Crabby Monday - Bone Crushers
Welcome to the second Tides and Trails installment of Crabby Monday! Pacific shores are stalked by the Pacific Rock Crab, Cancer...
Golden Vessels from the Sea
This shiny vessel from the sea is a mermaid’s purse—a capsule for the eggs of the big skate (Raja binoculata). Sharks also make mermaid’s...
Glowing Strands of Strangeness
Strange creatures have been washing up on the shores of Cannon Beach. Several gelatinous species have stranded recently, including the...
Unknown Artists of the Ocean
Tidepools along the Pacific Coast, and throughout the world, are painted with the vivid pink of coralline algae. This plantlike organism...
Stinging Christmas Trees
This “Christmas tree” attached to kelp that washed up on the beach is an animal colony known as a hydroid. Though they look like plants,...
Crabby Monday - Lined Shore Crab
Welcome to the first Tides and Trails installment of Crabby Monday! The Lined Shore Crab (Pachygrapsus crassipes) skitters sideways and...
Cyclical Salmon
Yesterday I saw spawning salmon skittering through the shallows of a creek. I watched a spent fish tumble downstream, its decomposing...
Shark Attack!
My wife, Amy, texted me a picture of a mangled creature she came across when she was running at dawn on Crescent Beach. It looked like an...
Searching for Coral
I have yet to find orange cup coral in my backyard tidelands. I’ve wanted to see this colorful coral of the cold Pacific ever since I...
The Unusual Suspects
When I go tidepooling I expect to see anemones and crabs, starfish and sculpins. I hope to spot a nudibranch species that’s new to me,...
