The coastline is very different in the north as compared to San Diego County! Nice muricids like
Nucella lamellosa appear, as well as many other colder water-loving species. Some old friends are there also (like
Olivella biplicata).
We started out on the coast in Humboldt County, exploring Trinidad, Clam Beach and Humboldt Bay.
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| Tidepools at Trinidad, California |
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| Pacific Blood Star (Henricia leviuscula). One of a few scattered around the intertidal area. I love this brilliant color - and I have never observed them in southern California. |
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| Leather Star (Dermasterias imbricata). Another fairly common sea star. The sea stars seemed fairly healthy, and I saw no sign of wasting disease. |
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| Black Katy Chiton, Katharina tunicata. A common chiton of these northern beaches. |
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| Gumboot Chiton, Cryptochiton stelleri. There were plenty of these huge chitons here and there amongst the rocks. I have never seen so many before. Probably 8-10 total over about two hours of exploring. |
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| Another Gumboot Chiton - a good eight inches long. |
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| Lepidozona mertensii, a very small but prettily-marked and colored chiton. |
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| Doriopsilla albopunctata, a nudibranch that was abundant in the tide pools. |
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| Did not see so many of these - Triopha catalinae. |
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| Calliostoma ligatum - VERY common among the rocks. |
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| Ceratostoma foliatum - interesting to see "in situ" |
We visited Clam Beach, just north of Arcata, on the second morning.
Olivella biplicata had been revealed by the low tide.
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| The "typical" color morph |
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| The less common white morph. This is what I've seen in Mission Bay in San Diego as well, in terms of abundances of the color morphs. |
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| Lots of tracks in the sand left by the little olives! |
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| Beach Hopper, Orchestoidea californiana. |
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| Close-up |
On the third morning we visited Humboldt Bay. The sheltered environment provided habitat for different organisms.
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| Beached crab - I think this may be a rock crab. I am not up to speed on my crabs! |
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| A jelly of some sort in the extremely shallow water. |
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| Nucella lamellosa along a rocky stretch of the bay. |
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| A "colony" of Nucella lamellosa. |
Eventually we headed north into Oregon and explored up the coast as far north as Otter Rock (just north of Newport).
I did not take as many photos in the field in Oregon, but here are the cleaned muricids collected along the way.
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| Nucella lamellosa, showing different color morphs and degrees of "frilliness". |
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| Nucella ostrina, which is the name for the more northerly of what used to be called Nucella emarginata. |
