On even a short beach walk, you can expect to discover interesting items among the sea wrack. You will find seaweed cycles and floats and bottles from distant places if you walk enough. You’ll find lost gear and pelagic oddities rarely seen on the shore. Everything that washes up has a story to tell, and the more you listen, the more rewarding beach walks become. I’m sharing a few images from the 2021 wrack line that might stimulate your interest in sea wrack and its stories.
Sea palm, Postelsia, is lovely, even in the drift. (In life, they perch on exposed rocks where they bow and bob in the powerful surf and surge.)
Clik here to view.
Signs of life.
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Clik here to view.
Bleached and beautiful, long-dead thatched barnacles (left) and flat-tip piddocks (right) arrive on beaches in the drift.
Clik here to view.
Clik here to view.
The summer Dungeness molt is a big occasion on Pacific Northwest beaches.
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Anticipation.
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Cycle of life.
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Sea wrack has a story to tell.
Clik here to view.
Clik here to view.
Surf zone scenes.
Clik here to view.
Clik here to view.
Styrofoam floats still wash up on the beaches.
Clik here to view.
If you’d like to see more washed up scenes from 2021, go to Wrack Line 2021. For more, you can find sea wrack galleries going back to 2012 on my Wrack Line page.
Here’s to great beachcombing in the year ahead!