December 21, 2023

Report Details

Sitka Center for Art and Ecology team members Nancy and Alison conducted this CoastWatch survey. Mile 247 was accessed via kayak from the estuary side. Even though this survey was conducted on the first day of winter, the combined temperature and wind chill was so temperate we found ourselves too warm in our layers and ended up dressing down a bit. The sky had several contrails from jets as well as cloud wisps but was mostly blue against a solstice moon to the east. As stated in the driftline area of this report, there was an impressive amount of driftwood on the north end of the beach, possibly due to heavy rains and recent King Tides. The beach as a whole was very even/smooth and had a gentle slope (knees-and-below) from back barrier to waters edge. The beach was very clean. Due to a lack of any debris on the beach in general and in the NOAA - Mile 247 Marine Debris Survey Site, an MDMAP survey was not conducted at the time of this CoastWatch survey. In the rocky habitat at the south end of Mile 247 a lot of sand had been displaced by wave action exposing rocks/boulders. The south side of the keyhole area in the rocky habitat was inaccessible at the time this survey was taken due to the lower level of sand and low tide that afternoon not reaching zero. Due to these conditions, no ochre sea stars were observed during this survey. CoastWatchers Alison and Nancy were able to get close enough to the south area of the rocky habitat to see through the "keyhole" area and observe a large amount of foam (approximately 3 feet in height) generated by wave action. As stated in the vehicles area of this report, large tire tracks were observed in the sand near the back barrier near the north end of the MDMAP survey site.