Mile 323 - Seaside - July 22, 2014 | Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition

Report Details

It was a beautiful morning. Lots of people were already out and about enjoying the beach. There was a small diatom bloom in the first quarter mile along with a small concentration of water jellies along the tide line. Very few gooseberries, three to be exact, and one lone sea nettle were the only other jellies on the beach today. Dried sails from a recent Velella stranding were still along the high tide line. Other than that the beach was pretty clean. A four foot harbor porpoise had recently died and washed ashore, the stranding network was notified and quickly recovered the animal. It was taken up to PSU for a necropsy.

Conditions

Cloud Cover: Sunny. Tide Level: 5.3 feet.

Human Activities

Number of people: 85. Number of dogs: 3. Walking or running: 20. Playing in surf: 7. Playing in sand: 40. Sitting: 18. At 10:30 a.m. there was already quite a few people out on the beach enjoying the nice weather. Later in the day there were probably closer to 200 people on the beach along this mile.

Notable Wildlife

5 gulls foraging along the surf and about 20 gulls happily resting higher up on the beach.

Stranded Marine Mammals

Total stranded mammals: 1. Came across a recently deceased Harbor Porpoise. The stranding network was notified and quickly responded. They recovered the animal and it was taken up to PSU for a necropsy.

Dead Fish or Invertebrates

Unusual concentration. The last few days Velella velellas had been washing ashore in mass, there were still some of their dried sails along the drift line.

Driftline Content

Shells.