Lizzy Tully, Cody Cordle and Daniel Briggs take part in a 2011 nightime beachwalk .
Sunday January 22, 8 p.m. at East Sound Beach in front of the Outlook Inn
The BeachWatchers/Kwiaht/Marine Health Observatory are planning for the winter low-tide night walk which is fast approaching: Sunday January 22, beginning at 8 p.m.. Kwiaht founder Russel Barsh says, “Headlamps, cameras, and warm clothes are in order! I would not discourage a hip flask or thermos of something warm, or warming. Depending on the weather, we might try seining (last winter we caught some smelt, pipefish, tubesnouts and snailfish).
“The main focus, however, should be nudibranchs, since they seemed to be most abundant in winter the last two years! Let’s be sure to do a thorough combing-over the Far Rocks, and turn over a few square meters of rocks, too!”
Barsh is also in the process of scheduling 2012 fieldwork, taking into account low-tide days, the time of day when the island should begin to be walkable (and the water low enough to get to the Far Rocks) based on the observations of tides last summer, and a tentative monitoring focus for each day.
The draft schedule includes two days for Invertebrate surveys (the Far Rocks survey, and the quads — what we have been calling protocol B and protocol C) just to be sure there is enough low tide time to get them completed.
Several days are set aside specifically for bird and flower surveys, in April through early June. Some Saturdays are planned for outreach on the island, and AND a public information booth at the Farmer’s Market.
Barsh’s plans also include an afternoon meeting, tentatively scheduled for Valentine’s Day, Tuesday, Feb. 14.
