Spawing sea stars , octopus, minus tide at Roads End 4/18

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pdxgene
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Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm

Spawing sea stars , octopus, minus tide at Roads End 4/18

Post by pdxgene » April 18th, 2014, 2:34 pm

There was a pretty good minus tide scheduled for a bit before 10a this morning and a nice day looming so I took off for Lincoln City a bit before 7 to check it out. I thought I might have to title this 'bloodbath on the beach' looking at these first two but it seems this is how sea stars spawn. Something that I'd certainly never seen before...
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When the sun hits at just the right angle you get a bit of that neon blue bioluminescence on the kelp
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Lots of these little fish in the tidepools too..
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Hermit crab in shell..
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Green anenomes
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Another hermit crab (there were tons of them in all kinds of shells)
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I guess this is hiding in plain sight.. :?
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First good look at the octopus but he was fast and I wasn't ready..
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But after another half hour or so he decided to slowly inch back out of his spot under the rocks
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A little closer while trying not to spook him..
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Almost out..
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Just amazing colors on this one..
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And heading back in.. Show is over..
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Hitching a ride on a sea star.. or maybe just crossing over?
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Looking north to where the tidepools are
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Some of the sea foam..
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I have no idea who these people are but it wasn't even noon yet and that water had to be freezing!
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Finishing up with some of the sand patterns..
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These last two are just under the rushing water (woulda been better on video..)
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Pretty cool stuff out there today. From the parking lot it is 1.4 miles north to the tidepool area. You can also go south from the lot three miles of beach until you get to the "D" River so it's a chance to get in 9 miles of beach walking too.
Album is here http://picasaweb.google.com/pdxgene/RoadsEndbeach12

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UTurn
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Re: Spawing sea stars , octopus, minus tide at Roads End 4/1

Post by UTurn » April 18th, 2014, 5:11 pm

Beautiful pictures and a great science lesson about spawning!

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Sean Thomas
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Re: Spawing sea stars , octopus, minus tide at Roads End 4/1

Post by Sean Thomas » April 18th, 2014, 9:29 pm

Epic, gene!!! And +1 for the science lesson comment. Your low tide tr's are the best.

pdxgene
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Re: Spawing sea stars , octopus, minus tide at Roads End 4/1

Post by pdxgene » April 19th, 2014, 5:27 am

Thanx! The spawning was pretty cool to see. At first glance it didn't look so good for the sea stars. I wonder if the incoming tide spreads it around? There were only a couple of them out of the hundreds and hundreds in the pools and on the rocks that were doing that.
Seeing an octopus again was pretty nice too. It was in the pool right next to the one where I saw one last year. Which brings the grand total that I've seen to two now.
Roads End Beach doesn't usually turn up when you look into tidepooling spots but I think it's just as good as the ones that do. And it's the closest one for me. You don't even have to go into the traffic mess in Lincoln City. Plus the mile and a half beach walk to get there helps keep the crowds down a bit. You don't need a super low tide. The best pools are the shallower ones.

mcds
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Re: Spawing sea stars , octopus, minus tide at Roads End 4/1

Post by mcds » April 23rd, 2014, 3:00 pm

Great find on the octo. How did you first find it?

pdxgene
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Re: Spawing sea stars , octopus, minus tide at Roads End 4/1

Post by pdxgene » April 23rd, 2014, 5:29 pm

mcds wrote:Great find on the octo. How did you first find it?
Just about a year ago under the same conditions I stumbled across this one in the pool right next to the one above.
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So even though I figured the chance of seeing one in the same exact pool again after never having seen one outside an aquarium in my life was pretty slim that was the first place I checked. Nothing there but the one next to it was the closest looking one so I looked around pretty carefully and just happened to notice the bottomside of one of his tentacles under a rock. For a while it looked like those might be the only pictures I'd get and they were not very good. But sometimes if you wait long enough you get lucky... :D
Both times I have seen them they have been in the innermost pools where the water is calmer than the ones only exposed at the lowest tides. That also applies to most all the non sea star, anenome type tidepool inhabitants.

The nice thing with tidepools is they might be able to hide but at least they can't get away.. :lol:

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bobcat
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Re: Spawing sea stars , octopus, minus tide at Roads End 4/1

Post by bobcat » April 25th, 2014, 6:34 am

Beautiful post on those tide pools. As you say, they are rarely mentioned as a signature designation, but you seem to encounter the most exotic activities there!

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