My niece Jessica put up a post challenging her friends to flood FB with beach pictures. So I thought I’d bring on a little arch madness with a post on the sea arches of Mendocino County.
One of the arches you can see from the Mendocino Headlands
Sea arches are one of the most ephemeral of landforms, rarely lasting more than a century, often standing for only a few decades before the constant battering of the relentless surf sends them crashing down.
Stornetta Highlands, California Coastal National Monument
For instance, Natural Bridges State Park in Santa Cruz had 3 bridges in 1904. Today only one remains. If you’d like to see how dramatic these changes can be in such an incredibly short time, check out this article that Gary Griggs wrote for the Santa Aguila Foundation. The before and after pictures are astounding!
View from a tunnel on Seaside Beach
These geologic sculptures can be much more fragile than they look. Even thick, seemingly stable arches are subject to catastrophic collapse. In March 2015 an arch collapsed at Point Reyes National Seashore, killing a woman. If you’re walking the headlands of northern California and see signs warning you to stay back from the edges of the cliffs, heed them. Erosion is on a fast track here.
They call the formation on the left The Whale. No idea why.
Geohazards like these catastrophic collapses will become more and more common in future years, due to sea level rise caused by climate change.
An arch north of Westport
Your children may not see the same arches you did when they visit the Pacific Coast. But the forces that destroy these landforms are constantly carving new ones, exquisite jewels in a dynamic landscape ruled by the sea.
A new arch forming – What will it look like ten years from now?
When most people think of beachcombing, they think of bringing home treasures. Intriguing seashells, sand dollars, beautifully sculpted bits of driftwood – if you’re lucky maybe even a glass fishing float. There are beaches that hold precious stones – polished agates and moonstones, sometimes even fossils. With a little creativity, you might craft your finds to bring beauty to your home . They serve as mementos of special places and times.
Mementos, memories… I’ve done some memorable beachcombing for which all I have to show are memories. I spent a couple of winters in the Miami Vice days of the early 80’s in the Florida Keys. There was a different kind of treasure washing up on the beaches in those days. Sometimes you would walk the beach and find the wrack line cluttered with jettisoned cannabis. No wonder we wore t-shirts reading Save the Bales!
What IS that weird thing under the crab’s right claw?
Four hippies from Colorado camping on the coral coast, we found our tent stakes wouldn’t pierce the rocky shore. Since we couldn’t pitch the tent, we requisitioned the shell of a shack demolished by a hurricane. We built a thatched roof over our sleeping bags Robinson Crusoe style, and stuck a mangrove branch in a buoy as a Christmas tree. For ornaments, we searched for shells. By the next morning most of our ornaments, the unexpected homes of hermit crabs, had scurried away.
A little sponge – I think…
It’s not just about collecting. It’s about observing. Sometimes the best treasure is a tiny glimpse of that weird and wonderful alien world under the sea. I went beachcombing at Cape Lookout State Park in Oregon recently. This is one of my favorite beaches for finding treasures, especially after a storm moves through. This time, though, I didn’t take anything home but pictures – and questions about the strange debris showing up on the shoreline.
Sea Star and Mermaid’s Purse
I find a purple starfish and fling it back into the ocean, hoping it’s not already dead and has a second chance. The Pacific needs all the starfish it can get these days.
As I wander, I watch a seal fishing the surf about 100 yards offshore. All I can see is his head popping up through the waves, then down again. Birds are everywhere, gulls and crows scavenging for whatever the latest high tide has brought in. Crab for breakfast, anyone?
Crab for breakfast for Mr. Crow
It looks like carnage, some horrible massacre. Crab shells and appendages are by far the most common item in the wrack. It’s not as bad as it looks, though. Crabs tend to get too big for their britches and have to shed their shells and grow a new one. Most of the carapaces I see are castoffs. If a crab does tumble in with the tide, though, chances of running the gauntlet of shorebirds back to safety in the water are thin.
Corallina
The delicate pastel fronds of a tiny seaweed catch my eye. It reminds me of sea fans seen while snorkeling the coral reef in Florida. Its name, corallina, indicates I am not the only one who recognizes the resemblance. A little farther along is a tiny bit of sponge – I think. Or is it another seaweed?
Then I stumble onto something really bizarre. What ARE those weird white wormy things? Appendages to some strange jellyfish type animal? It’s so peculiar I just have to find out more. I stop in at the Interpretive Center at Yaquina Head.
Strange fact: These weird white wormy things (pyrosomes) glow in the dark!
This is one of the most popular tidepooling areas in Oregon and even THEY don’t know what these creatures are. We look through the field guides and ponder. A man working in the back overhears our conversation. “Oh, I know!”, he says, and pulls up an article on the computer.
They’re called pyrosomes. Like coral, each one is actually a little colony of organisms. They’re another indicator of climate change.
Cape Lookout State Park, OR
They usually live in warmer waters, something you might find in the seas off the coast of Southern California. They were exceedingly rare in Oregon. Not anymore.
They probably came up in a big mass of warm water that hit the Pacific Northwest during the El Nino in the spring of 2016. Last spring there was another big “bloom” of the creatures. There were so many that scientists were able to scoop up 60,000 of them in just one 5 minute tow of the net.
They caused a lot of problems for local fishermen, clogging up and damaging their nets. They may be causing big changes in the food chain, too. They eat plankton. So do copepods, tiny creatures that form the base of the food chain in Pacific Northwest oceans. It’s too soon to tell if this will prove a problem for the copepod population.
The wrack line
Some fish find them tasty. It seems that rockfish, who normally eat copepods, seem to prefer pyrosomes to copepods. There’s just one problem. Copepods provide a lot of fat for the rockfish. Pyrosomes don’t. It’s not like they actually harm the rockfish, but the fish don’t grow as big. Rockfish, in turn, are eaten by salmon. It’s all connected.
Strange sea animals are not all you find as you walk along the wrack line. You also find a lot of trash. Shortly after the Japanese tsunami, I found a perfectly good soup ladle. I was excited about taking it home and using it, a souvenir with a purpose, until I thought about that leaking nuclear power plant…..
Cape Lookout
A lot of that trash is microplastics, teeny colorful bits and pieces that attract fish and birds. They think it’s some new kind of food. It has less nutritional value than the pyrosomes! In fact, it’s quite harmful and can eventually kill them. The Haystack Rock Awareness Program in Cannon Beach, OR is turning that trash into treasure. They combine the bright and shiny colors, encase them in resin, and make mosaics and jewelry to help raise awareness about the health of our oceans.
It’s nice to walk the beach, white worms and all, in the quiet of an early morning before the clamoring hordes arrive. Next time you’re on the coast, spark your curiosity. Get up early and walk the beach at sunrise. Follow the tide line. You never know what treasures you may find!
Looking for a retreat from the stresses of the big city? The gentle, rounded landscape of peaceful, pastoral Point Reyes might just be the ticket.
Historic Lifeboat launching station, Point Reyes National Seashore
Point Reyes is also a great place to check out spring wildflowers. Masses of wild radish flowers border the narrow roads. California Poppies are scattered through the fields. Look closer and discover Irises peeking out of the grass. Closer to the beach, ice plants carpet the shore dunes.
Looking for an inexpensive place to stay? Check out the Point Reyes Hostel. Kind friendly folks, a great library, and a big kitchen – and this place is cheaper than camping! California State Parks charge $35.00 a night to camp, and my stay at the hostel was only $33 a night! If you don’t want to share your room, private rooms start at $105.00. The hostel is located deep within the park, just minutes from Limantour Beach.
Point Reyes is a great place to go birdwatching – it has greater avian diversity than any other park in the country! Over half the species found in the entire U.S. have been seen here. The Audubon Society protects egret and heron rookeries in Bolinas Lagoon.
Surprisingly, my favorite bird to watch on this trip was the vulture. I’ve watched them flying before, but this was the first time I had a chance to see them just hanging out perched. I was struck by how concerned about hygiene this “dirty bird” was, continually grooming its feathers!
There are other great wildlife viewing opportunities at Point Reyes. Go up to the lighthouse and watch for whales migrating offshore. Tule elk are found in the meadows. There is an elephant seal colony here, too.
My favorite beach was Drake’s Beach. Big cliffs, wide expanse of sand, incredible views – and I found a friend there. It seems not all seals stay in the colony. Occasionally an enterprising individual explores another beach. I sat on a sandstone outcropping to watch the water, and found out one of the driftwood logs was not a log! I moved away to give the animal space and used the telephoto, but not everyone is so considerate.
Note how not only are these people too close, they are cutting this seal off from the sea and cornering it against the cliffs. Please give the seals at least 100 feet of space if you see them, and if you are in between them and the water, keep moving! Just common courtesy for your fellow creature.
This is a park that could use a little TLC. Looks a bit like the proverbial red-headed stepchild. The narrow roads are in pretty bad shape. I know California has had a tough winter, but it looks like a lot of the damage is ongoing. One restroom was closed until further notice because it needed repair. There were no ranger programs except for weekends, and no park newspaper. On hearing I was a ranger,one of the hostel hosts mentioned in conversation that the only rangers seem to be law enforcement. Signs that a park has cut interpretation, maintenance, all but essential services. Please support your national parks so they can preserve our treasures,for all of us – places to rest and rejuvenate, places for inspiration and exploration, places like Point Reyes National Park.
