The aggregate anemone or Anthopleura
elegantissima is very common to the Puget Sound, especially near Seahurst
Beach. The anemone is of light yellowish-green color with purple tipped
tentacles. The base of the anemone is usually covered with small objects
such a s shell fragments to protect it while it is out of the water.
When the aggregate anemone is under water it waves its tentacles to catch its pray. Special cells called nematocysts assist by stinging pray.
The common form of reproduction among anemones is called budding. Budding is asexual and is most easily described as cloning.
The bat star or Patiria miniata is a unique sea star. It has a very rough dorsal surface. The bat star can be identified by the webbing between its arms. It will feed on other sea stars.
The Patiria miniata is used by scientists because it can reproduce throughout the year. Most stars con only reproduce in spring or summer.
Humans are the greatest enemy to the sea stars. They are collected for science and decoration purposes. Oyster farmers kill the stars found in their oyster beds. Oil spills and other forms of pollution kill many organisms including sea stars.
Mytilus edulis is better known as the blue or bay
mussel. It is about four inches long and two inches wide. It is a
very deep bluish purple color. Mussels will attach themselves with
their byssal threads to almost any surface including other mussels.
Blue mussels are filter feeders. Their main predator is the starfish who use their arms to pry shells open . Humans use muscles as food.
Muscles will reproduce to the point where they take over the whole beach if predators are removed. If this happens the marine ecosystem will be thrown out of balance.
Common barnacles are one of the most abundant
organisms on many beaches including Seahurst. Their scientific name is
Balanus glandula. They live attached to rocks in the mid and low tide
zones. Their shells are strong and usually sharp.
Barnacles are hermaphroditic. They cross fertilize eggs and then release them into the ocean. The eggs form into cyprid larva which attach to a rock where they will stay for the rest of their lives. Common barnacles tend to grow tall opposed to wide because of crowding problems. They filter feed for plankton.
Cancer Magister is a crab commonly known as the
dungeness crab. It is between seven and nine inches wide and four to five
inches long. The top of this crab is reddish brown and the bottom is a
yellowish color. It lives all along the Pacific coast.
Dungeness crabs are very important commercial crabs, as are its close relatives C. irroratus, C. borealis, C. productus, and C. antennarius.
Dungeness crabs must shed their shells every time they grow. When they regrow their shells they have the ability to regrow lost body parts.
Heart cockles are in the family cardiidae.
They are much like both clams and scallops. The heart cockle or
Clinocardium nuttallii was commonly found on Seahusrt Beach in the summer of
1999, but not as commonly in the summer of 2000.
Cockles are edible, but presently are not abundant enough for a large commercial market.
The heart cockle's shell coloring is a mixture of reds, oranges, and whites. It is very strong. Cockles have short siphons. It usually buries itself in the sand below the low tide mark.
Pagurus samuelis is the scientific name for the hermit crab. They are found along the Pacific Coast from British Columbia to Mexico. They are about two cm wide and live in shells that have been deserted by other animals, usually Turban snails.
Hermit Crabs usually live on rocky beaches. They like kelp beds, tide pools, and rocks. When threatened they can pull into their shell. The females store their eggs inside their shells to protect them.
Hermit crabs are another misunderstood species. While many people say they are crabs, they are more closely related to shrimp.
Jellyfish are very unique animals. They are amoung the simplest animals on earth. They have no bones, no brain, no gills, no lungs, and no heart.
Jellyfish reproduce sexually and asexually. When the egg and sperm meet they grow into a larva which forms into a polyp which buds off new medusae. The medusae will grow until they are up to eight feet across.
Jellyfish drift through the water feeding on whatever they come across. Their most common food sources are plankton and small animals, but one has been found with a seal skeleton in its stomach. Jellyfish usually die within a year of their birth.
Pugettia producta or shield-back kelp crabs are very common in the Puget Sound. They can be found everywhere in the water between Alaska and Baja California. Adults live in kelp beds in the ocean. Immature kelp crabs live closer to the shore near the low tide mark, sometimes in brown algae.
The kelp crab can be identified by its long narrow body. It has a very smooth looking appearance, but the back is often covered in barnacles. Its legs are long and skinny and made for grasping seaweed such as the kelp it lives in. The crab's claws are small in relation to its body, but are very powerful.
The world's largest moon snails are found in the Puget Sound. Moon Snails or Polinices lewisii live in round spiral shells. They live on sandy and muddy beaches. They are usually in the ocean in shallow areas, but sometimes they burry themselves in the sand.
Moon snails feed mostly on clams. They are known to destroy oyster beds while looking for them. When they find a clam they drill a hole into its shell and suck it out.
The main enemy of the moon snail is the twenty-rayed starfish. Many humans collect moon snails for their shells.
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Pisaster ochraceous is a sea star better known as
the Ochre Star or purple star. This sea star is one of the most popular
sea stars because it is fairly common and easy to collect. One thing many
people don't realise is that the purple star is sometimes orange.
The Pisaster ochraceous has a network of spines on its dorsal side which create many groves. This sea star along with a few others possess the talent to turn their stomachs inside out and indert them into a bi-valve shell. The Pisaster ochraceous can insert its stomach into a bi-valve shell open only .1mm.
Sea Cucumbers are strange looking animals. They have a tough, leathery, orange or red skin. It appears to have no skeleton, but it has a trace of one in its skin. The sea cucumber has the ability to expell its organs and then regrow them later.
Sea Cucumbers reproduce sexually. Most species release eggs and sperm into the ocean, but not all. The females of some species carry their eggs. In one species the young develop inside the mother.
On Seahurst Beach sea cucumbers can be found in crevices of the larger rocks.
The sea pen, or Ptilosarcus gurneyi, is only found sub tidally. It is orange and up to 50 cm long, but only half of which is above the sea bottom. The top half of the sea pen looks like a feather, which is how it got its name. The barbules are actually used for feeding; they contain polyps that capture small animals for food.
When the sea pen is disturbed, it pulls itself into the bottom of the ocean, forcing out all of the water inside of it. The sea pen is eaten by Armina californica.
The Leptasterias hexactis or six rayed star is a very small, dull colored sea star. It is typically under two inches across, but has been found up to three inches. This star's colorings are usually either lead gray, olive green, blackish, or dull pink. The easiest way to differentiate this star from others is the six arms.
The Leptasterias hexactis is unique because the females of this species broods her eggs until her young are old enough to live on their own unlike other species who release their eggs and sperm into the ocean.
The sun star or Solaster stimpsoni can be easily identified by the blue-gray stripe on its arms. It is also different from common sea stars because it has ten to twelve arms instead of the common five.
The sun star is in the Puget Sound, but is not commonly found by beachcombers because it is usually below the low tide mark.
The sun star reproduces sexually and the larva is free- swimming. The larva will eventually either be eaten by a fish or grow into a sea star up to fifteen inches across.
Vermillion Star or Equal Arm Starfish
Mediaster aequalis is the scientific name for the sea star commonly known as the equal arm starfish or the vermillion star. The name "equal arm starfish" comes from the fact that all of the star's arms are exactly equal. The name "vermillion star" comes from the star's dorsal side color. The star's ventral side is a pale orange.
Mediaster aequalis is one of the smaller sea stars ranging in size from three to seven inches. It is found on many types of beaches at very low tides. This species' range is from Alaska to southern California.