![]() ![]() The only prerequisite is a tiny ember of interest that just might be fanned into a roaring fire of active involvement. Salish Sea marine centers enthusiastically welcome volunteers of all experience levels and are in the business of nurturing citizen scientists, helping individuals to find unique roles in caring for the sea. For these surveys, marine creatures are collected, identified, measured, counted, and then released. Each year, over 3,000 local students participate in programs such as nearshore netting and surveys of benthic (bottom dwelling) invertebrates. It is the perfect location for the center to carry out its mission of promoting the understanding, appreciation, and conservation of the Nisqually Estuary through education, interpretation, and citizen science. The Nisqually Reach Nature Center is housed in an historic building that was once part of a hunting and fishing camp at Luhr Beach. Seven hundred and sixty-two acres of delta were reconnected to Puget Sound, making it the largest estuary restoration project in the Pacific Northwest and a vital step in restoring the southern Salish Sea to health. The Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1974, but serious restoration did not begin until 2009 when century-old dikes were removed. In the Pacific Northwest, very few estuaries remain that have not been altered in some way by development. For instance, as the salty ocean tide recedes, freshwater trickles across shallow pools, changing chemical makeup and influencing temperature among other things. Here the freshwater of the Nisqually River mingles with the salt water of Puget Sound which presents intertidal inhabitants with a few extra challenges. Estuaries are fragile places bridging two vastly different worlds of land and sea. Low tides occur every day, but periods of extreme daytime lows only happen a few times a year.Įstuary Connection: Nisqually Reach Nature Center – Olympia, WashingtonĪt the southern end of the Salish Sea, the Nisqually Reach Nature Center offers similar opportunities, but focuses on the unique aquatic community known as a tidal bay estuary. Although highly dependent on each other, each environment is unique and provides a myriad of opportunities for explorers. The Salish Sea is an interconnected collection of bays, straits, sounds, bights, estuaries, rivers and fjords, as well as the freshwater streams and rivers that flow into them. When the sun, moon and earth align during either a new or full moon, a turbo boost of gravitational pull creates higher high tides and lower low tides, known as spring tides, because they “spring up,” not because it is spring. Depending on their positional relationship to the earth and in conjunction with the movements of the earth itself, the moon and the sun cause two high and two low tides every lunar day (24 hours and 50 minutes). The gravitational pull of the moon and sun literally tug on the waters of the deep, causing a rise and fall of ocean water across the globe. ![]() High and low tides are the result of a celestial game of tug of war. It is truly a time of unbridled curiosity and wonder. “Tide poolers” mark up their calendars with upcoming extreme daytime low tides as they eagerly await the chance to see the pockmarked seabed laid bare for a few hours. Shore-dwelling birds and animals seem to loiter at the water’s edge in hopes of a bountiful banquet. A beguiling air of suspense urges us to return time and again to experience low tide because we never know what we might find. These small tide pools beckon beach goers to stop and search their depths for busy marine animals going about their daily business. At those times, we earthlings are permitted to venture deeper into the alien world just below the frothy waves. As the tide recedes, pockets of isolated seawater are trapped by rock and sand, providing a place where plants and animals can hang out until an incoming tide blankets them once more. It is a season of daytime low tides, when the Salish Sea folds down her foamy quilt a bit further to reveal a world brimming with life. As spring gives way to summer, we are blessed with longer days of golden light and robust signs of new growth after a long, dark winter.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |