Low tides this week! (June 13-18)

Hello Discovery Islands sea star fans!

There are some amazing low tides this week—some of the lowest of the summer—so it's a great time to get out and check on the sea stars on your local beach! The approximate low tides times are listed at the end of this post.

Hakai research technicians have been monitoring the sea stars at three sites on the east side of Quadra Island: in Hyacinthe Bay, Moulds Bay, and Shellaligan Pass. We did our first survey of the year last month, and we saw very little wasting at the first two sites, and a small amount at Shellaligan. Last year we noticed more wasting in June, however, so it will be interesting to see how things look this month!

Want to get more involved? Pick a shoreline to monitor monthly on low tide beach walks! The easiest way to share observations on iNaturalist from these monthly walks is to take representative photos of the sea stars you see: a photo of healthy individuals of each species (no need to know the species—iNaturalist will help with that!), and photos of stars that look potentially diseased. Check out the project description or this Hakai-Friends of Cortes Island primer for a reminder of the signs and symptoms of sea star wasting.

Low tides this week:

Monday June 13: ~11:45 AM, 0.4 meters
Tuesday June 14: ~12:30 PM, 0.2 meters
Wednesday June 15: ~1 PM, 0.1 meters
Thursday June 16: ~1:45 PM, 0.2 meters
Friday June 17: ~2:30 PM, 0.3 meters
Saturday June 18: ~3:30, 0.6 meters

Posted on 13 June, 2022 16:52 by hakaiinstitute