2019 wrackline was full of drifted treasures. Some had human origins, others arrived from rocky intertidal, subtidal, pelagic, estuarine, and terrestrial sources. Unravelling the stories of marine drifters, at least trying to, is irresistible. Most of their stories will remain mysteries. That’s what keeps beachcombing compelling. Arranged chronologically below, starting with memories from last winter at the top, to recent scenes from a few days ago at the bottom, is a sampling of drifted discoveries that caught my attention in 2019. All these are from northern Oregon, unless noted otherwise in the caption.
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It wouldn’t be winter without drift bull kelp ![Plastic turtle]()
Couldn’t be farther from the real thing ![Sunset over the swash and waves beyond]()
The golden hour ![Drifted skate egg case on sand]()
Mermaid’s purse | big skate egg case ![Shell on sand, surf zone in the background]()
Cockle, Clinocardium nuttallii ![View from the upper beach to the foredune]()
Big wood at the base of the backshore shelf | vegetated foredune beyond ![Bleached bird skull]()
Why is decay so captivating? ![looking out to the surf zone through a man made hole in a drifted timber]()
My view through drifted timber ![My The North Face pack hanging off an upturned root, foredune being]()
My pack on the backshore, hanging around ![About a dozen creamy yellow vase-shaped eggs]()
Nucella eggs on a drifted mussel shell ![Bleached, fragmented shell on cause wet sand]()
Eccentric sand dollar ![Fresh redtail on the cobbles]()
Redtail surfperch | the gulls are going to feast ![Ivory-colored, in the cobbles]()
Shark tooth | a rarity ![Dungeness trap Up in the cobbles]()
Lost Dungeness crab trap ![]()
Race ends in a low intertidal boulder field ![Stipes and pneumatocyst in wet sand, intimate]()
Bull kelp ![Inside a drifted mussel shell fragment]()
There’s a little fire on the inside ![A few small stoned set it off on wet sand]()
Surfgrass ![Drift bull kelp in a stream draining the coastal mountains, view upstream to the forest]()
Remains of maritime Sitka spruce and bull kelp forests meet in the intertidal ![on wet sand]()
Drift Sargassum ![Intimate view of a fresh drift mass]()
Dreamy Macrocystis ![Drifted geen blades on wet sand]()
Eelgrass, Zostera ![baseball-sized, on sand]()
Drifted ostrich plume hydroid ![Drifted shells on sand]()
California mussel (left), flat-tip piddock (right) ![Cowboy barbie]()
A curious wrack line find ![Cigar-shaped blue float with Chines, Japanese, or Korean characters (I'm not sure), washed up among some mussel shells]()
Every lost float has a story ![Lot of washed up California mussel shells, possibly from a die-off]()
Remnants ![drifted on sand]()
Soranthera ulvoidea, an epiphyte on reds like black pine, Neorhodomela ![A drifted bare wreath with singed corn husks; a drifted gull feather on the corn husks]()
I have questions ![]()
Wrackline window ![On sand]()
A lovely drifted tellin ![]()
Crystal jelly, Aequorea ![]()
Pacific rock crab, Romaleon antennarium ![Megalorchestia californiana, back to wrestling]()
California beach hoppers, Megalorchestia californiana ![Dead shiner surfperch on a rock]()
Cymatogaster aggregata | Galiano Island ![drifted egg cases on sand, empty]()
Frilled dogwinkle egg cases, Nucella lamellosa, probably ![moon jelly on sand]()
Moon jelly ![Carapace, on sand]()
Drifted Dungeness ![Two similar drifted stumps, together on sand]()
Companions ![]()
Sea nettle ![]()
An acquaintance of mine ![]()
Fat gaper, Tresus capax ![]()
Drifted timber, up on the backshore
That’s a look at the 2019 wrackline. If you want to see more floats and buoys, drift algae, carcasses, bottles, driftline inhabitants, and other beached drifters, take a stroll through Wrack Line 2019 or any of my Wrack Line pages.