Nudis and Cape Perpetua

On Thursday we headed out to Cape Perpetua to observe and gather specemins at Strawberry Hill. The weather was perfect and the tide pools were amazing!! On Wednesday we only managed to see a few nudibranchs but today there were everywhere! We have more than doubled our collection here in the lab and there is still one that we can't identify yet. This location is known for its large and bountiful supply of invertebrates and we found several things that we didn't see yesterday on top of the usual sea stars and anemones. By 10 AM it was 64 degrees out and when we got back a game of beach volleyball was started and provided entertainment for the rest of us while we ate lunch and sat on the porch. Everyone seems to be doing ok, some dealing with the sleep schedule better than others but we have almost survived our first week. Tomorrow we get to investigate the mud here in the bay and so we'll see how that goes. Laters ~ Kathryn

Above are a purple shore crab (Emigrapsus nudus) and a hermit crab without its shell.