The Rocky Intertidal 5/16/13

The group ventured out to the harsh environment of the rocky intertidal zone today in Puerto Penasco.  We had been prepared with a few fun facts about what were going to see due to the always informative words of Dr. Cheroske and his partner in crime Dr. Bennet.  All of us expected to see an abundance of sea life which included crabs, snails, sea stars, and more.  However, I did not realize the amount of work that we would need to put in to find these organisms. 

We pulled up to the beach while the tide was still a bit low.  Still, the only forms of life that could be seen right away were snails and plant life such as kelp and algae.  Everything else was hiding in the myriad amounts of crevices that were abundant among these rocky shores.  So, we put on our boots and started to get a little dirty.  

The key was to lift up the rocks to find more life that was living underneath these giant boulders.  It was hard to find anything at first.  As we started to move farther out from the shore, the creatures began to get a little bit more interesting.  We had many encounters with the lumpy armed crabs, who really did not want to be picked up at all.  These things really did put up a good fight, but ultimately we snatched them up to get a good look at them.  This is also included the many different echinoderms that were prowling the rocky intertidal.  Brittle stars were easy to spot once you know where you were looking, but sea urchins were much harder to find.  In fact, we only spotted one throughout our entire time out there.  

Overall, it was a pretty cool experience.  Finding sea life was much easier in the soft sediment wetlands we explored the day before due to the fact that there was not as many places to hide.  Still, it was very interesting to see the difference between the two environments.  Tonight, we are going back out into the field to help CEDO with their ongoing Osprey census.  It should be interesting.  Until then, nap time is our next project.