Where Rivers Meet the Sea

A Guide to Washington’s Estuaries Poster

R printed on recycled paper Publication # 98 - 104 Where Rivers Meet The Sea: A Guide to Washington’s Estuaries Poster This guide is meant to accompany Acknowledgements The Padilla Bay National Estuarine the Washington State Department Preparation of this book was a Research Reserve is managed by of Ecology’s 24" X 36" Estuaries cooperative effort involving staff the Shorelands and Environmental poster. The poster is one of a series and volunteers at the Padilla Bay Assistance Program, Department of illustrated by nature artist Larry National Estuarine Research Ecology, State of Washington, in Duke. Reserve and the Washington State cooperation with the Sanctuaries Posters are available to the Department of Ecology. Thanks to and Reserves Division, U.S. general public through nonprofit Kuri Yamaura and Gina Perez for National Oceanic and Atmospheric organizations. For a list of illustrations, Jim Kight and Gina Administration (NOAA). This distributors, visit the Department of Perez for text, and Tom Leonard for document was funded in part by a Ecology’s World Wide Web page at layout. Also a thank you goes to Coastal Zone Management grant www.wa.gov/ecology/ under the Susan Wood, Glen Alexander, and from NOAA’s Office of Ocean and “Shorelands & Wetlands” section; Tim Gates for guidance throughout. Coastal Resource Management. or call Ecology’s Publication’s The Washington State Office at (360) 407-7472 and ask for Department of Ecology is an Publication No. 94-151. Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Public school teachers can order Action employer. If you have copies of the poster for classroom special accommodation needs, use from the Superintendent of please contact Education Public Instruction’s Office of Coordinator, Padilla Bay National Environmental Education, at Estuarine Research Reserve, at (206) 365-3893. (360) 428-1558 or (360) 757-1549 If you would like multiple (TDD). copies of this booklet, please feel free to make copies. You can download a master copy for printing from Ecology’s web site at the address above. For additional single copies, call Ecology at (360) 407-7472 and ask for Publication No. 98-104. Estuaries A tiny frozen crystal of water forms salmon have been threatened or in This pamphlet is designed to high up in the sky. It grows bigger, danger of extinction in help you learn more about the getting heavier until it falls to a high Washington’s waters, protecting fascinating plants and mountain top. In the spring the estuaries has become even more found in estuaries. Use the key on snow melts and starts a journey important. page 2 to locate the 56 species down the mountain into a cascade of Estuaries can be found all over represented on the poster. Read the fresh water. It travels through the world in coastal areas. Like interesting facts about each forests, past cities, neighborhoods, animals, people use the estuaries in organism. But don’t stop there! and farms until it reaches salty many different ways. Since the first Each one of these species has a ocean water. This place where peoples, food has been gathered at unique and intriguing life history. freshwater and saltwater mix is an low tides and waters fished when You can learn about these organism estuary. In some estuaries the the tide was high. Because estuaries by watching them at estuaries, and outgoing tide exposes mudflats - often make protected harbors, by reading books (see list below). rich in dead organic matter called towns like Seattle, New York, and You can use the picture in the detritus. This is a place of productive Los Angeles have grown up there. centerfold as a coloring poster. plant growth, nursery for crabs and Estuaries are vital links to other Find the mystery mistake salmon, habitat for migrating birds ecosystems, connected through the and inspiration for the human spirit. flow of water and the flow of As with most projects of this type, Tiny salmon, when they begin migrating animals. They filter there is a small mistake in the their journey to the sea, need the impurities, absorb flood water, and Estuaries poster. As you study the estuary for food and shelter. recycle nutrients - functions that are species, see if you can find it! Eelgrass provides habitat for tiny dwindling because of human activity. Clue: The mistake is a marking that crustaceans - the young salmon’s Learning more about the would not be found on a living favorite food - and a place to hide connections between humans and member of this species. from predators. Because the water these special places we call The answer is on the back page, is part fresh and part salty, it allows estuaries might help us take better but don’t peek until you’ve done the young salmon to adjust to the care of them. some sleuthing. saltiness of ocean waters. As Some good books about estuaries There are many excellent books about estuary life. Here are some books to help you get started as you learn about these wonderful places: v Marine Wildlife of Puget Sound, the San Juans, and the Strait of Georgia, by Steve Yates v Exploring the Seashore, by Gloria Snively v Between Pacific Tides, by Ricketts and Calvin v Seashore Life of the Northern Pacific Coast, by Eugene Kozloff v The Natural History of Puget Sound, by Arthur Kruckeburg

Note: This book uses the metric system of measurement to describe species. To translate metric numbers, multiply centimeters by .39 to find inches.

Where Rivers Meet the Sea page 1 Species List 1. Red-breasted Merganser - Mergus 20. Hooded Nudibranch - Melibe 39. Shiner Perch - Cymatogaster serrator leonina aggregata 2. Black Brant - Branta bernicla 21. Brooding Sea Anemone - 40. Starry Flounder - Platichthys 3. Common Goldeneye - Bucephala Epiactis prolifera stellatus clangula 22. Eelgrass Isopod - Idotea resecata 41. Pacific Staghorn Sculpin - 4. Greater Yellowlegs - Tringa 23. Skeleton Shrimp - Caprella equilibra Leptocottus armatus melanoleuca 24. Chink Shell - Lacuna variegata 42. Bay Pipefish - Syngnathus 5. Dunlin - Calidris alpina 25. Dungeness Crab - Cancer magister griseolineatus 6. Black-bellied Plover - Pluvialis 26. Hermit Crab - Pagurus granosimanus 43. Eelgrass - marina squatarola 27. Sunflower Star - Pycnopodia 44. Red Algae - Smithora naiadum 7. Bald Eagle - Haliaeetus leucocephalus helianthoides 45. - Ulva lactuca 8. Great Blue Heron - Ardea herodias 28. Blood Star - Henricia leviuscula 46. Lyngby’s Sedge - Carex lyngbyei 9. American Wigeon - Anas americana 29. Long Rayed Brittle Star - 47. Pickleweed - Salicornia virginica 10. Canada Goose - Branta canadensis Amphiodia occidentalis 48. Seaside Arrowgrass - Triglochin 11. Peregrine Falcon - Falco peregrinus 30. Bubble Shell - Haminoea virescens maritimum 12. Western Sandpiper - Calidris mauri 31. Native Littleneck Clam - 49. Pacific Silverweed - Potentilla 13. Caspian Tern - Sterna caspia Protothaca staminea anserina 14. River Otter - Lutra canadensis 32. Bent-nosed Clam - Macoma nasuta 50. Saltgrass - Distichlis spicata 15. Harbor Seal - Phoca vitulina 33. Mud Shrimp - Upogebia pugettensis 51. Gumweed - Grindelia integrifolia 16. Orange Striped Jellyfish - 34. Purple Shore Crab - Hemigrapsus 52. Douglas Aster - Aster subspicatus nudus 53. Fat-hen Saltbush - Atriplex patula 17. Scallop - Pecten caurinus 35. Lugworm - Abarenicola pacifica 54. Tufted Hairgrass - Deschampsia 18. Stalked Jellyfish - 36. Chum Salmon - Oncorhynchus keta cespitosa Thaumatoscyphus hexaradiatus 37. Chinook Salmon - Oncorhynchus 55. Damsel Fly - Argia vivida 19. Opalescent Nudibranch - tshawytscha 56. Green Darner - Anax junius Hermissenda crassicornis 38. Pacific Spiny Lumpsucker - Eumicrotremus orbis

page 2 Where Rivers Meet the Sea 1. Red-breasted Merganser - 5. Dunlin - Calidris alpina 9. American Wigeon - Anas americana Mergus serrator These small shorebirds These birds These diving can be seen on the are common birds are mudflats or beach winter common winter hunting for visitors to visitors to crustaceans, molluscs, Washington estuaries. One of worms and insects. estuaries where they feed on the swiftest They fly in large flocks eelgrass. They pick their mates ducks, they like clouds that flash during the winter. The males rapidly swim with their head and light and dark as they turn compete for females by repeating neck stretched out in front. They eat together. whistle calls and lifting folded wings above their backs. By March crustaceans, molluscs and fish such 6. Black-bellied Plover - as young salmon. During winter most females have mates before Pluvialis squatarola courtship, males give a cat-like call they migrate north to nest. Spending and make elaborate body 10. Canada Goose - Branta canadensis movements. summers in the Arctic These migrants 2. Black Brant - Branta bernicla tundra and are found in You can spot a winters on Washington Black Brant sandy during the goose by its beaches and spring and fall. white neck ring mud flats, these shorebirds feed on They eat plants and white worms, insects, crustaceans and like grasses and under the tail. molluscs. They often fly in a flock, corn. They are These birds eat but scatter when feeding. fun to watch, but do not get too eelgrass in estuaries along the close. They can be quite aggressive, 7. Bald Eagle - Pacific Flyway. Some Brant migrate especially when they have young. Haliaeetus leucocephalus three thousand miles from Alaska 11. Peregrine Falcon - Falco peregrinus to Baja, Mexico without stopping! These mighty birds can be Though these birds 3. Common Goldeneye - Bucephala found all are found throughout clangula year in the world, you would These diving Washington. be very lucky to see birds can be They rest in one because they are found in treetops, soar with flat wings, and very rare. With amazing speed, they open water swoop down to the water for fish catch other birds in mid-air. looking for crustaceans and and small ducks. Young bald eagles Occasionally they eat insects. These molluscs to eat. The males attract are about five years old before they birds were once endangered in the females with an interesting dance. get the white head and tail feathers United States because of the use of They circle the female, bend their of adults. DDT. Populations have been heads back to the tail feathers and recovering since this toxic chemical 8. Great Blue Heron - Ardea herodias spray water into the air with their was banned. feet. These birds 12. Western Sandpiper - Calidris mauri live all 4. Greater Yellowlegs - year in These birds have Tringa melanoleuca Washington. their babies in Alaska then fly A spring With their thousands of miles and late long legs and neck, they are to South America summer specially adapted for fishing in for winter. They visitor to shallow water. They eat estuary fish stop in estuaries to Washington like perch, sculpin, starry flounder eat along the way. estuaries, and sanddabs. With their long this pointed beaks, beautiful they catch worms shorebird can be seen wading in and shrimp-like animals. Falcons shallow water, gobbling up small like to eat this bird. fish and crabs.

Where Rivers Meet the Sea page 3

13. Caspian Tern - Sterna caspia 17. Scallop - Pecten caurinus 21. Brooding Sea Anemone - This is the largest These delicious Epiactis prolifera of the terns. They animals are common This anemone is fly with extreme in Puget Sound. common on eelgrass grace. Sometimes Scallops swim through blades where it feeds on they drop 30 feet or the water with a jerky plankton, small more into the water to catch fish. Just motion by clapping their two shells crustaceans, and a few flaps of their wings gets them together. Scallops have many (up to detritus. It has white up again. It is fun to watch them 30 or 40) tiny eyes lining the inside stripes and ranges in skimming the water, quickly shifting edges of their shells. color from red to brown direction as they look for food. 18. Stalked Jellyfish - to green. After the eggs hatch in its stomach, the larvae (babies) come 14. River Otter - Lutra canadensis Thaumatoscyphus hexaradiatus out its mouth and attach to its side These The stalked jellyfish where they grow. mammals is an oddball that live in both attaches itself to 22. Eelgrass Isopod - Idotea resecata fresh and eelgrass and kelp. It Even though this is one saltwater. has eight clusters of of the largest isopods They are seen tentacles attached to a 2.5 cm stalk. (up to 5 cm), it can be in and around the estuary and also The tentacles have stinging cells hard to spot clinging to in rivers and streams. They catch called nematocysts that are used to the eelgrass blades. It is fish and crabs with their sharp teeth. kill prey. These jellyfish are shiny camouflaged by its Although these playful and curious green, yellow, orange, and brown. green color and narrow mammals are mostly seen in water, flat shape which looks 19. Opalescent Nudibranch - they often go on land to eat and rest like the blades of eelgrass. under rocks or tree roots. Hermissenda crassicornis 23. Skeleton Shrimp - 15. Harbor Seal - Phoca vitulina This sea slug is covered with soft, Caprella equilibra With their orange tipped fingers This odd looking gentle called cerrata that act crustacean is also eyes and like gills. A shiny called a caprellid spotted blue line, like a neon amphipod. It clings fur, these light, decorates each tightly to the are the most common marine side of its body. It blades of eelgrass mammals in Washington. They eat eats a variety of foods including with its hind legs many species of fish including molluscs, eggs, bits of detritus, and and with a herring, salmon, sculpin and hake. hydroids (anemone-like animals “bowing” motion it If you see them resting on shore, do with stinging cells). After being uses its front legs not approach them. If you see a eaten, the stinging cells from the to pick up algae, marine mammal that needs help, hydroids migrate to the cerrata bits of detritus and hydroids. call 1-800-562-8832. where they help protect the sea slug. Skeleton shrimp are an important food source for young salmon. 16. Orange Striped Jellyfish - 20. Hooded Nudibranch - Gonionemus vertens Melibe leonina 24. Chink Shell - Lacuna variegata During the This strange looking, This tiny snail “waddles” summer, large grayish or almost like a duck as it moves numbers of orange colorless nudibranch about scraping tiny plants striped jellyfish (sea slug) moves and animals from the attach themselves slowly around surface of eelgrass blades to eelgrass and kelp with sticky eelgrass beds with its rough tongue. Its pads located near the tips of their catching small eggs, which look like little tentacles. When not attached they crustaceans with its yellow bagels, are often swim much like other jellyfish. fringed “oral hood.” seen at the tips of eelgrass These tiny invertebrates are only 1.5 It grows up to 10 cm long and is blades. It is called the cm across. They feed mostly on able to swim using thrashing chink shell because it has a wide small crustaceans such as movements. It can also fill its hood chink or groove in its shell. amphipods and the larvae of fishes. with air and float to a new location. page 6 Where Rivers Meet the Sea 25. Dungeness Crab - Cancer magister 29. Long Rayed Brittle Star - 33. Mud Shrimp - Upogebia pugettensis This crab can Amphiodia occidentalis This blue-gray shrimp live for eight Brittle stars lives in very muddy to ten years. have very conditions. It digs Baby long rays long connecting Dungeness (arms). Its tunnels under the crabs like to rays can mud. By fanning live in eelgrass and shallow water reach up to 6 water through these while adults live in deeper water. cm in length, but its center disk tunnels, it feeds on This delicious crab is worth only grows to about 6 mm across. detritus. millions of dollars in Washington as The long-rayed brittle star lives 34. Purple Shore Crab - seafood. buried in muddy sand, especially in Hemigrapsus nudus eelgrass beds. 26. Hermit Crab - There are Pagurus granosimanus 30. Bubble Shell - Haminoea virescens lots of these This can be This is a small snail that small crabs found living in looks like a slug. It has a found under empty snail shells. thin shell that is much rocks along The shell provides smaller than its body and the protection for its soft body. Hermit foot. Its shell only reaches shoreline. It mostly eats algae crabs are not really crabs but are about 1 cm in length, but (seaweed) such as Ulva. This shore related to shrimp. the snail’s body may reach 2-3 cm. crab has a reddish tint with purple Bubble shells use their radula markings on the ends of its claws. 27. Sunflower Star - (rough tongue-like structure) to Its relative,the green shore crab Pycnopodia helianthoides scrape food off eelgrass blades or (Hemigraspus oregonensis), is This is one of off the surface of the mud. usually a grayish green. the fastest and largest of all 31. Native Littleneck Clam - 35. Lugworm - Abarenicola pacifica sea stars. They Protothaca staminea These worms are can be up to a This is probably the easy to locate half meter most important because they leave across. Adults can grow as many as commercial food clam little squiggly twenty-four legs. No wonder they in the Northwest. It is piles on the move so fast. oval or round in shape, surface of the and is the only clam mud. The lugworm lives just below 28. Blood Star - Henricia leviuscula with lines criss- the piles in a J- shaped hole. Like an The name of crossing its shell. earthworm in a garden, a lugworm this sea star eats the dead stuff and helps turn it gives a hint of 32. Bent-nose Clam - Macoma nasuta into good rich mud. its bright color. This clam is It can range easily recognized 36. Chum Salmon - Oncorhynchus keta from tan to by a bend in the On their almost purple. It is one of the tip of its shell. It way to the smaller sea stars - usually less than lives in protected ocean 12 cm across. It eats sponges by muddy bays. from putting its stomach out of its This clam can rivers, juvenile Chum spend 4-8 mouth. When it is done feeding, it bury itself 10 to weeks in the estuary feeding on pulls its stomach back in. 20 centimeters in the mud. These tiny animals and adjusting to salt clams live in places where there is water. People are concerned about not much oxygen. the decreasing numbers of Chum salmon in the state of Washington. It is a species that is being monitored by the National Marine Fisheries Service and citizen action groups to make sure it does not become extinct.

Where Rivers Meet the Sea page 7 37. Chinook Salmon - 41. Pacific Staghorn Sculpin - 45. Sea Lettuce - Ulva lactuca Oncorhynchus tshawytscha Leptocottus armatus This bright Chinook are Sculpin green algae is the largest of can be a common the Pacific recognized species in the salmon and by their intertidal can weigh wide heads region of up to 145 and large estuaries. It is two cell-layers thick pounds. They are named after the side fins. They sit on the muddy and transparent. It plays a major Chinook Indians, who depended on bottom of the bay waiting for food role in the food web as food for the return of the salmon to the to come to them. Sometimes, they grazing animals. Columbia River each year. Due to get stuck on the mud flat at low 46. Lyngby’s Sedge - Carex lyngbyei habitat loss and overfishing, the tide. When this happens, they bury number of Chinook salmon has themselves in the mud and wait for This common declined dangerously in recent the next high tide. wetland plant of the years. To keep the salmon from Pacific Northwest is 42. Bay Pipefish - becoming extinct salmon habitat is found in low and being restored and protected and the Syngnathus griseolineatus high marsh areas of number fished has been regulated. A relative of the sea horse, estuaries. It grows to the pipefish has a stiff, about one meter tall. 38. Pacific Spiny Lumpsucker - narrow body with a long When found in Eumicrotremus orbis “snout.” Its color can vary intertidal areas, the This funny little from green to brown to above-ground part of fish looks like a match its surroundings, the plant dies back during the small puffer fish. and it often swims up and winter. It attaches to down to look like the 47. Pickleweed - Salicornia virginica rocks by using a swaying motion of This plant has sucker on its underside. It grows to eelgrass. The pipefish eats round, fleshy about 12 cm, and eats small small crustaceans by sucking them stems with animals. into its mouth like a vacuum. tiny yellow 39. Shiner Perch - Cymatogaster 43. Eelgrass - Zostera marina flowers aggregata This is the most clustered at the tips. It is most common in low salt marshes. Shiners have important plant in the During winter, its fleshy growth is a silver color estuary. It has grass-like lost and it becomes a tangle of and are 10 leaves, and roots in the woody stems. to 13 muddy bottom. It can centimeters grow up to two meters 48. Seaside Arrowgrass - long. They feed on skeleton shrimp long. Many animals use Triglochin the eelgrass to hide from and crustaceans that live on the maritimum eelgrass blades. They often move to predators and for a place deeper water in the winter. to lay their eggs. This salt marsh plant is usually 40. Starry Flounder - found in areas Platichthys stellatus 44. Red Algae - Smithora naiadum covered by the This flat fish This algae attaches to tide twice a swims along the eelgrass found in day. Many the mud flat estuaries. It grows the tiny, green or purple flowers are eating most in the spring and clustered along the upper part of crustaceans, summer. This type of the stalk. Seaside arrowgrass does worms, and small fish. A flounder is red algae is one not show in the winter. The upper born with an eye on each side of its cell-layer thick. It can part of this plant is removed by head. After about two weeks, one eye be identified by its winter tides. begins to move to the other side of its purplish-red color. face. The fish lives on the bottom of the bay with both eyes on top. page 8 Where Rivers Meet the Sea 49. Pacific Silverweed - 52. Douglas Aster - Aster subspicatus 55. Damsel Fly - Argia vivida Potentilla anserina This is a very Related to the Shiny, yellow showy wildflower dragonfly, this flowers can be with distinctive winged insect seen on this high purple rays and can be found in salt marsh plant. yellow centers. The and around It is a stem is stiff and wetlands. One way to distinguish low-growing fibrous, nearly woody at the base. It this insect from its close relatives is plant with resides high in the tidal marshes. by the parallel position of its wings to the body when it is at rest. serrated leaf edges resembling the 53. Fat-hen Saltbush - Atriplex patula strawberry plant. The undersides of Attacking its prey in flight, the the leaves are silver. This plant can This plant is seen in damsel fly feeds on other insects. be found in non-wetland habitats if drier areas of coastal These creatures need freshwater it is in an area that has been diked. salt marshes. Some of habitat to lay their eggs. its leaves are similar 50. Saltgrass - Distichlis spicata in shape to 56. Green Darner - Anax junius This hearty arrowheads. It is This insect is plant can be unique in that it has related to the found in high distinct male and dragonfly and low salt female flowers and damsel marsh areas. growing on the same plant. This fly. Green It can annual grows to be about 40 darners withstand centimeters tall. gather together in the fall and spring in and around wetlands. high 54. Tufted Hairgrass - salinities by excreting the salt out Although most of the adults can be Deschampsia cespitosa through the leaves. Salt crystals can seen close to water, they may travel often be seen on the surface of the This is the tallest plant a mile or more to pastures in search leaves. Saltgrass is usually less than of the salt marsh. It of insects to eat. 30 centimeters tall and often grows grows in thick patches in thick mats. at or near the high tide line. As a perennial, it 51. Gumweed - Grindelia integrifolia lives year round This plant is easy turning from green in to identify. The summer to a golden entire plant is brown in fall and winter. sticky to touch. It produces yellow sunflower-like flowers. Unopened flower buds

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