Report Details

Today, we observed a whopping total of 1,059 Ochre sea stars (Pisaster ochraceus) at the northern rocky outcroppings exposed by the low tides at Silver Point. We had 8 team members participate for 1.63 hours for a total survey effort of 13 hours. These efforts involved visually inspecting the stars for signs of sea star wasting syndrome (SSWS) as part of our observational study. A total of 1,001 stars were healthy (94.5%), 40 had one white lesion on the ray or central disk (mild SSWS; 3.8%), while 18 individuals had more than one lesion, arm curling, body disintegration, or organs emerging from body cavity (severe SSWS; 1.7%). We sent images to MARINe who confirmed our correct designations of mild vs. severe disease category symptoms. Size class measurements ranged from the minute 10mm to a dinner plate sized 240mm, measured from the center of the central disk to the longest ray. No stars were touched in this observation (visual inspection only). Of the 1,001 healthy individuals counted, 837 ndividuals measured between 50-140mm in terms of size class designations, which is 83.4% of all healthy Pisaster measured. Many juvenile stars were observed, especially in the crevices of California mussels along the rock wall of Silver Point rock. Additional tide pool invertebrates seen included a stiff-footed sea cucumber, tar-spot sea cucumber, Hind’s chiton, Lined chiton, Hairy chiton (upon visual inspection, it looked like someone pried this chiton off the rocks), Frilled commensal scaleworm on an ochre sea star, Rockweed isopod, Pacific rock crab, California mussels (thousands!), and an interesting coralline algae in the genus Bossiella.

Conditions

Temperature: 65 F. Cloud Cover: Sunny. Tide Level: -0.9 feet.

Human Activities

Dogs off-leash at Silver Point tidepools

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All Mile 311 Reports

Showing 8 of 26 reports

Mile 311

Jockey Cap, Silver Pt, S Cannon Beach, Tolovana Beach

April 13, 2024

A mild morning walk on mile 311 during an outgoing tide revealed 5 species of nudibranch, 3 species of anemone, and an impressive flock of 150 surfbirds that landed in the rocky outcroppings between Jockey Cap and Silver Point.

sultanym

Mile 311

Jockey Cap, Silver Pt, S Cannon Beach, Tolovana Beach

September 9, 2022

What a beautiful morning at mile 311!

browneyed

Mile 311

Jockey Cap, Silver Pt, S Cannon Beach, Tolovana Beach

August 14, 2022

Today, we observed a total of 896 Ochre sea stars (Pisaster ochraceus) at the northern rocky outcroppings exposed by the low tides at Silver Point.

sultanym

Mile 311

Jockey Cap, Silver Pt, S Cannon Beach, Tolovana Beach

July 31, 2022

Today, we observed a total of 1388 Ochre sea stars (Pisaster ochraceus) at the northern rocky outcroppings exposed by the low tides at Silver Point.

sultanym

Mile 311

Jockey Cap, Silver Pt, S Cannon Beach, Tolovana Beach

July 17, 2022

Today, we observed a whopping total of 1,059 Ochre sea stars (Pisaster ochraceus) at the northern rocky outcroppings exposed by the low tides at Silver Point.

sultanym

Mile 311

Jockey Cap, Silver Pt, S Cannon Beach, Tolovana Beach

June 18, 2022

Today, we observed 464 Ochre sea stars (Pisaster ochraceus) at the northern rocky outcroppings exposed by the low tides at Silver Point.

sultanym

Mile 311

Jockey Cap, Silver Pt, S Cannon Beach, Tolovana Beach

June 4, 2022

A morning walk on mile 311 from Tolovanna Wayside to Silver Point/Jockey Cap revealed a high relative abundance of ochre sea stars (Pisaster ochraceus) in rocky tidepools during the outgoing tide.

sultanym

Mile 311

Jockey Cap, Silver Pt, S Cannon Beach, Tolovana Beach

March 28, 2022

At 9:16am, on 3/28/2022, I was birdwatching at Silver Point, Clatsop County when I was excited to observe a light-colored, white faced, large bodied sea otter swimming north around the left most sea stack.

sultanym