Report Details

Human activity consisted of people visiting Devil's Churn-area trails (Photo). No significant concerns or actions required. Most people were walking on the south side of the churn with 3 young couples walking from the immediate north side.Slight patch of hillside movement (photo). It didn't look recent. Interesting lava/basalt tube (photo) protruding from the shore hillside and large boulders scattered in proximity at the bottom of Cape Perpetua. Noticed neat, holes on a basalt ridge on the shoreline (photo), core sampling? Nice walk but unable to access northern .6 through private property. I will log in at a future date, perhaps on a minus tide where access across sea channels is more practical, and continue with coastwatch mile 192. I think the .4 mi showed a healthy ecosytem but this is just my observation with little reference to past observations or surveys and observed at a fairly high tide. Large assembly of purple urchins found in a ocean accessible channel with adjoining tide pool (photo).There wasn't much in the way of a drift line but any accumulation in the rocks or pools was all organic, no plastic or other garbage noticed except for to chunks of Styrofoam. By the way, on the return trip walking back around Devil's Churn I noticed in the churn froth a noticable concentrated purple foam gathered (photo).Nice day!! Looking forward to covering more territory when the tide is low. Access will be difficult due to private property access issues and delicate shore hillsides susceptible to erosion. Visual scanning of the rocky basalt headlands didn't indicate much life but walking the rocky spray line, channels and pools showed a diverse and complete ecosystem that needs to be observed up close. (photo)

Human Activities

Number of people: 20. Walking or running: 15. Sitting: 5. Photography: 2. Other Activities: Looking at Devil's Churn. People were walking the trails around Devil's Churn and directly around the Churn people were walking on the south side, and 3 couples were coming around from the north side when I arrived.

Concerns

Apparent violations: None.

Notable Wildlife

Noticed 2 harbor seals playing in the waves at the mouth of a sea cave at the .4 mi . Also noted 11 adult cormorants perched on the cave cliff wall with 2 nests. One nest had one chick, the other has two chicks. Both chicks were feathered and grayish black. Noted gulls and several cormorants flying or perched on the rocky shore. Various tidal pools among the basalt shoreline had a variety of algae and tide pool invertebrate animals. Tide was fairly high at ~7 ft. So any sea stars noted were at the upper end of the littoral zone and any count would not be representative. The splash and upper littoral areas of the rocky shore had a healthy appearing population of sea palm, mussels and barnacles. Most of the channels I came across had several sea stars visible in different stages of maturity and size and they all appeared healthy. I was unable to see any large populations due to the higher tide. The tide pools had an assortment of green and brown algae with hermits crabs, purple shore crabs, turban snails, limpets, anemones and I noticed one chiton pictured. An amazing encounter in one large channeled tide pool was a with a large population of purple sea urchins in various stages of maturity. A rough count put the population at about 1500-2000 animals (photo). I observed other adjoining pools and noticed about 200 scattered in 2 other tide pools. I didn't notice any kelp but they seemed to be grazing on the algae on the pool bottom and sides away from the ocean and in the sun. They all looked healthy with some as small as 1/2 inch to 3-4 inches. Saw a crab giving an urchin a piggy back ride He was able to shake it off but it was surrounded by many others waiting their turn.

Beached Birds

Total dead birds: 1. Unidentified bird skeleton

Stranded Marine Mammals

N/A

Dead Fish or Invertebrates

None

Driftline Content

Seaweeds and seagrass, Animal casings (e.g., crab, shrimp molt), Shells, Small rocks, Wood pieces. Saw two small chunks of styrofoam

Man-made Modifications

N/A

Natural Changes

Landslides/major boulder falls. Minor hillside slipping

Actions & Comments

None required. Not significant in size or location. (see photo)

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All Mile 191 Reports

Showing 6 of 6 reports

Mile 191

August 3, 2021

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LyndaC

Mile 191

August 7, 2018

A cool, windy day at the coast being enjoyed by a very large number of visitors.

LyndaC

Mile 191

March 10, 2017

Tide too high to get close to the beach, still an exciting time to be there.

LyndaC

Mile 191

April 18, 2016

Mile surveyed by air; aerial photos provided.

Anonymous

Mile 191

September 24, 2015

Human activity consisted of people visiting Devil's Churn-area trails (Photo).

YmnKai

decorative elemnt for a coastwatch report.

Mile 191

June 22, 2007

The mile was remarkably clean of litter and ocean debris.

gjport