1st Beach Walk at Ft. Ebey
State Park was a tasty treat!
The inaugural Beach Walk led by Terri Dix will be a hard act to follow. About 15 Beach Watchers met Terri on March 29th at a picnic table in Ft. Ebey State Park, where she presented the menu of the Intertidal Café, a Café that has been in business for millions of years. She discussed the menu, focusing on the salad bar of seaweeds but also noting many other items on the menu that will satisfy any diet. In fact, the café menu had items for vegetarians, omnivores, carnivores and even garbage eaters! It was a summary of who eats whom in the intertidal zone.
Down on the beach, Terri emphasized using all our senses in describing seaweeds, or any other organism. Many fascinating inhabitants of the intertidal zone were observed, touched, smelled, measured, sketched and described, as though we were the first naturalists ever to see that organism and needed to be sure someone else would be able to identify it from our multi-faceted descriptions. Terri then pointed out each organism's role in the environment, its interactions with other organisms, and other physical and biological characteristics we weren't aware of, rather than just giving us its official name.
Terri seems to be a scientific great-great-great-great granddaughter of Charles Darwin who in 1859 wrote, "when we regard every production of nature as one which has had a history; when we contemplate every complex structure and instinct as the summing up of many contrivances...how far more interesting will the study of natural history become." What fun it was to explore the beach with a woman who has such a great scientific heritage.
Photos by Beach Watcher Charlie Seablom