crabbycrew's Favorites

This was a surprise! At first I assumed that the volcano-shaped object inside this mussel was a barnacle. Not so. There's a young piddock, a boring clam, inside the "volcano" and it's the right size to have grown in there. As a larva, it must have landed on this mussel and bored into it. The mussel built up layers of shell around it as it grew. (So obviously the mussel was alive while it happened.) I didn't know this was possible. Bob Creek Beach.

Entrance hole is visible on the outside of the mussel shell. When initiated, the hole must have been pinprick size, but the mussel has been abraded.

Found in front of the rocky "wall" between the tidal flats and the ocean, southwest of the rocky cliff where the Spyglass restaurant is. The wall is full of holes where purple sea urchins reside at low tide.

I noticed that one sea urchin in the lower left of this picture seemed to have a round grey plastic circle attached to it. Perhaps a tracking marker of some kind?

The beach is partially accessible. You can park in the Spyglass restaurant parking lot (at risk of being towed?) and walk down a 50 foot stair case. You can also reach the same staircase from the Devil's punchbowl state parking lot. Follow B street north. B street curves west, and a trail is straight area. The trail is gravel and level. Take the trail, and turn left when you come to the paved road. Walk past the bridge and say hello to the muskovy ducks hanging out there. Walk past the Inn at Otter Crest's pool house, and look toward the left side of the parking lot for a sign for beach access. That path leads to the staircase to the beach.

The other option to access the beach from the devil's punchbowl parking lot is to follow A Street north. On the left, you'll notice a tidepool creatures sign. Take the trail that leads northwest. It is paved in sections, but erosion has caused sections of it to dip and crumble. The sections have gravel but are steep. The end of the trail is a 7' cliff. There is a dirt and rock path with wide stone foot holds, but it could be challenging for people with mobility issues.

Found in front of the rocky "wall" between the tidal flats and the ocean, southwest of the rocky cliff where the Spyglass restaurant is. The wall is full of holes where purple sea urchins reside. Red urchins are less common in this area than purple sea urchins.

The beach is partially accessible. You can park in the Spyglass restaurant parking lot (at risk of being towed?) and walk down a 50 foot stair case. You can also reach the same staircase from the Devil's punchbowl state parking lot. Follow B street north. B street curves west, and a trail is straight area. The trail is gravel and level. Take the trail, and turn left when you come to the paved road. Walk past the bridge and say hello to the muskovy ducks hanging out there. Walk past the Inn at Otter Crest's pool house, and look toward the left side of the parking lot for a sign for beach access. That path leads to the staircase to the beach.

The other option to access the beach from the devil's punchbowl parking lot is to follow A Street north. On the left, you'll notice a tidepool creatures sign. Take the trail that leads northwest. It is paved in sections, but erosion has caused sections of it to dip and crumble. The sections have gravel but are steep. The end of the trail is a 7' cliff. There is a dirt and rock path with wide stone foot holds, but it could be challenging for people with mobility issues.

Screengrab taken from video, Deep Ocean Engineering Phantom HD2+2 ROV (#428) on cruise PAC2011-062 on CCGS Tully. For more information contact the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Shellfish Data Unit 3190 Hammond Bay Road, Nanaimo, BC, V9T 6N7, telephone: +1

I am stumped on this one. The otter caught and is eating some kind of long, slender fish or eel. iNat wants to call it a gunnel, but as far as I can find, gunnel are much smaller. This fish, judging from the size of the otter (~1 meter), must be conservatively 60-80 centimeters long.

First wolf eel I've seen at this site but not sure if that's where it was actually picked up. The lingcod was getting hassled by kelp greenling for scraps and would move around to avoid them.

The wolf eel was still alive and totally exhausted, but it tried to reach back and strike the lingcod intermittently. I think this had been going on for quite some time. The lingcod didn't make any attempt to swallow it further during the two brief dives I had with them. A very slow way to die.

I found a head! Rose quartz-like teeth. Third photo is of the middle row of palate "molars." Last photo is not how I found it; I found it submerged in a tidepool and brought it to show everybody. Not smelly, but the flesh had a weird jello-like consistency. Full of tegulas and isopods that quickly exited the scene when we handled it. Maybe a discarded piece from someone fishing/poling at nearby Pillar Point?