“I’ll take a bucket of steamed clams with garlic butter and plenty of napkins…”
How can one live in the Pacific Northwest and not know the taste of fresh steamed clams dripping of parsley and garlic butter?
Butter clams can be found throughout Oregon’s nearshore areas and larger estuaries. They are also found at many fine dining locations.
Where are they?
Butter clams are most often found living 6-12 inches down in the substrate of large estuarine systems, such as Coos, Tillamook, and Yaquina and in bays like Yaquina and Netarts where there is higher salinity. The mud and sandy substrates in these areas are some of the easier places to dig.
They are excellent burrowers and abundant in shell, sandstone, and even rocky areas. Like other types of clams, Butter clams create a distinctive rectangular ‘show’ or mark in the sand that exposes their general location. The Butter clam mark looks like an indent created by a flathead screwdriver.
The clam is usually not directly below the mark but relatively close vertically and will burrow away from you (in other words, sneak up on them and dig fast if you want to get them!). Butter clams will dig 50 feet below the low-tide line.
What did you find?
When digging, more than one type of clam may be found. Depending on the type of clam, you must keep anything that you dig up regardless of size or condition. Meaning? You might dig up more than just a Butter Clam. It may be possible to return unbroken clams to the immediate dig site if unbroken (see ODFW regulations).
Butter clams can reach up to 4-inches wide.
Details to know
Be sure to check the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) regulations for licensing, limits and catch requirements, catch activity reports, techniques, tools, and seminars (https://myodfw.com/crabbing-clamming/licensing-info). A license for Oregon resident in 2020 is a bargain at only $10.00 per year! Butter clams are called a variety of names including Washingtons, Martha Washingtons, Beefsteak, and Quahog.
The ODFW website (above) includes information on seasonal opportunities, identifying the various species, safety, and provides local maps for where to look. Butter clam harvest is possible on the North Spit, Strawberry Island, Clam Island, Pigeon Point, Empire, Barview, and the Charleston Triangle and Flats. The site also lists locations accessible only by boat.
One more note—be sure to back fill any holes you create and have fun!
Purple sea urchin (Image courtesy of Laura Francis, NOAA)
In 2013, millions of starfish were wiped out by a mysterious disease. Populations of the sunflower sea star were also devastated.
Why is this important? The sunflower sea star is the only real predator for the Purple sea urchin other than humans.
It is almost like one of those ‘z’ science fiction movies. There’s a monster with no head, wiping out precious resources, that seemingly lives forever, and eats its own kind. It could have been a story about the Purple sea urchin.
Where found
The Purple sea urchin lives on the Pacific coastline and is found from Alaska to Cedros Island, Mexico. They inhabit rocky low intertidal and nearshore subtidal communities.
In an intertidal zone, the urchin will camouflage or decorate itself with algae, rocks, and shells. Scientists suggest that this behavior might help protect the urchin from ultraviolet rays, from drying out, or perhaps being eaten.
They like areas of strong wave action and churning aerated waters which may also provide some camouflage and protection. Surprisingly, they are found in depths of up to 525 feet.
A disguise or just dressing up?
In the intertidal zone, a purple sea urchin will decorate itself with shells, rocks and pieces of algae. Scientists think this behavior protects the urchin from drying out, getting eaten by gulls or being damaged by the sun’s ultraviolet rays.
They live solitary lives, often in crevices, just waiting for a bit of kelp to drift by.
Subtidal urchins live together in hordes that can take down a giant kelp forest (as recently reported in California), especially when predator populations get out of sync. Eventually, a kelp forest becomes totally barren.
Predators
Purple sea urchins are a favorite food of Sea otters. When the number of Sea otters declined, there was a remarkable jump in urchin population in California.
How to tell if a Sea Otter has been preying on the Purple sea urchin? Its mouth and teeth are totally purple, like a lipstick gone bad.
Sea stars also prey on Purple sea urchins. As the sea star creeps near the urchin, the urchin moves its spines and lets the sea star get really close.
The Purple sea urchin patiently waits as the star closes in. Then launches a surprise attack with pincers chomping on the sea star’s tube feet. Most sea stars back off about this time.
The Sunflower sea star does not. When one of these stars get close, the urchin seems to panic, waving its spines and pincers, and attempting a retreat.
Physical aspects
Urchins don’t move very fast.It’s feet are tiny. If it is not fast enough, the Sunflower sea star will swallow the urchin whole, spines and all.
Small tubular suction devices extending from the spines help the urchin move. The tube feet are muscles that protrude from the spines.
The feet can attach to rocks or coral and move the urchin across the sea floor. The tubular feet help the urchin breathe and are used more often than gills for gas exchange.
The mouth (located on the underside) has five toothlike plates. The teeth and spines are used to dig holes or depressions for the urchin to hid in. They can even drill through steel pilings by flaking away rust.
Spine-amazing
The spines help move food around to the mouth and support the feet. The spines will pierce human skin and cause minor problems.
If this happens to you, douse with vinegar. Vinegar will quickly dissolve the spine. Do not pull it out…it never entirely comes out…
The round body holds the spines and can measure up to four inches in diameter. Generally, adults are bright purple.
Juveniles may be pale green with some purple tinges. Eggs, or roe, are orange and are considered a delicacy.
Look ma – No Head?
The Purple sea urchin does not have a head structure. But, it seems to have a head for business.
Sea urchins are big business and a high-valued fishery in California. In 2000, 20 million pounds were harvested and sold to Japanese markets. Sea urchin harvesting has become one of the highest valued fisheries in California, bringing $80 million in export value per year.
The idea of ‘urchin ranching’ is popping up projects in Japan, Canada and California. Divers could transfer wild and starving urchins to on-land tanks where they could be fattened up for sale. The numbers available in the wild are astronomical.
The possibilities are endless almost like the life span of these critters. Most of the urchins have long lives, like 70 or more years. The potential for creating a sustainable aquaculture fishery along the Pacific coast is immense.
This story turns totally weird when comparing human and urchin DNA. Using the strictest measure, the purple sea urchin and humans share 7,700 genes.
That explains the purple spikey hair perfectly don’t you think? A story for a different day.
More urchin anyone?
REFERENCES: –Oregon State University (https://today.oregonstate.edu/archives/2003/nov/red-sea-urchins-discovered-be-one-earths-oldest-animal) –US News (https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2019-10-24/sea-urchin-explosion-off-california-oregon-decimates-kelp) –Fun Facts, Monterey Bay Aquarium (https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/animals-a-to-z/purple-sea-urchin) –How Stuff Works, Sea Urchins are the edible Purple Pincushions of the Ocean (https://animals.howstuffworks.com/marine-life/sea-urchin.htm) –Wikipedia, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strongylocentrotus_purpuratus) –Animal Diversity (https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Strongylocentrotus_purpuratus/)
If the call of the loon “were of human origin,” author John McPhee once wrote, “it would be the laugh of the deeply insane.”
Loons in our Lakes by J. McPhee
Common Loon (Unsplash Royalty free by Kevin Crosby)
Common Loons have deeply insane diving and underwater skills and some wildly crazy vocalizations.
Loons capture fish by swimming through through water. This torpedo-like attack is fueled by short, strong legs and webbed feet that provide excellent underwater speed and maneuverability.
Olympic swimmers would envy the Loons ability to make abrupt 180-degree flip turns in seconds. They would also be amazed at how the birds are able to dive without a splash and reach depths of over 200 feet. Even newly hatched chicks are able to make shallow dives to escape predators.
How do Loons swim like that?
To start with, Loons have web feet that are placed far back on their bodies. Four hundred different species of birds have webbed feet, as well as, otters, frogs, and salamanders. Web feet spread out to push the water backwards. The toes fold together minimizing water resistance on the forward stroke.
Webbed-feet are hard to walk with. In the case of the Loon feet are placed near the back of the body making it even more difficult, some say comical, for the bird to walk on land. To experience this problem, slide on a pair of large swim fins and try to walk across the lawn. Now you know why loons spend so much time in the water and only come near shore for nesting.
Loons are less buoyant than most flying birds. Loons have heavy, solid bones that serve as underwater ballast and help them dive deep. The bones of most other flying birds are hollow and filled with air.
These birds expel air out of their lungs and plumage when diving. This reduces water resistance and buoyancy and creates a very streamlined body shape. At the same time, their heart slows down to conserve oxygen and they are able to maintain the dive for several minutes.
What are they eating?
These extraordinary swimming skills are needed to capture fish, their diet mainstay. Some fish have erratic swim patterns and are easily caught by the Loon (this includes Bluegill and Yellow Perch). Fish that swim straight ahead (like salmon and trout) are more difficult.
Adult loons may eat up to two pounds of fish per day, and a loon family with two chicks may consume over 900 pounds of fish over the course of a breeding season.
How well do they fly?
Loons can fly ~70 mph and routinely migrate. They are like a jumbo-jet—they need a lot of space to take off and land. At times, a Loon can become stranded and unable to take-off if the pond is too small. They are not able to take-off and fly from land.
Loons are fast flyers and have a wide territory in the coastal U.S., and northern U.S. and southern Canada. Many migrate and over winter in coastal areas. Some migrate south into Baja California. In all cases, they will only stay in waters that are crystal clean and well populated with fish.
Loon call
Loons are often identified by their eerie, and unusual calls. They use a tremolo call (that sounds like crazy laughing) when alarmed or to announce their presence and soft hoots to keep in contact with their young and each other. Each male loon also has a unique yodel used to identify territory.
To hear these calls see the Loon Preservation Committee website (https://loon.org/the-call-of-the-loon/). There is a good chance that you will have heard these calls in the movies (such as “On Golden Pond,” “Finding Dory,” and several others.
