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A View From the Wrack Line (2015)

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Walking the beach, down in the swash or up in the wrack line, I’m wondering what the rivers, currents, winds, and surf will bring to my home beaches. This year the drift was full of treasures. Some had human origins, and there were lots of items from marine and terrestrial sources too. Lots of carcasses, of course. Anything that washes up has a story. Here’s a sample of photos from my Wrack Line  2015 page illustrating what caught my attention in 2015.

Know your bony fish anatomy? Western grebe Crab buoy Spotted ratfish Black-legged kittiwake By-the-wind sailor, Velella velella American shad, Alosa sapidissima Egregia meziesii stipe with floats Peanut worm? I would be grateful for any thoughts about what this is - from a summer beach cast event Small pelagic goose barnacles on a Macrocystis blade Shell barnacles on a Cancer productus carapace Macrocystis has a float at the base of each blade Stowable wheeled bed Surfgrass, Phyllospadix Taking the beach Common murre Larval stage, Thinopinus pictus, "see ya" Mola mola Sitka spruce cone Cormorant Dungeness crab carapace Lot of of greedy ravens left those tracks Beach hoppers rejoice - a drift line dominated by eelgrass, Zostera Dunegrass, Elymus mollis, creeping down off the foredune onto the backshore Cellophane tube worm casings, probably Spiochaetopterus costarum

That’s a glimpse of the 2015 wrack line though my eyes.

If you know what the pink worm-like creature is, please let me know. If you know somebody who might know, please share it around with my contact information; I’d really like to find out more about it. Only about 4 – 4.5 cm long, they appeared by the 1000s in beach cast events in northern Oregon and Washington this summer. Thanks



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