Des Moines Marina Beach Park (May 14th)

Date and Time: May 14, 11:00am
Location: Des Moines Marina Beach Park, Des Moines, WA
Weather: Mostly sunny about 67 degrees
Water temperature: about 40 degrees
Tide conditions: Relatively low

Des Moines, Washington is where I call my home, located about halfway between Seattle and Tacoma and a population of about 29, 673 people. The Des Moines Marina Beach Park is a pretty popular place around here especially on the nice, clear sunny days. While the Marina Beach Park has forest and the beach, I love walking on the beach during low tide and look for creatures in the tide pools. Many people fish off the dock for rock fish, squid, flounder, and herring, to name a few, people are not able to harvest shellfish or crab here due to red tide, pollution, and toxins that can make you sick. Despite the sick water in the Puget Sound, I love the Des Moines Marina.

Today, the Des Moines Beach Park is very peaceful and not busy at this moment. The tide is rather low and I'm walking the beach, I notice the beach is covered in rocks and empty shells, not to mention countless amounts of mussels and barnacles. I am always amazed at how many mussels and barnacles cover the beach. The Blue Mussel and Acorn Barnacle are the abundant species of mussels and barnacles here at the Marina. The Blue Mussel is a medium sized mollusk that lives in intertidal areas attached to rocks by a thread like looking structure located at the foot of the mussel. The shape of the shell shaped almost like a triangle that has been stretched out and is very smooth. The color of the shell initially looks black, however, if you give it a good look they are sometimes a tint of purple, blue, or brown in color. Not to mention they are quite tasty! As for the Acorn Barnacle, these are little creatures that to me, are very shy. They hid most of the time in their tightly sealed shells, never have I seen them open. They attach to various things such as pilings, wharfs, ships, rocks or other hard-shelled animals, like crabs or oysters. Their shells are cone shaped with a trap door-like opening at the top. The main reason we don't see the barnacle's shell open is because they are on the shore and out of the water. If they keep their shells open they can be easily eaten and they will dry out. When in the water their shells open and they feed on plankton. These two creatures are very interesting and i love seeing them around the beaches.

Posted on 05 June, 2012 00:45 by ballev