December 2, 2020 Leo Carrillo

We made a trip to Leo Carrillo State Beach this afternoon knowing that the tide would be somewhat low. We saw a few things but overall we were disappointed how little was in the tide pools. In fact, we found most of the interesting stuff in a pool much closer to the beach than by the shore. Someone we ran into said she was there two days ago and saw many sea cucumbers. We didn't see any. In addition, I remember coming here as recently as two years ago and seeing much more. For instance I saw only one chiton, though I admit I didn't comb all the rock faces. Still I recall many more in the past. I'm hoping that this may be temporary but I'm not sure if it's the result of people taking things..way too many doing that...or the increasingly acidic ocean.

That being said, I did see a few interesting things. One was a pelagic cormorant. I believe I've seen them before but never bothered to photograph one. There were a few sea hares, a california aglaja and what I think is a tidepool sculpin which I tried very desperately to get a good photo of...I loved its green color. I also saw an anemone with a piece of what I think is kelp in it's maw. Very different.

Posted on 03 de dezembro de 2020, 06:57 AM by