Trip to da Sandy and Muddy Shore

 This morning we went tide pooling at Cholla Bay, which is also known as The Mudflats. The first characteristic of this area is the long stretch of mud and shells covering the beach. It’s still crazy to me that during high tide all of this covered. Molluscs are seen everywhere here, you hear crunching as you walk because we are stepping on tons of their little shells. Some molluscs we saw were moon snails, cone snails and pen shells.




We haven’t yet identified one the first creature we came across, it might be a burrowing sand anemone. 

We also came across two more octopuses, the specific types being a Pygmy (the one with the eggs hatching) and Fitch. These octopuses were found in clam shells, they can crawl into these small spaces because they don’t have bones. They also have the ability to close the clam shell, showing how intelligent and agile these creatures are. When it comes to finding octopuses, Whitney seems to be the one to go to because she is 3 for 3 on all the octopuses we have found so far.


We also found a sting ray! Gabriel spotted it in deeper water and we were able to capture it. They normally come this close to shore for hunting or mating. 

Something I didn’t expect to see in shallow water was a spotted grouper. Another fish we found was a guitar fish, but it was deceased. 



-Ethan 




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