Volunteer naturalist Linda Barre reports:
A red octopus crawling between tidepools at FMR. (Not the same one Linda played tug-of-war with.)
The other day, the high school students I was leading on a tidepool tour found a red octopus in a surge channel. It slid under a rock to hide. I gently put the tip of my bamboo chopstick pointer near where the octopus vanished to see what would happen. The tips of two tentacles came out to explore the chopstick, feeling around. (more…)
During our annual night tidepooling excursion last week, visitors and volunteers saw nudibranchs, a sunflower star, and a huge number of very active kelp crabs. There were also numerous reports of encounters with our resident crowd pleaser, the red octopus (Octopus rubescens).
One visitor took four short videos of octopus encounters, each showing fascinating behavior such as changing color and texture to blend with surroundings, disappearing into nearly invisible cracks, squirting water, and even catching a small crab! Here are links to the videos on YouTube:
Tinsel the harbor seal was rescued at FMR on December 6, 2010. Photo by Sue Pemberton.
Ranger Sarah Lenz reports:
On Monday Dec. 6, 2010, I noticed one adult harbor seal remained hauled out on the beach after the rest of the group moved out to the outer reef. The male harbor seal had sunken eyes, curled whiskers, and appeared to be underweight. Marine Mammal Center (MMC) volunteer Sue Pemberton and I enlisted some helpers to carry the 123 pound patient to a vehicle and get him off to the MMC for treatment.
Here’s what they had to say during his first few days of treatment: (more…)