At Home In...Sand And Eel Grass

foreign day sea and Sandy Beach meet in gentle ripples along the tideline red crabs are here hiding in the cover provided by eelgrass while this plant grows sparsely in the shells it forms dense beds in the deeper water farther out whoops it isn't easy to pick up a live crab you have to watch your fingers crabs have strong Claws and Powerful mouth Parts which they use for holding biting and chewing their tough animal prey and since they must hunt for their food their eyesight is Keen while the clear eyes are set in horny sockets they may be extended on short stalks giving the crab a wider field of vision crabs have 10 legs two of them often equipped with strong pincers the body head and limbs are covered with a coat of Tough Armor thank you the Slender bladed eelgrass is deeply rooted in sand and grows entirely underwater its Rich cover provides a home for many different kinds of sea animals here they find shelter a bountiful supply of food and a place to lay their eggs green bloody eels look very much like Blades of eelgrass waving about in the tide their favorite hiding places are under rocks or in thickets of green vegetation foreign many different sea creatures lay their eggs on eelgrass this anchors them securely and prevents their being washed away in the tide while some egg cases are strangely Coral others resemble tiny insect cocoons some of the isopods found here are the breadth and color of a blade of eelgrass they are hard to see until they move they have golden eyes and their antennae are long and whip-like some of the tiny fish are unbelievably colorful and graceful especially when they're dancing pipefish resemble long slender tubes or pipes unlike other fish the male of the pipefish carries the eggs and young and a special pouch on his Underside their fins are so small and transparent that you can hardly see them several of the small fish found commonly among eelgrass have a distinctly greenish cast they usually blend with their surroundings crab has found an empty snail shell and has climbed inside the shell will serve as a portable home for him this little fish has a very exciting dance it moves as though it has taken special lessons from a hula dancer its fins resemble the delicate fairy wings of a hummingbird but now it's time for intermission and to rest a little further out denser taller stands of eelgrass we find the so-called brooding anemone the mouth is surrounded by dozens of Slender fleshy tentacles which Aid in capturing food the base is firmly attached and anchored to a blade of eelgrass rooting anemones have a very interesting life history the young are hatched from eggs which have been held inside the digestive cavity they later Escape through the adult's mouth and glide down to the base here they remain attached until they are ready to leave the parent and begin a life on their own at this stage the young are about the size of a pinhead the base of the adult would barely cover a silver dime flowers sea stars are sometimes brought into shallower water by the Flowing Tide they may be the size of a wash tub with as many as two dozen bright orange arms they sometimes detach an arm which is then capable of swimming around by itself for many days in this form the arm may even grow into a new sea star sea stars move by means of hundreds of Slender tube feet which are filled with water each foot has a suction cup at the tip to assist in holding onto rocks and the clams which they open and uses food several different kinds of jellyfish may be seen swimming gracefully in the water above the eelgrass some of them resemble a tiny umbrella or perhaps a transparent mushroom the Slender tentacles around the margin of the umbrella contain many stinging cells which may be shot out to capture the tiny animals upon which the jellyfish feeds there's one that didn't get away now we can appreciate why these animals are called jellyfish seagulls are always overhead searching for food still another isobot as green as the Eel Grass upon which it lives isopod means equal ligand the seven pairs of legs on the thorax are all about the same when placed in a pan of seawater for a closer look bloody eels Slither around like snakes while little is known about Bloody eels much has been learned about the life history of freshwater eels which carry out their long migration to the sargasso sea in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean there they lay millions of eggs which hatch into the tiny eels that swim all the way back to the freshwater streams from which the parents came the captured animals should always be returned to their cool home in the sea pullers of the West Coast Rush far up the sandy beaches bringing with the many interesting things from the Briny depths empty sand dollar shells three at once all have come in on the Flowing Tide each is about the size and shape of a silver dollar the round opening of the mouth is located near the center of the underside live sand dollars have five special sets of tube feet which come through tiny holes in the upper side of the shell these form a star pattern showing that the sand dollar is a relative of the sea urchin and the sea star the sand soul is a very small flatfish often found partially buried in sand they seem to prefer shallow tide pools a short fin runs nearly all the way around the body like other fish the sand soil must obtain its Oxygen by continually taking in water and passing it over the gills the silvery white underparts are seldom seen until the soul dies tide pool sculpins are strange little fish often found in the same pools they are almost exactly the color of the Sandy Bottom foreign to the sand they all but disappear before your eyes you blink and they're gone some of the shrimp are also the color of wet sand but the water is teeming with many different kinds of shrimp some of them are bright green in color the ebbing tide exposes long stretches of wet Sandy Beach these areas provide a rich feeding ground for birds they have already pecked many holes in the sand in search of food these interesting patterns in the sand must surely be the trails of worms if so there must be thousands and thousands of them beneath the surface hungry robins have flown in from the trees higher up along the shore a Curlew or wimble has flown in too perhaps we can discover what animals the birds are searching for they are blood worms strange little worms with the red coloring matter of the blood in the fluid rather than in the red blood cells as in most animals blood worms eat sand grains in order to secure the bits of food stuck to them What A Feast for Hungry Birds there must be something else exciting here it's ganio nemus surely the most beautiful of all the jellyfish found in eelgrass the best time to look for these fascinating little jellyfish is in the spring when they are most active how strangely they swim the whole body is swiftly closed on the water trapped in the hollow Underside then they shoot quickly forward we didn't invent jet propulsion after all jellyfish have been using it for Generations but when floating downward the body is relaxed and the long slender tentacles are extended the jellyfish are trying to capture their food during hunting activity the tentacles form a wide snare equipped with hundreds of tiny stinging cells these special cells are capable of catching very small fish shrimps and other animals upon which the jellyfish feed but it is now time to return the fascinating jellyfish to the Sea where they can complete their life cycles in the broad pastures of sand and deal grass