Mile 232 - Boiler Bay Wayside, Picnic Area, Government Point - July 26, 2014

Report Details

Our group of 11 volunteers with the Oregon State chapter of The Coastal Society arrived at Boiler Bay at 6:00pm to catch the outgoing tide. The water was high but we were still able to traverse the rocks and collect some good data. Unfortunately we found 6 sea stars displaying potential signs of wasting or that had wasted outright (photos of these are included here). Sage DeLuna, beach cleanup coordinator for Surfrider and our chapter secretary, provided plastic bags for us to clean up the bay. We collected some garbage during the 1.5 hours there and removed it from the site. Despite the disappointingly large number of wasting sea stars, it was an interesting and eventful evening. One volunteer in particular spotted the pigeon guillemot nest, a vermilion star (which I neglected to photograph), and a whale spout about a mile north of the bay. We all look forward to our continuing work on Mile 232 and our contributions to the sea star wasting monitoring effort.

Conditions

Temperature: 68 F. Cloud Cover: Sunny. Wind Velocity: Calm/Light. Wind Direction: S.

Human Activities

Number of people: 11. Sitting: 2. Tidepooling: 4. One tidepooler was there expressly to find nudibranchs (according to our brief conversation). He claimed he'd seen none.

Vehicles

Cars/trucks parking: 4.

Notable Wildlife

1 harbor seal, 1 great blue heron, 1 pigeon guillemot that appeared to be nesting in the cliffs. One volunteer saw the adult carrying what appeared to be a sculpin into a hole in the cliff.

Beached Birds

Total dead birds: 3. 2 dead birds on rocks near the water. They were too decomposed for anyone to identify. The 3rd was submerged in water and could not be retrieved.

Dead Fish or Invertebrates

At least one wasting sea star was dead.

Driftline Content

Ocean-based debris (from fishing boats, ship trash, etc.). Same large wooden structure as noted in the last report.