B E T W E E N t h e T I D E SF r i e n d s o f F i t z g e r a l d M a r i n e R e s e r v e

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FFMR Has 14 New Volunteer Naturalists!!by Linda Ciotti

The FFMR 2015 Volunteer Naturalist Class

I am happy to report that we have had another suc-cessful annual training class for new Volunteer Naturalists and that many of the 14 have already been volunteering, protecting the harbor seals and conducting tours! This year’s class included 10 weeks of classroom and field work, plus an additional 6 hours out on the reef with an experienced men-tor, for a total of 56 hours of instruction. The eleventh week was a potluck lunch and graduation party held at the home of Tom and Linda Ciotti.

Training our new volunteers is one of the most impor-tant things FFMR accomplishes each year. Without a team effort, protecting our reefs and harbor seals and sharing in-formation with thousands of visitors would be daunting, to say the least. This year’s training team included: Joseph Cen-toni, Susan Evans, Tom Ciotti, Karen Madsen, Joni Mauer, Ron Olson, and Dot Norris. So a big thank you to everyone who made this year’s class possible. And, a special thanks to the LDS Church located in Moss Beach, who so gener-ously allowed us to use one of their classrooms for the third year in a row. Additionally, a number of our volunteers were very helpful as mentors: Carol Davies, Mike Davis, Anne-Ly Crump Garay and Steve Slomka.

We were again so lucky and appreciative to have Joseph Centoni teach the majority of the classes. Joseph has been teaching the Marine Ecology classes at Half Moon Bay High School since Bob Breen’s retirement in 2004. This year Joseph gave up six Saturdays to cover the Introduction to Marine Biology, Echinoderms, Cnidarians, Arthropods, Mollusks, Algae, Tidepool Ecosystems and Oceanography. In addition, Bob Power of the South Bay Audubon Society provided us with a day of studying how to identify the local birds we observe at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, including a two-hour bird walk.

We were fortunate that three of our own FFMR volunteers, who also volunteer with The Ma-rine Mammal Center in Sausalito, provided a day’s study of marine mammals. So a big thank you to: Karen Madsen, Kris Liang and Michael Liang.

Always fun, observing the critters that are living attached to the pilings, floats and ropes off the docks!

Friends of Fitzgerald Marine Reserve

P.O. Box 669Moss Beach, CA 94038Phone: 650.728.3584

www.fitzgeraldreserve.org

Board of Directors:Joseph Centoni

Linda CiottiTom Ciotti, President

Marsha CohenSusan Evans

Roger HoppesBill Kennedy, Secretary

Karen MadsenDr. Tom Niesen

Ron OlsonCarol Preston

Hope Suchsland, TreasurerJulie Walters

Our Mission:To inspire the preservation

of our unique intertidal environment through

education and the support of research.

Newsletter Editors:Janet Pelinka

Sasha Greenawalt

Design and Production:Martie Bateson Sautter

Sautter Graphics and Print

Webmaster:Sandy Emerson

To see the spectacular color of the creature photos in this newsletter, and for shortcuts to all the weblinks, be sure to check it out on our website: www.fitzgeraldreserve.org/

The graph displayed across the page bottoms shows tides for 6/8/15 to 10/26/15. Where the date appears is midnight. The reefs are accessible for exploring during low tides—at least +1 or below. See: http://fitzgeraldreserve.org/resources and click on “Tides” for a more detailed tide chart. Good low spring/summer tides are in the early morning. They change to eve-ning tides in September. There are almost equally low tides several days before and several days after the noted low tide dates.

The lowest tides this period are: -1.22 6/16 5:16 am

4th lowest tide of 2015 -1.23 7/3 6:15 am

3rd lowest tide of 2015 -.77 7/15 5:02 am -.94 7/31 5:11 am -.50 8/29 4:44 am -.36 9/30 7:10 pm

Another long-time FFMR board member and instructor for our volunteers, Dr. Tom Niesen, provided us with an infor-mative classroom lecture on animals that are not found as frequently at FMR: Worms, Bryozoans, Tunicates and Sponges. But as always, the highlight of this class was a trip to Pillar Pt. Harbor where we were able to observe these critters that are easily found liv-ing attached to the pilings, floats and ropes off the docks! It requires a little dexterity but I think everyone agreed that it was worth the extra effort. Having Tom there to point out and identify so many of these animals was, as they say, “priceless”!

For the second year, Irina Kogan, Con-servation Project Coordinator for San Mateo County Resource Conservation District, spent the day with us covering the some-times complex subject of geology. Irina is a geologist and I am sure no one could make

geology more interesting than she does. After the classroom lecture, we took a trip to FMR and spent an additional two hours with Iri-na, who was able to explain and identify the geological formations that have created the unique intertidal habitat at FMR.

I have been involved with the training classes since my husband Tom and I took our own class taught by Bob Breen in 2003, and I have managed the class for about six years. During that period, this is the first class where every student got an A or better on their fi-nal exam!!!! SO, I am happy to introduce and welcome the FFMR 2015 Volunteer Natu-ralist Class: Marie Dougherty, Barbara Dye, Glenn Gutleben, Jack Hankin, Karen Kalu-muck, Claire Messina, Marian Miller, Patti Miller, Keith Pinnix, Alex Pypiuk, Vanitha Sankaran, Alia Shah, Veronika Vostinak, and FMR Ranger Katherine Wright. u

Volunteer Naturalists continued from page 1

Harbor Seal CountHarbor Seal Count taken May 11th:

393 -- Adults/Immatures 40 -- Pups

1 -- Dead Pup

July Nudibranch Count

Our next nudibranch count will be held at Pillar Point in Princeton on Friday, July 3, from 6:30 to 8:30 AM. A low tide of -1.2 is expected at 6:15. Julie Walters, coor-dinator of nudibranch counts, asks that we meet on the tidepools (at the “nudi pool”) at 6:30 AM. Be aware that this will be a holi-day weekend so parking may be difficult. We will work in pairs using iNaturalist. If you haven’t already put the iNaturalist app on

your smartphone, please do so before the count. There will be an optional breakfast afterwards at the 3Zero café near the Half Moon Bay airport. Please let Julie know if you are coming: Juliebw2@gmail.com, cell: 408.465.6547

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Tidepooling Underwaterby Julie Walters

One of my favorite things about being a docent at Fitzgerald is tidepooling with the other docents. In April, I had the pleasure of going to Point Lobos State Reserve near Carmel with fellow docents Janet Pelinka, Sasha Greenawalt, and Dot Norris. Point Lobos State Reserve is a truly spectacular place if you have never been there: beautiful scenery, amazing animals and a fascinating history. We went snor-keling at Whalers Cove in the frigid water there and I saw more limpets than I have ever seen in my life! Other creatures spotted included an Opaleyefish, rigid limpets, veiled chitons, and leather sea stars. One of the great things about snorkeling, versus tidepooling, is that you are IN the water with the animals. This gives you the op-portunity to observe animals in action eating, looking for food, avoiding prey, etc.

We saw several large gumboot chitons that were a different color than the ones we typically see at Fitzgerald; they were more of a bluish color. We also saw a chiton I've never seen before (see photo). It was 3 to 4 inches long and much nar-rower than others I have seen. I posted it on iNaturalist in order to have it identified.

Another treat was being in the water with the harbor seals. We kept the re-quired distance from the seals, but they were curious about us and would pop their heads up occasionally to look at us.

If you would like to try snorkeling at Point Lobos you will need to make reservations online at http://www.pointlobos.org/point-lobos-experience/fantastic-diving. They allow only a limited number of snorkelers or scuba divers per day and reservations are mandatory. The cost per person is $15 plus the $10 per car entrance fee to the reserve.

Another great thing about snorkeling is that you are not dependent upon a low tide; you can go any time as long as the sea is calm and you have the right equip-ment. Speaking of equipment, the water is a chilly 55° and you will need to be well prepared with a 7 mm thick wetsuit, hood, gloves, booties and fins, along with a mask and snorkel. Every square inch of your skin (except your face) needs to be covered to protect you from the cold water. The water within Whalers Cove is fairly calm and your best opportunity to see marine life is to stay close to shore and the rocks. One of the highlights on shore is talking to the scuba divers in the parking lot about

what they have seen. There are restrooms adja-cent to the park-ing lot.

Even if you aren't brave enough to go into the chilly water here, and prefer to stay on dry land, it is well worth the drive to see the spectacular scenery and animal life in this gem of a park.

Aside from Whalers Cove at Point Lobos, another good spot for snorkeling is Lovers Point in Pacific Grove, near Monterey. Ac-cess is easy and the water is slightly warmer, but the area is more crowded. Here I have seen nudibranchs, otters, harbor seals and even mating gumboot chitons! u

Resting seal

Thin chiton, left, veiled chiton, right

Curious seals

View of Whalers Cove

Docents in the water

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July

Have you visited the tide pools at night? Did you shine a light into the pool and see the reflection off nu-merous golden eyes? Or maybe you saw some-

thing scoot away from beneath the seaweeds by day. If so, it’s likely that you encountered coastal shrimp, genus Heptacarpus.

Back in 1900, Samuel Holmes of the California Acad-emy of Sciences first distinguished coastal shrimp as a group, al-though some of them had been described under an older name, as far back as 1839! Unlike similar small shrimp, these little fellows have a second thoracic leg with a “wrist” divided into seven sections, called “articles,” hence the name Heptacarpus, “seven wrist.” This subdivided “wrist” gives these shrimp great flexibility, enabling them to pick up small food particles, pick debris off their bodies, and wipe their antennae clean.

Coastal shrimps are a northern Pacific group, ranging from Japan across the Aleutian Islands south to northwestern Baja California. A single specimen, possibly belonging to a sepa-rate genus, has been collected farther south in Mexico but in very deep water.

There are 16 species of coastal shrimp in California. Of these, the most common one in the tide pools is Heptacarpus sitchensis, the Sitka coastal shrimp. This shrimp comes in an as-sortment of colors: bright green, mottled black and tan, dark brown with a tan dorsal stripe, etc. Studies suggest that the males may be smaller than the females, and generally are less colorful. At night, the shrimp turn blue—nobody knows why. Other than the day-to-night color change, these shrimp do not seem to have the ability to change color.

Coastal shrimp can scurry across the bottom of a pool or scoot backward to escape capture. They feed on whatever small stuff they can find; in turn, small fishes and birds eat them. As in other local shrimp, the females carry the fertilized eggs under the body until they hatch. The larvae drift offshore and, if they are lucky, eventually will settle in another tidepool.

Note: Mary Wicksten is a former FMR Ranger. u

Coastal Shrimpby Mary K. Wicksten, Texas A&M University

On Saturday, August 22, from 10:00-1:00, Ken-ichi Ueda, cofounder and codirector of iNaturalist, will be giving a workshop for Fitzgerald docents on use of the iNaturalist app. iNaturalist is a useful tool for identifying plants and animals with your smart phone or iPad.

The workshop will be divided into three parts: 30 minutes inside for a presentation, 1+ hours outside to record some observa-tions, then 1+ hours inside for hands-on computer time.

The workshop will be held in Princeton-by-the-Sea (address will be sent to attendees at the time of registration). Bring your smart phone or iPad with Wi-Fi capability, a laptop and lunch.

You must register in advance. Registration deadline is August 1. For more information and to register contact: Julie Walters at ju-liebw2@gmail.com or Karen Kalumuck at kkalumuck@gmail.com

There are many uses for the iNaturalist app:

1. It helps you record observations of plants or animals that you may see while tidepooling or hiking.

2. If you see something you can’t identify, you can post a pic-ture and an expert will help identify it for you.

3. If you are going to explore a new area and want to see what kind of wildlife you might encounter, you can search that area on iNaturalist.

4. Set up your own project: if you are a teacher, iNaturalist is a wonderful tool to help your students explore nature. If you are a student, it can help you gather information about cer-tain plants and animals you may be writing a paper about.

5. Your observations can help scientists gather information on where specific plants and animals are found, their popula-tion and their health. For example:

iNaturalist was instrumental in recording the recent sea star wasting disease. The public was encouraged to upload pho-tographs of sea stars, sick or healthy, and the app became a valu-able tool for tracking the spread of the disease. u

iNaturalist Workshop for FMR Docents on August 22

Ken-ichi Ueda is an amateur at many things, but one of the things he is most amateur about is natural history. He has bruised a rib after losing control of a rock he turned over in search of salamanders, and was limping for months last year due to an injury sustained while chasing a Snowy Owl. He has been bitten and/or defecated upon by almost every species of snake in the San Francisco Bay Area, and knows from first-hand experience that the inside of carnivorous plants often smell like carnivorous animal poop. If you see someone with a bad case of poison oak reading a field guide on the train, it’s probably Ken. u

Coastal shrimp

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Yule was the first pup of the year to be treated at The Marine Mammal Center. He weighed only twelve pounds when he was found. Upon release he had gained 42 pounds.

A staged example of a harbor seal release on the beach

Yule splashing in the surf

The newly released harbor seals enjoying their freedom

Seal Releaseby Dot Norris

On April 16, The Marine Mammal Center released its first rescued har-bor seal pups of the year, and I was lucky enough to be able to assist that day. There were a total of six harbor seals (Yule, Legna, Kwikspell, Tonks, Ronnie-skins and Bubbie) and one elephant seal weaner (Cruiser). Yule was the first harbor seal pup rescued by the Center this year when he was found separated from his mother on a Santa Barbara beach.

We started out in the morning by loading the crates with the animals into the vehicles. We tied them down to ensure the smoothest ride possible

for our patients and took off to Chimney Rock beach in Point Reyes National Seashore. I rode in the vehicle that had Cruiser, and he complained each time our driver took a curvy road. When we got to our destination, there were three other Elephant Seals sunning them-selves on the sandy beach. We were able to take Cruiser’s crate away from the other Elles (el-

ephant seals), but after he was released, he promptly chased the others off of the beach. Then he lay down and started to toss sand on his back.

Then we took the seal crates and lined them up on the beach and opened their doors two at a time. Yule was the first seal out and he led the others into the water. Before you knew it, he was splashing in the surf.

By the time we left, we had managed only to get Cruiser to stick his face in the water. His number hat will allow the center volunteers to check his recovery (these hats are lost when the animal molts and are biodegradable). Hopefully he will join the other weaners down the beach. All of the harbor seals were well offshore enjoying their freedom.

Note: Dot Norris is an FFMR docent and volunteer at The Marine Mammal Center. u

By early April, Sausalito’s Marine Mammal Center reported hav-ing treated more than 1000 animals, a record number in the center’s 40-year history. Most have been emaciated sea lion pups.

It is thought by most experts that patches of warm waters and unusual wind patterns have created a lack of the usual seasonal upwelling of colder water in California’s coastal waters. This in turn has affected the abundance of anchovies and sardines, causing sea lion mothers to spend more time away from their pups while foraging for food. The reduced food supply is also impacting the mothers’ ability to provide adequate nutrition to their pups.

While pups have been stranding in large numbers for the past two years, 2015 appears to be a crisis year. Pups are weak and unable to forage for food; some of them strike out on their own prematurely in unfamiliar envi-ronments. They ultimately wash up weak and emaciated. Workers at reha-bilitation centers are working around the clock to save these creatures. u

Pups in Crisis

Cruiser, the elephant seal weaner, complained each

time our driver took a curvy road.

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For a number of years now, FFMR and the County of San Mateo Parks Department have co-sponsored a beach cleanup twice a year at Mirada Surf, otherwise known as Surfer’s Beach. Every Earth Day (in April) and Coastal Cleanup Day (in September), we pull out our supply of pickup sticks, gloves, high-visibility vests, and plastic trash/recycle bags, and set up shop for a few hours on Saturday morning in El Granada. (We adopted Mirada Surf because the reserve beaches don’t need cleaning.)

I often volunteer as the “site captain” for the event. It means arriving early to set up registration tables and unpack supplies, but it pays off in getting to meet volunteers as we register and equip them. I get to take photos and make note of the items picked up, which in some years included car tires, road signs, broken crab traps, and pieces of boats!

During quiet spells I talk to the rangers and other FFMR volunteers, getting caught up and planning future Family Fun events. This year I got to know Ranger Katherine Wright a little better, and met Ranger Miranda Ho-leton. We set up our base of operations where the California Coastal Trail meets Magel-lan Avenue. It’s not as visible from Highway One as the spot across from Wilkinson School where we used to set up our registration tables, but it has two big advantages: there’s plenty of street parking nearby, and there’s a restroom and water fountain right there.

It always feels great to see people—often multi-generational families and entire school groups—pitch-ing in to help an environ-mental cause. Volunteers arrive eager to roll up their sleeves and work, and come back smiling at their sense of accomplishment. Groups of all ages have fun work-ing as a team, and energetic volunteers come back again and again, filling multiple bags.

Ranger Miranda Holeton (left) and Ranger Katherine Wright at this year’s Earth Day Beach Cleanup registra-tion table.

Ranger Katherine Wright stands with a volunteer who brought back the largest item found this year, a collapsed cardboard box.

Earth Day Beach Cleanupby Jenna Kinghorn

The final tally included 15 glass bottles, 20 cans, 20 plastic bottles, 30 plastic straws, 50 bottle caps, and 200 cigarette butts.

I make note of the items picked up which in some years included car tires, road signs,

broken crab traps, and pieces of boats!

Volunteers arrive eager to roll up their sleeves and work, and

come back smiling at their sense of accomplishment.

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This Earth Day we had only six volun-teers take part in the beach cleanup, which seems like a disappointingly low turnout com-pared to previous years. But our volunteers are part of a larger, ongoing effort—there were dozens of other beach cleanups and similar ef-forts, such as trail maintenance and planting native species, all along the San Mateo County coast to honor Earth Day. Even better, there are now monthly beach cleanups at many sites, including the breakwater that forms the north-ern boundary of Surfer’s Beach.

Another piece of good news is that the ban on plastic bags seems to be working. We didn’t find a single one in our cleanup.

What we did find were 15 glass bottles (mostly beer), 20 cans, 20 plastic bottles, 30 plastic straws, and 50 bottle caps. As in past years, cigarette butts were the most numerous items: we found 200! Picking up litter along the path and roadside near the registration table, I personally found 50 cigarette butts, all within sight and easy walking distance of a trash can!

So we still have a lot of work to do to try to convince people to keep trash from reaching the ocean in the first place. Wouldn’t it be great if all the beaches in the world were treated with the care and respect that helps keep the reserve so clean?

This Earth Day beach cleanup marked my last as a site captain for FFMR, since I will be moving to the Pacific Northwest before Coastal Cleanup Day in September. Spending time at the reserve and helping with volunteer activities like beach cleanups will be among the things I’ll miss the most when I move.

If you’d like to help out with a future Earth Day or Coastal Cleanup Day beach cleanup, contact Ranger Katherine Wright at kewright@smcgov.org. If you want to take part in a monthly cleanup that covers Surfer’s Beach and Pillar Point Harbor, contact Celine Gera-kin at celine.gerakin@gmail.com. u

Another piece of good news is that the ban

on plastic bags seems to be working. We didn’t find a single one in our

cleanup.

Almost any litter cleanup along a beach, stream or street turns up cigarette butts as the most numerous item picked up. Worldwide they outnumber every other category of trash that isn’t properly disposed.

The paper wrap-per on a cigarette and the tobacco filling make the butt seem biode-gradable, but it’s not. The filter in a cigarette is made of a plastic called cellulose acetate, which can take decades to break down. The used filter in a cigarette butt is full of chemicals that range from poisonous (arsenic, lead, toluene, cadmium, benzene, and ammonia) to carcinogenic (benzo-

pyrene and formalde-hyde). During the years it takes for the butt to break down, these poi-sons leach into the wa-ter and ground, or go straight into the guts of any wildlife that might accidentally ingest the cigarette stub.

Making more trash receptacles and ash trays available might help curb the

problem. Unfortunately the costs associated with maintaining and emptying them are more than most local governments, parks departments, and nonprofit sponsors can handle. Even when litter receptacles are available, butts are often discarded on the ground just a few feet away. I suspect this is in part because smokers are wary of dropping a still-hot butt into a pile of trash and starting a fire. If you know someone who smokes, tell them about the dangers discarded butts pose to wildlife and wa-ter quality. Give them a small metal container (such as a used mint tin) to use as a pocket ashtray, and ask them to dispose of their butts properly. u

Cigarette Butts Aren’t Just Unsightly

The Pacifica Beach Coalition is experi-menting with various containers for cigarette waste on Pacifica beaches.

An empty mint tin can be carried in a pocket or purse and used as a portable ash tray.

It always feels great to see people—often multi-generational families and entire

school groups—pitching in to help an environmental cause.

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Meet Corina Yballaby Linda Ciotti

Last September, I received a nice email from a senior at Burlingame High School regarding her Environmental Studies assignment. Her teacher, Ms. Johnson, had challenged her stu-dents to conceive of a project which they would work on for the entire school year. This project is called “20 Time Project,” which means 20% of the class time would be spent on the project and it would constitute 20% of their grade. Corina’s email indicated she had been visiting the tidepools at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve “since before she could remember” and that she “became a Ju-nior Ranger 7 or 8 years ago.” After giving this assignment some thought, Corina wrote:

“I was hoping to center my project around one of my fa-vorite places in the world, the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve. While I know where I want to focus my attention, I am not quite sure what I could do to help at the re-serve. I would really appreciate any ideas for projects from any of the volunteers or rangers.”

I was very interested in try-ing to help Corina find a way to focus her efforts at FMR since the mission of the Friends of Fitzgerald Marine Reserve is to inspire the preservation of our unique intertidal environment through edu-cation and the support of research. When I replied to her, I sug-gested she look into the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary LiMPETS Rocky Intertidal Monitoring Program. I provided her with the link to their website and thought this would be a good starting point to give her some ideas. I also asked if she was a photographer and if photography would be a part of her project. I indicated FFMR would be happy to post her photos on our website or possibly on our Facebook page. I also thought she might be interested in writing an article about her discoveries which we could publish in this newsletter. Corina replied that she was happy to receive some ideas and at my suggestion she would discuss these with her teacher and then let me know what her teacher approved.

Many months went by and then in March, I heard from her again:

“For the past several months, I have been visiting Fitzgerald Marine Reserve about every two weeks and taking pictures of whatever wildlife I could find (which was not easy because of sea star wasting). I have not finished my project yet, but I thought I would send you some of my pictures and the link to my project website. If you could review some of my photographs and email me back whenever you have time, I would really appreciate it! Thank you!”

After spending some time looking at her website, I was impressed with what Corina had already accomplished and de-

cided it would be a good idea to write an article about her and her project for Between the Tides and our editors agreed.

Corina and I continued to exchange emails, and I wanted to find a time when I could meet her and interview her for the article. This turned out to be a little more difficult than I expected, because Corina is a very busy student! In addition to her college prep and advanced placement schoolwork, she works part time, and this winter she began taking SCUBA lessons and received her certification only a few weeks before we met at FMR on April 12 for an interview. She also spent this past fall applying to colleges and is very excited that her “first-pick” school, the Uni-versity of Washington, sent her an acceptance letter (also a few

weeks before our meeting). She is not sure what her major will be, but currently marine biology is her primary interest, followed by epi-demiology. She may also sign up for the Coast Guard as a Reservist, following in her father’s footsteps. In addition to her other activities, Corina is a choir member with

the Peninsula Girls Chorus in Burlingame and she enjoys drawing.

Corina’s love for the environment and nature has come to her naturally. Both her parents have instilled in their children how important it is to be aware of their surroundings and to under-stand the impact they each have. Corina remembers her entire family (including two older brothers and one younger sister) com-ing to Fitzgerald Marine Reserve since she was very young—prob-ably four years old. Her mother has been involved with rescu-ing and caring for wildlife with the Peninsula Humane Society/SPCA, and her father retired from the Coast Guard after more than 20 years where he spent most of his career in environmental response.

Corina’s main focus has been to photograph Fitzgerald Ma-rine Reserve and some of the animals she has located during her many visits. She is passionate about protecting the environment and she wants to show the beauty of FMR through her photogra-phy. She hopes visitors will then appreciate the importance of pro-tecting the unique environment and biodiversity found at FMR and of preserving it for the future.

Please take a few minutes and check out Corina’s “My 20 Time Project” at: https://sites.google.com/a/burlingamehigh-school.org/20-time-digital-portfolio-corina. It has been such a pleasure to meet Corina and I believe she will always be a protector of the environment, no matter where her career path leads in the future. u Note: see some photos from her website on page 12.

She is passionate about protecting the environment and she wants to show the beauty of FMR through her photography.

She hopes visitors will then appreciate the importance of protecting the unique environment and biodiversity found

at FMR and of preserving it for the future.

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Now that the pathogen likely responsible for sea star wasting syndrome (SSWS) has been identi-fied (see BTT, December 2014), marine scientists are continuing to look for environmental factors that might be associated with the onset of the dis-ease. They are also turning their attention to ecosys-tem changes due to the loss of this keystone species. There is some good news from the field. In some sites along the coast, researchers and citizen scientists re-port seeing hundreds of juvenile sea stars. At one site in Santa Cruz, California, more babies were counted in the past year or so than in the previous 15 years combined. Biologists are tracking whether these ba-bies are surviving.

There are other signs of a recovery in some sites that for a long time had displayed a high preva-lence of diseased animals and now have only healthy stars. However, Pete Raimondi, ecology professor at UC Santa Cruz, warns that the sites with a reduc-tion of disease might simply be experiencing a pause in the progression of SSWS. Steve Fradkin, a coastal ecologist with the Olympic National Park, said that wasting syndrome first infected about 25% of the sea star population there, then all but disappeared last summer. This winter, the disease was found in 50 to 60% of the population. In April, a survey found the disease waning again, with an infection rate of 30%.

Raimondi says it will take a few years of monitoring to know for sure whether the sea stars will grow and repopulate. He also says it is too early to know how the ecosystem will change in the ab-sence of the stars. Beginning in March, many coastal sites are being resampled, and more will be known soon.

In the last BTT sea star update we men-tioned the expectation of ecologists that mussel and barnacle populations will increase in the absence of their tidal and subtidal predators. Of greater concern is the recent rapid boom in sea urchins. The Mon-terey Bay seafloor is seeing an urchin explosion, and at some sites in Central California, populations of red and purple sea urchins are proliferating wildly. In the absence of the stars, Mark Carr, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz, says“…these urchins change their feeding behavior from just sitting in these [crevices]. They get up, and they storm around the rocky reef. They eat every-thing in their path.” Scientists worry that the urchins

will mow down the giant kelp forests that are home to many in-vertebrates and small fish; this has hap-pened when the pop-ulation of sea otters, another predator on urchins, declined.

Otters are one of the major preda-tors that usually keep the urchins in check, but otters are picky eaters, each one spe-cializing in just two or three foods. And, as Carr says, “… an otter that’s feeding on snails will be very reluctant to begin feeding on sea urchins.”

In parts of Southern California, sea urchins already dominate segments of the rocky shore, to the exclusion of most other life. The [Santa Monica] Bay Foundation Executive Director Tom Ford says, ‘The Foundation is working to remove urchins along the Palos Verdes Peninsula and the Santa Monica Bay; [volunteers] have removed three million purple sea urchins to restore kelp forests.”

While some areas are experiencing a drastic increase in urchin populations, the sea urchin re-sponse to the sea star demise appears to vary depend-ing on where they live. In southern warmer waters (roughly below Point Conception), in scattered sea-shore locations, urchins’ spines are falling out, leav-ing a circular patch that enlarges with time. And, for reasons yet unknown, mass mortalities, mostly of purple sea urchins, have been observed in five south-ern sites. “We think that there’s a wasting event going on with urchins… the way the animals are dying,” says Raimondi. But it is not yet known whether or how it is related to sea star wasting syndrome.

In waters north of Point Conception, in the absence of sea stars, urchins are coming out of hid-ing, clambering around in plain view. Explains UC Santa Cruz ecology professor James Estes, “Once sea urchins start moving around, which is what they commonly do when they aggregate, they can become destructive grazers. It can happen quickly.”

With respect to the sea urchin situation, once again, we have no answers. And once again, biolo-gists are working diligently to solve this mystery. u

Sea Star updateby Sasha Greenawalt

Bald spot on purple sea urchin, photo by Jayson Smith

An urchin specialist, photo: Phillip Colla, seaotters.com

…for reasons yet unknown, mass

mortalities, mostly of purple sea urchins, have

been observed in five southern sites.

“Once sea urchins start

moving around, which

is what they commonly

do when they aggregate,

they can become

destructive grazers.”

—James Estes

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This spring beachgoers were fascinated by mysterious translu-cent, blue jelly-like animals scat-tered across Bay Area coastal sands. Known as by-the-wind sailors, or Velella velella, they are the only known species in their genus, and they are indeed unusual in many respects. Each individual “sailor” seen by observers is actually a colony of specialized individual polyps, all-male or all-female. The polyps are connected by a canal system that enables them to share food ingested by each individual

with the rest of the group. The by-the-wind sail-or’s body contains a series of air-filled chambers that provide buoyancy, below which is a mouth, surrounded by stinging tentacles and reproduc-tive bodies that produce tiny medusae (little jellyfish).

P l a c e d in the phy-lum Cnidaria with jellyfish, sea anemonies and corals, Velella are ac-tually not that closely related to the com-mon jellyfish, but they do al-ternate between the cnidarian’s two body forms: the umbrella-shaped, tentacle-trailing “medusa” (the classic jellyfish), and the “polyp” (like sea anemonies that live attached to the seabed). Un-like most jellyfish, the familiar floating form of Velella is made up from the polyp —not the me-dusa--stage of the animal’s life cycle. Like other cnidarians, Velella has tentacles with nematocysts (stinging cells).

Each Velella colony is equipped with a stiff blue sail made of a chitinous material that looks a lot like cellophane. This small rigid “sail” projects in the air and propels the sailors over

the surface of the sea. Velella tacks about 45 de-grees away from a following wind, as long as the wind blows gently. This keeps it offshore. In strong winds, it spins and more directly fol-lows the wind. With no means of locomotion other than the stiff sail, the voyagers are at the mercy of ocean surface currents and seasonal wind patterns. Strong westerlies are what drove the sailors to our beaches. Under the right wind conditions, millions of them can be stranded on beaches, as they have been this year along the West Coast of North America. Most years in the spring strong westerly winds will cause mass strandings from British Columbia to Califor-nia, but this year the numbers have been much greater, possibly because storms in the eastern Pacific have been more severe.

One might suppose that the stranding and death of so many animals would threaten

the sailors with extinction, but each by-the-wind sailor colony has reproductive pol-yps that produce thousands of tiny jellyfish (medu-sae) by an asexual budding process. In addition, the medusae are pro-vided with many zooxanthe l l ae , organisms (found also in anemo-

nies and corals) that can provide energy to the colony by utilizing photosynthesis. As Carol Lu-cas, associate professor of marine biology at the University of Southampton, says, “Jellyfish and their relatives are all very flexible and are able to rapidly take advantage of favorable conditions. They…can grow and reproduce very quickly, and produce large numbers of offspring.”

The by-the-wind sailor’s sting-ing cells contain a mild neurotoxin, and so experts warn against walking barefoot through a pile of them, and against touch-ing one’s eyes after touching a sailor. u

By-the-wind Sailorsby Sasha Greenawalt

Thousands of by-the-wind sailors washed up on a beach in Oregon. Photo from The Oregonian, Oregonlive.

Velella velella, also known as by-the-wind sailor, sea raft, purple sail, and little sail

Each Velella colony is equipped with a

stiff blue sail made of a chitinous material that looks a lot like

cellophane. This small rigid “sail” projects in the air and propels the sailors over the surface

of the sea.

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Reason in a Dark TimeWhy the Struggle Against Climate Change Failed

—and What it Means for Our Futureby Dale Jamieson, reviewed by Janet Pelinka

“We are stuck with climate change…Without intending to do so, we have commit-ted ourselves and our descendants to a world that is qualitatively different from the one that gave rise to humanity and all of its creations.” So begins Dale Jamieson’s philosophical discus-sion of climate change. The author, Professor of Environmental Studies, Philosophy and Law at New York University, has been working on cli-mate change for about 25 years and posits that society was not designed to deal with a problem so complex and unbounded.

The idea that CO2 emissions could cause a 2.4-4 degree warming of the earth’s atmosphere was proposed by Swedish scientist Svante Arrhe-nius in the late 1800s. His theory was largely ig-nored until the 1950s when new techniques were developed for measuring atmospheric carbon dioxide. Then, in 1957, Roger Revelle, an ocean-ographer and Harvard professor, testified before Congress about the profound consequences of the increasing CO2 concentration. In the early 1970s a sense of urgency began to emerge. The Montreal Protocol of 1967, which resulted in the quickly ad-opted international phase-out of ozone-depleting chemicals, raised hopes that climate change could also be successfully addressed by international participation. But even though scientific papers con-tinued to echo previous warnings of the harm-ful effects of climate warming, the United States rejected a move away from the use of fossil fuel.

For seventeen years, from the 1992 Rio Earth Summit to the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Conference, there has been a concerted interna-tional effort to reduce CO2 emissions. While many nations have agreed to greatly reduce their carbon emissions, we continue to increase ours. Time after time both Democratic and Republi-can administrations, whether driven by politi-cal ambition, corporate greed or ideology, have evaded responsibility by giving weak responses

to global conference proposals. At the Rio Earth Summit, then president George H.W.Bush (the self-declared environmental president) refused to sign the Convention on Biological Diver-sity. Bill Clinton refused to submit the Kyoto Protocol to the resistant Republican Senate for ratification. The Protocol was ratified in 2002 by 141 countries despite the denouncement of it by the George W. Bush administration. And at the Copenhagen Conference President Obama refused to agree to a level of emission reduction that could not be ratified by Congress. In spite of four Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment reports that have given in-creasingly stark warnings, the reluctance of the United States to address climate change persists today. Recently Jeb Bush, a potential Republican contender for the office of President, has stated that it is “arrogant” to assume that global warm-ing is caused by humans.

Jamieson suggests that because the prob-lem of global warming is so vast most people cannot properly grasp the concept. He states,

“Evolution did not design us to deal with such problems, and we have not designed political institutions that are conducive to solving them.” Congress has few PhD scientists (three) while those with law degrees abound. And the New York Times has

found that only 28% of the public understands science enough to read the newspaper’s science section. Jamieson says, “[U]nderstanding sci-ence is important for grasping the risks that cli-mate change poses and for evaluating possible responses…Scientific ignorance is an invitation to manipulation…” Playing on public scientific ignorance and indifference is what he terms “the denial industry,” composed largely of corporate heavyweights who have greatly influenced the U.S. political system and who have invested heavily in providing the public with misinformation.

Book Review

While many nations have agreed to greatly reduce

their carbon emissions, we continue to increase ours.

“We are stuck with

climate change…

Without intending

to do so, we have

committed ourselves

and our descendants

to a world that is

qualitatively different

from the one that gave

rise to humanity and

all of its creations.”

—Dale Jamieson

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In 1997, 2600 American economists declared that many policies could be imple-mented in the United States that would slow cli-mate change but would not cause harm to our liv-ing standards and that would also improve future U.S. productivity. But the problem is so massive it is hard to imagine any attempted solution that would not be enormously expensive. Nevertheless it is fairly obvious that waiting to act would be far more costly. Jamieson maintains that econom-ics alone can resolve little because “not all of the calculations can be performed.” He asserts that, “[E]conomics can recommend systems of incen-tives that may produce desired results. It can tell us how to do things but not whether we should do them.”

The challenges of climate change also ex-tend beyond our common-sense morality. Ever since the Rio Summit the language of action against climate change has moved from preven-tion to adaptation to abatement of greenhouse gas emissions. Abatement, however, raises the ques-tions of who should pay and how should priorities be set on who and what to save. It is difficult for most of us to accept responsibility for something that will cause harm to people in the far distant future. We know that advantaged people are caus-ing future problems for disadvantaged people, but it is hard to visualize how our individual actions

like driving or flying can be construed as a moral problem. Jamieson believes our current ethical reasoning is not equipped to address this prob-lem in a way that clearly involves institutional or individual action, and that we must go beyond developing ethics for climate change and create a new set of moral principles that will guide us and future generations to find meaning in a changing world. These would include certain virtues that will induce us to act reasonably.

The writer presents seven compelling poli-cies that “do not require comprehensive agree-ments across large, diverse populations in order to implement,” along with three principles for how they should be applied. He concludes: “Despite the unprecedented nature of the challenge, hu-man life will have meaning as long as there are people to take up the burden. It matters what we do and how we live.”

While many may find this book difficult at times, most readers will, at the very least, come away with a new perspective on the thorny prob-lem of climate change. Now we await the 2015 Paris Conference with the hope that it will suc-ceed in reaching its goal to achieve, for the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations, a bind-ing and universal agreement on the reduction of carbon emissions by all the nations of the world. u

Reason in a Dark Time continued from page 11

Now we await the 2015 Paris Conference

with the hope that it will succeed in

reaching its goal to achieve, for the first

time in over 20 years of UN negotiations, a binding and universal

agreement on the reduction of carbon emissions by all the

nations of the world.

A few of the excellent photos taken by Corina Yballa, see article page eight. Clockwise from top right: colorful mussles, a well-defined chiton, a beautiful clear photo of a tidepool sculpin and bright purple sea urchins

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