Five years ago, Pacific mole crabs (Emerita analoga) appeared dramatically on the exposed beaches of Pacific Rim National Park. The huge numbers that showed up in 2016 was astounding. At the time, I wondered if they would survive and establish themselves. The odds seemed long. Prior to 2006, there had been sporadic reports of influxes of mole crabs (notably between …
Crustaceans
Mole Crab Mania!
I’ve been spending summers out on the west coast since 2006 and I’ve never seen anything like it. Earlier this July, a large number of juvenile Pacific mole crabs made an appearance at Wickaninnish Beach. And they’re still here! A handful of Pacific Mole Crabs (Emerita analoga) found at Wickaninnish Beach in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. Pacific mole crabs …
Beach Hopper Party at Wickaninnish Beach!
Sand fleas, beach hoppers, beach fleas – these are a few of the names given to the (usually) small little jumping things leaping about on the sand in a frantic attempt to escape your descending bare feet. At first encounter they can be a bit hard to love, maybe due to the unpredictable trajectory of their jumps and the possibility …
Deep Bay Marine Field Station
At the end of a crushed shell road lies the Deep Bay Marine Field Station, a research facility run by Vancouver Island University. It’s a gorgeous location overlooking Deep Bay on Vancouver Island. The station is spectacular in its design, looking a little like a huge clam shell. The station is used by Vancouver Island University for aquaculture and marine …
Horse Clam Hitchhiker
One of the fun things that you can do with your kids at the beach is look for the dramatic siphons of the Horse Clam (Tresus sp.) at low tide. Most people don’t connect the somewhat grotesque looking tube sticking out of the sand with the feeding apparatus of a clam but that is indeed what they are. Below the …
Shore Crab Uncertainty
Common shore crabs on Vancouver Island are usually pretty easy to identify. Colour isn’t always a good way to separate out the Green Shore Crab (Hemigrapsus oregonensis) from the Purple Shore Crab (Hemigrapsus nudus) since both have some variability in colouration. The more reliable way to tell the two apart is to look at the legs – Green Shore Crabs …
Hello Hermit … Crab
On the beach with the kids this week and we found a beautiful hermit crab in its shell. All we could see was its blue claws. A shy hermit crab at Miracle Beach Provincial Park. Hello! I thought that with those blue claws this would be an easy crab to identify. I think that it might be a very worn …
Beneath the Mud
There’s something going on beneath the surface of the mud at the Tofino Mudflats Wildlife Management Area. There’s something lurking beneath the mud in the Tofino Mudflats Wildlife Management Area. Actually, there’s a great deal of biodiversity underneath the nearly 1770 hectares of tidal mudflats protected since 1997 by this WMA. The challenge is getting out to see it without …
Water-line Isopods: Scourge of the Surf-line
When jellyfish wash up on the shore at Long Beach in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve they don’t last long. At first glance, this stranded Moon Jelly (Aurelia labiata) appears forgotten. However, a closer look reveals that water-line isopods (Cirolana kincaidi) are hard at work dealing with the jelly’s remains. These marine isopods look similar to terrestrial isopods like wood …
Lumpy Crab at Florencia Bay
Earlier this week I spent two hours at Florencia Bay in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. Tide pool explorers familiar with better known locations like the rocks at Wickaninnish Beach, Green Point or Schooner Cove sometimes overlook this remarkable beach. Sometimes exploring less popular areas results in the discovery of unusual creatures like the lumpy crab! The boulders at Florencia …