alaria marginata
Bull kelp (growing off piling)		Nereocystis lutkeana
Sea Lettuce		Ulva sp.
Porphyra		Pophyra sp.
Rockweed		Fucus distichus
Polysiphonia		Polysiphonia sp.
Smithora		Smithora naiadum
Worms
Tubeworm		Serpula columbiana
Clamworm		Nereis sp.
Jointed Tube Worm		???
Spaghetti worm		Thelapis sp.
Anemones
Burrowing Anemone		Anthopleura artemesia
Plumose Anemone		Metridium sp.
Crabs
Graceful rock crab		Metacarcinus gracilis
Northern Kelp Crab		Pugetta producta
Echinoderms
Brittle star		Amphiodia sp.
Eccentric Sand Dollars		Dendraster excentricus
Molluscs
Barnacle Nudibranch		Onchidoris bilamellata
Taylor’s Sea Hare		Phyllaplysia taylori
Dendronotus		Dendronotus iris
Moonsnail		Neverita lewisii
Olive Snail		Olivella biplicata
Bubble Snail		?
Sand clam		Macoma sp.
Gaper		Tressus sp.
Eel grass limpet		Lottia alveus
Fish
Tidepool Sculpin		Oligocottus maculosus
Sanddab		Citharichthys sordidus