
Trip Report
Naturalist Trip - Alki Point
Intertidal area below Constellation Park is rich in animal and seaweed diversity due to the many different types of habitats.
- Mon, Jul 22, 2024
- Naturalist Trip - Alki Point
- Alki Beach Park & Alki Point
- Naturalist
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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- Street parking readily available, no time limit or permits required. Low tide days bring a lot of people; so, plan to get there 1+ hours before low tide (2+ hours is recommended)
- An abundant amount of sea lettuce (Ulva sp) over most mid to low tide surfaces made for slippery walking
- The large mural in Constellation Park is a good overview of mid- to low tide animals and seaweeds. And provides those not familiar with images to search for.
- Mural
Blessed with 60's temperatures and little/no breeze. Made it much easier to peer into tide pools and watery crevices without the sun's glare. We started 2 hours before the predicted low tide. First, we checked out the exposed bedrock ledges (north, toward Alki Point, in front of Richey viewpoint). Here we observed sea cauliflower, feather duster worms clustered in hummocks and tidepools in the rocks harboring moonglow anemone, hairy chiton, aggregating anemone, hermit crab, various types of sea lettuce and small animals that moved fast to hide (so we couldn't identify). Jan (co-leader) explained how Rockweed seaweed is used to make "seaweed Cheetos" 😋.

As the tide continued to drop, we walked southward to the concrete pipeline to observe how seaweeds and animals arrange themselves over the intertidal gradient from high to low tide. Highlights: Big crabs and shrimp hiding in the eel grass; a squid "egg mop", a gelatinous mass of finger-sized egg capsules (don't you love that name 😍), masses of tiny Skeleton Shrimp waving their bodies while clinging to Sargassum seaweed and Red Sea Spaghetti.

Just before the lowest tide, we moved south to the row of rocks extending out into the Sound. This is where most intertidal explorers congregate; so it was a busy area. Highlights (while dodging small, excited children): the rare, threatened Sunflower sea star; blood star; Christmas anemone; tiny crabs; tiny sea urchin; sea cucumbers; plumose anemone; crabs. Lastly, we searched the big boulders further south and discovered more purple sea stars, limpets and chiton. At the nearby pilings, participants were intrigued by the clacking sound of barnacles withdrawing and closing their cases. Much more did we see; too many to list.
