Category Archives: Citizen Science

What’s New with the Green Crab Survey

by Kes Tautvydas '11

See bottom of page for other articles about this invasive green crab, including our finding the first one on Whidbey Island, and followup trapping

It is spring and with it comes another round of monitoring for the European Green crabs by our SWS citizen science volunteers. We are part of a big project covering many sites all over Puget Sound led by Washington Sea Grant (WSG) at the University of Washington and the WADFW. Dr. Emily Grason from the University of Washington is the coordinator. This will be the second full season of monitoring, although we did one month of monitoring in September of 2015 to get started. As of last year, we have four sites on Whidbey Island: Deer Lagoon, Lagoon Point, Race Lagoon, and Penn Cove Lagoon with Tom Vos, Kes Tautvydas/Bridget Simon, Jamie Hartley, and Charlie Seablom as team captains respectively. On Camano Island, there are two sites: Elger Bay and Iverson Spit with Jay Mouton and Kate Vagner as team captains. Each team has anywhere from 4 to 6 SWS volunteers and in some cases even 6 volunteers may not be enough. Once a month, during low tides from April thru September, the teams go to their sites and set traps, survey the wrack line for flora and fauna, and do a molt survey. Sometimes you may find green crab molt but not catch a live green crab. The next day the traps are examined and data collected on the catch. The monitoring season opened with workshops at Padilla Bay, Port Townsend and other places around Puget Sound earlier in the year where we learned the latest about green crabs and got our gear and data sheets. Several SWS volunteers attended, some returnees and other new volunteers.

Measuring Crabs

So far we have not found any green crabs on Whidbey or Camano Island but that may not be the case in the future. Last year green crab molt was found at Wescot Bay on San Juan Island and then in September four green crabs were found in Padilla Bay. This year, unfortunately, on Wednesday 4/19 during the tenth year of monitoring at Dungeness Spit in Sequim, WA four green crabs were caught at Graveyard Spit in the Dungeness Spit Wildlife Refuge. The WSA crab team immediately jumped on this and over the next few days five green crabs were captured each day. It is now safe to say that the invasion of green crabs into Puget Sound has started. Why are we concerned? It is because green crabs are destructive to eco systems by eroding mud banks, destroying eelgrass beds, competing with Dungeness crabs, and in general attacking anything that is smaller than they are like shore crabs. They are very aggressive even though they prefer to inhabit quiet estuaries and salt marsh canals.

Green crabs may be identified by the following characteristics: 5 spines to the outside of each eye; up to 4” across the carapace; wider at front than back of carapace. The color varies from dark mottled green to orange or red. Be on the lookout for these invaders, even checking molts you may find.

Find out more about WSG Crab Team and about identifying these invaders. [more]

Articles from Washington Sea Grant about our SWS activities in support of monitoring for invasive European Green Crab

Trapping for European Green Crab on Whidbey Island – Lagoon Point – October 2017
First European Crab Captured on Whidbey Island – Lagoon Point – September 2017
our Deer Lagoon Team – spring 2017

2017 Bull Kelp “Snapshot” for Island County

by Linda Rhodes MRC Member

HELP CAPTURE A 2017 “SNAPSHOT” OF BULL KELP LOCATIONS

You have seen it offshore, waving in the swell and streaming with the current. Sometimes it’s washed up on the beach in a slippery tangle. Bull kelp (Nereocystis leutkeana) is one of the largest algae in the Salish Sea. It can form underwater forests, providing physical habitat for animals and other algae while supporting critical food webs from bacteria through mammals and birds. The growing awareness of the role of bull kelp beds in ecosystem function is focusing more attention on where beds occur, how beds change through the seasons, and who inhabits the beds.

Several years ago, the Island County Marine Resources Committee (MRC) initiated a bull kelp project in collaboration with the Northwest Straits Initiative and other regional MRCs. Because bull kelp are annual plants, beds can disappear from view during the winter, and may not reappear the following spring. Washington Department of Natural Resources has evidence of declines of bull kelp beds in Central and South Puget Sound, and there are anecdotal reports of bull kelp bed disappearances in San Juan County. Although Island County supports robust beds in the Smith and Minor Island Aquatic Reserve, there is poor documentation of kelp beds County-wide.

In 2017, the MRC bull kelp project is trying to capture a “snapshot” of bull kelp locations along Island County’s shoreline and nearshore. Using sightings from the beach or from boats, you can report bull kelp locations on-line. The best data would include GPS coordinates to allow better mapping (there are free smart-phone GPS applications), but all reports are important. And redundancy in reporting is good – multiple reports of a bed increases the confidence the bed truly exists. We’ll be comparing reports with aerial photographs taken by Gregg Ridder, and will post a final map of locations after the season’s end.

Thanks for helping with the 2017 “snapshot” of bull kelp in Island County, and spread the word!

Introductory page for the 2017 “snapshot”: the following 3 links are also on this page.

Recognizing bull kelp: make sure you know what bull kelp looks like.
Collecting bull kelp data: brief instructions on collecting GPS coordinates.
The Survey Form

Maxine’s Journey

On Oct 31, 2013 an older female Harbor porpoise’s body washed up on Maxwelton beach near the boat launch; but another chapter began that same day.

The Marine Mammal Stranding Network (MMSN) was notified and Howard Garrett collected the carcass to preserve it until a necropsy could be performed. Those familiar with the Stranding Network know that dead marine mammals are often taken for scientific research.

A complete necropsy was performed on November 3rd, 2013 by Dr. Stephanie Norman and Dr. Barry Rickman. Several MMSN volunteers assisted, Matt Klope, Susan Berta, Mary Jo Adams, Howard Garrett and Sandy Dubpernell.

The necropsy showed she was 66.5 inches long and weighed around 151 lbs. She was in fair to poor condition and was pregnant. Her teeth were worn and a few were missing. Samples of the internal organs were taken and it was decided to try and preserve the skeleton as a future educational exhibit.

When the organs were tested it was found she had numerous neoplastic cells (cancer cells) in her lungs, spleen and lymph glands. The finding was she had Lymphoma cancer which is extremely uncommon in porpoise populations.

In early January, her skeleton was sent to Jeff Bradley, Mammalogy Collection Manager at the Burke Museum in Seattle. Jeff utilized his dermestid beetles to clean the bones, saving much time and unpleasant work for the volunteers.

On April 21st, 2016 Jeff sent the bones back and she arrived on Whidbey in several sacks, a bag(s) of bones. Dis-articulated and ready for the bone crew. Sandy Dubpernell sent out a call for volunteers. It was time to get her re-assembled to become an educational exhibit. Over sixteen volunteers responded and thanks to Cathy Robinson and Dr. Dave Parent, who generously let us use their workshop in Langley, we set to work reconstructing the porpoise, now named Maxine.

In August, the Porpoise Pod, as Sandy called us, assembled and sorted the bones finding what went where. Next was painting each bone with a primer fungicide. As we progressed a stand was built and her vertebrae were drilled and placed on a 3/8″ steel rod. With that complete the detail work began. Each bone had to be drilled a small steel pin inserted and glued then attached to the next bone. Considering the 100 plus bones this took quite a while. With one to two workshops a week from September until December the project was completed December 1st, 2016. An estimated 150+ hours were spent on reconstruction alone.

Phil Kempbell carved a duplicate pelvic bone, bet no one can tell which one it is? Caroline Spehar had the tedious job of putting the flipper bones together, with great patience and a job well done. The final push to finish before the Holidays was done by Kathy Fritts, called “The Driller”, Shari Devlin who was “Glue Gunner Gal ” and Debra Paros “The Bone Master. “

On December 5th, Maxine was carefully loaded into a car and driven a few miles to her new home. The paparazzi was there, well, Susan Berta along with South Whidbey Record reporter Evan Thompson. Maxine was carried in and hung and is now in her place of honor. She will now help educate all who visit the Langely Whale Center.

Please take a trip to the Langley Whale Center to meet Maxine! A workbook including photos of the entire process from the necropsy, tissue slides and skeletal reconstruction will be available at the Whale Center for viewing.

Many thanks to all the volunteers who helped with the reconstruction process: Dr. Dave Anderson, Shari Devlin, Sandy Dubpernell, Kathy Fritts, Bonnie Gretz, Jill Hein, Garry Heinrich, LLiana Lopez, Priscilla Lopez, Suzette Montano, Sandra Pollard, Debra Paros, Wendy Berta Sines, Caroline Spehar, Micah (Caroline’s grandson), and Terry Welch. These volunteersrepresent various volunteer organizations including the Langley Whale Center, Marine Mammal Stranding Network, Orca Network, and the Sound Water Stewards of Island County.

Surf Smelt Spawning Near Cornet Bay Restoration Site!

For the first time to Dan Pentilla’s knowledge, evidence of Surf Smelt spawning has been found in Cornet Bay east of the boat ramp. When Dan processed the Cornet Bay samples turned in recently by Sound Water Steward (SWS) volunteers participating in the Forage Fish Sampling project, he found over 100 surf smelt eggs. As many SWS members know, Dan Pentilla is a regionally recognized expert on forage fish, which include Surf Smelt, Pacific Sand Lance and Pacific Herring.

The Marine Resources Committee (MRC) sponsors the Forage Fish Sampling project in Island County and SWS volunteers provide most of the field labor. Ruth Richards and Lois Farrington are MRC co-leads for the Forage Fish Sampling project, directing and participating in sampling several beaches for the presence of forage fish eggs. They are both graduates of the last Beach Watchers class of 2015 and active Sound Water Stewards (SWS).

The MRC Forage Fish Sampling project includes both Index Sites and Restoration Sites. The Index Sites are sampled monthly and the Restoration Sites (near or at habitat restoration projects) are sampled every two weeks. SWS volunteers at the Cornet Bay site over the last two years have included Jay Adams, Carl Klein, Lisa Harkins, Betsy McCullough, Gill Montano, Suzette Montano, Janine Shelley, Steve Shelley, and Rich Yukubousky. There are several Index and Restoration Sites on both Camano Island and Whidbey Island which are being sampled by these and other SWS volunteers, but more volunteers are welcome.

Other than this being the first documentation of Surf Smelt spawning in Cornet Bay, it is especially interesting because this is an MRC Restoration Site. The Cornet Bay Restoration Project included removing a creosote bulkhead, rehabilitating the degraded intertidal beach and planting native riparian vegetation in a heavily used area of Deception Pass Park which supports a boat ramp, dock and an extensive parking lot.

While the Surf Smelt eggs were not located within the boundary of the Cornet Bay Restoration Project, they were found less than 1000 feet to the east (at sample site 1). Two other forage fish sampling sites are located within the actual restoration area. Since the drift cell along this shoreline of Cornet Bay moves sediment from east to west, it is hoped that future sampling will document forage fish spawning in the area where the bulkhead was removed and the beach restored.

The general concept of habitat restoration projects is similar to the premise of the movie Field of Dreams “Build it and they will come”. Let’s hope Surf Smelt find the Cornet Bay Restoration Project suitable spawning habitat.

Now Monitoring Tillicum Beach on Camano

Tillicum Beach on southeast Camano has been added to the 11 beaches the Camano Sound Water Stewards usually monitor. You can see Kayak Point on the mainland from this pebbly beach. Tillicum replaces Sunny Shores in the Camano Island monitoring line up.

This area had been in the thoughts of the volunteers for several years and when members, Elaine Chan and Cynthia Diaboch who live on Tillicum Beach, volunteered to be co-captains, it was a perfect fit. They enlisted help from Pete Domoto and Dave Brubaker, both experienced intertidal monitors, and it was added to the list.

The first monitoring took place on August 2016 and we celebrated with an oyster BBQ! Cynthia was the host and Pete was the BBQ chef. We look forward to more monitoring and good food in 2017.

Learn more about out Intertidal Bio-Monitoring Program.

Intertidal Monitoring Update – 2016

We’ve made some changes to our monitoring program this year, so thought we’d start with a bit of history.

Early Days

We monitored our first beach in 1994 (as WSU Island County Beach Watchers).

By 2003, the Beach Monitoring Procedure guide was published (view pdf) and 11 beaches on Camano and 23 beaches on Whidbey islands had permanent monitoring profile lines. Since then, these beaches have been monitored annually.

What began as a method to provide baseline data (a base or normal condition of our beaches) has now become a long term study of the status of our beaches and the trends of beach slope, substrate, and populations of invertebrates and plants. It is the first and longest beach monitoring project in the Puget Sound. It was intended as a volunteer education exercise (citizen science project) with the expectation that the data would also be useful for research. Thus the original protocol was designed to be scientifically valid, and the collected information was stored in a database, but no one was analyzing it.

A 2014 revisit – protocol and data

In 2014, our coordinator contacted the Puget Sound Ecosystem Monitoring Program of the Puget Sound Partnership. A data analysis team, headed by Jason Toft from the University of Washington Sea Grant, was formed to assess the potential of the data set. After probing the integrity of the monitoring protocol and the data set itself, they came to understand how unique our long term data set is and saw immediate uses.

Their conclusions

our annual monitoring project creates a valuable resource
there is no need to modify our monitoring protocol
Their analysis was submitted for publication: “How Citizen Science Informs Volunteer, Management, and Science Objectives.” The principal author is Jason Toft. The final version was published here (where you can download the article): https://theoryandpractice.citizenscienceassociation.org/article/10.5334/cstp.100/

Recent Changes – Whidbey

Some of Whidbey’s west side beaches have changed enough over the past 15 years that the original profile starting point markers were no longer present. A team was established to look into this and other opportunities for improvement.

To free up resources to re-calibrate the beaches, and to balance the need to allocate citizen science volunteers over many different activities, we decided to move to a three year rotation for each beach. So moving forward, we will monitor 8 beaches each year.

Recent Changes – Camano

A new beach, Tillicum Beach, was added in August of this year to replace Sunny Shores that had to be discontinued 4 years ago. Tillicum Beach is on the southeast side of Camano Island facing Port Susan.

Making the Protocol More Readable

A Camano/Whidbey team has been established (led by Dave Brubaker and Kelly Zupich) to review the 2003 Beach Monitoring Procedures (protocol) with the goal of editing, updating, and clarifying specific monitoring procedures. The goal is an updated protocol (no protocol changes, just more understandable) by early 2017.

Thanks

To all the dedicated volunteers over the last 22 years that have made this such a long-term success! For pictures of some volunteers at work in 2016 – please see our google photos album:

Using a google photo album:

Click on the first photo to enlarge it
Then click the 'i' icon at upper right to make captions visible
Then use the arrow icons (or your fingers) to move between pictures

Measuring Eelgrass Beds

Eelgrass (Zostera marina) is important to the Salish Sea as habitat and food for many animal species, as a source of carbon sequestration and nutrient cycling, and as a sediment filtration system. It is an indicator species for ecosystem stress, pollution and environmental health of the Sound.

Over the last eight years our team and volunteers have measured the eelgrass bed areas for over 37 different sites (1000 meters of shoreline) in Island County to determine the status of this important resource. We have used a combination of underwater video and aerial photography to characterize the eelgrass beds in the near-shore.

Some of the sites were re-measured every year (Cornet Bay, Monroe Landing in Penn Cove and Freeland Park in Holmes Harbor), some have been re-measured every three years (other Penn Cove, Holmes Harbor, South Whidbey and Camano sites) and still others were measured for specific events (construction or extreme weather events). In all we have measured the bed areas nearly 80 times and have an aerial photographic record of the entire shoreline in Island County. To date almost all of the sites have been shown to be stable within our limits of detection, a few have shown changes of bed patterns within the site and two have significantly increased bed areas (good news!).

This year Albert Foster single-handedly explored the use of multi-beam sonar as a new tool to measure underwater vegetation. We will be comparing his results to our more conventional underwater video and aerial assessment to determine how this technique may be used in the future.

Our work is supported by the Northwest Straits Commission, managed by the Island County Marine Resource Committee and collaborates with WA DNR. For a more complete description of the project and results please contact Gregg Ridder.

The Eelgrass team includes Tom Vos, Ken Urstad, Kes Tautvydas, Gregg Ridder, Mark Kennedy, Bob Gentz, Albert Foster and Neal Clark

Forage Fish Spawning Survey – Island County Marine Resources Committee

Forage fish are a key link in the marine food web supporting much larger predator species such as salmon. Without vast numbers of these finger-size fish, which typically swim in schools, the larger predators and many seabirds could not be sustained. In Puget Sound, the three principal species of forage fish are Pacific Herring, Pacific Sand Lance and Surf Smelt; the health of these populations is of great importance to all who are working for marine recovery.

Two species of Puget Sound’s forage fish, Pacific Sand Lance, Ammodytes hexapterus, and Surf Smelt, Hypomesus pretiosus, deposit their eggs in the upper intertidal zone on sandy-gravelly beaches. Protecting and restoring healthy spawning habitat for these forage fish is an important component of salmon restoration.

The Island County Marine Resources Committee has been surveying forage fish spawning since 1999. It is now completing the first year of the most recent effort to continue surveying our beaches for evidence of use by Pacific Sand Lance and Surf Smelt.

The goals of the intertidal forage fish spawning surveys in Island County are to:

Enhance baseline data
Document changes over time in forage fish usage of Island County beaches using established methods that will provide data comparable across monitoring years.

This survey is designed to establish continuity with existing WDNR and WDFW data in an effort to define trends and develop an understanding of the conditions and processes affecting the study areas over time. To achieve this, all surveys will use established standards and sampling methodologies developed and made available by WDFW. As the planned monitoring program is implemented over succeeding years, it will generate data that can be used to establish baseline conditions, define trends, document changes, and identify potential restoration opportunities.

Island County Marine Resources Committee conducts several inter-tidal and sub-tidal surveys, including forage fish, eelgrass and kelp. In addition, the MRC participates in shoreline restoration projects in the County. In an effort to create a deeper knowledge base of the health of our shoreline, we chose monitoring sites at which survey or restoration projects are being conducted. Restoration projects at our sites are in feasibility, in-progress, or post-project phases.

In addition, in collaboration with WDFW’s implementation of Senate Bill #5166, we are surveying at four Index sites, defined by WDFW as public-access sites with known history of spawning presence.

Sites we survey on Whidbey and Camano –

Waterman Preserve
South Sandy Point – index
Freeland Park – index
Long Point – index
indjammer Park – index
Ala Spit
Cornet Bay
Maple Grove – index
Camano Island State Park

Between March 2015, when our planning began, and August 2016, with surveys beginning in November 2015, project leads have contributed a total of 565 hours to the survey, and have driven over 5000 miles. We have overseen 48 surveys, representing 144 samples, and collected 18 samples from Index sites to date. Our 16 volunteers have contributed 254 hours of invaluable assistance.

Results to date show that Ala Spit and Maple Grove are yielding the greatest numbers of Surf Smelt eggs. In addition, Ala Spit and Camano Island State Park yielded small numbers of Pacific Sand Lance last January.

We have been pleased to contribute to a project that results in policy informed and improved by science. We look forward to reviewing the results of our effort once WDFW analyzes the data. Until then, we remain curious, work to perfect our process, and practice a strict adherence to the protocol.

Ruth Richards &
Lois Farrington

Co-leads, MRC Forage Fish Survey

(both Beach Watchers Class of 2015)

Sampling Forage Fish Spawning Sites

SWS partners with the Island County Marine Resources Committee (MRC) to gather forage fish egg samples at local beaches. Nancy Hotter ’15 and Sheila Means ’06 gather samples at Camano Island State Park while Ruth Richards ’15, MRC co-lead, fills in the data sheet behind them.

Gathering a substrate sample to look for forage fish eggs.

After collection, the samples are screened and winnowed to reduce the volume. Sand lance and surf smelt, as obligate beach spawners, are the targets of the survey. Their eggs attach to grains of sand, and are winnowed out of the bulk sample with a “blue bowl” in a technique adapted from gold panning.

The screening/winnowing process

The winnowed material is then put into a sample jar, to be examined under a microscope, and any eggs tallied.

For more information on forage fish and the sampling process, visit WA DFW – Marine Beach Spawning Fish Ecology which has many resources, including this introductory slide show on forage fish, the kinds of beaches where they spawn, and an introduction to the sampling protocol. This MRC article talks about earlier sampling at Cornet Bay on Whidbey Island, in assocation with restoration efforts there and this more recent article talks about the 2015-2016 survey.

Biomonitoring at Utsalady

On an overcast day (June 21), 23 Sound Waters Stewards completed our annual biomonitoring at the Utsalady Park. Ulva was predominant on this morning and provided cover for more than 180 crab in the quadrats. Additionally, consistent with many beaches on Camano Island mussels have made a dramatic “comeback”. One hundred forty-five mussels were found in the quadrats.