Sea Stars: Tigers of the Tidepools
This week ODFW Marine Reserves Program staff are out in the field during low tides surveying sea stars. We’re monitoring the sea stars in the rocky intertidal zones at both Cascade Head and Otter Rock. A few years ago Oregon’s intertidal zone was stacked with sea stars. Their brilliant bodies splashing red, orange, and purple colors across the rocky surfaces when the tide receded. Now, fewer tidepools are brightened by these critters since the outbreak of sea star wasting syndrome occurred.
This month guest author and photographer, Stephen Grace, shares some of his photos and perspective on intertidal sea stars -- the tigers of the tidepools -- on our website ...
Photo of a Quillback Rockfish. These fish have pronounced, sharp dorsal spines that look like quills and are mildly venomous. In this week's hook and line surveys at Cape Perpetua we caught 9 Quillbacks, the largest being 46 cm.
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Our volunteer anglers have been very busy, helping catch and sample fish during our spring hook and line surveys. So far we’ve completed 5 days of surveys at Cascade Head and 2 days at Cape Perpetua.
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Underwater visibility cooperated just enough to allow for 4 days of SCUBA surveys and video lander surveys at Cascade Head over the last few weeks.
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Collaborations
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The SMURFs are out for the season, at both Otter Rock and Redfish Rocks. We’ll be collecting juvenile fish and crabs out of the SMURFs every two weeks until the end of the summer.
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 This spring, graduate students from Oregon State University have been conducting a research project as part of a Public Policy Applied Research Methods class. They have been using surveys, interviews, focus groups, case study, and secondary-analysis to assess the perspectives of non-governmental organizations and scientists regarding the Oregon Marine Reserves Program.
On June 11th, from 12:00-2:00 PM, the class will be presenting the results of their research in the Guin Library Seminar Room at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, OR. This event is open to the public and light refreshments will be served. For those unable to attend in person, the presentation and discussion will be live-streamed. On the day of the event, you can use the below link to access the live-stream.
Live-Stream: oregonstate.adobeconnect.com/hmsctalks/
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