Monday, July 19, 2004

June 15, 2004: Hourly Pictures

Today was our second full day on the island, and it began with an intertidal excursion led by our resident marine expert. In the intertidal we found some neat critters, one of which was the northern tidepool clingfish seen in the 1000 picture. Once we'd spent enough time among the rocks we took a boat to a nearby island and hiked across it, enjoying a packed lunch after our hike. We were then picked up and visited yet another island briefly, and upon returning "home" I promptly took a nap (hence the lack of pictures). After dinner I gave my talk on animal diversity and mosquitoes, which I had figured would go about 30 minutes to an hour, but which actually lasted about two hours (so much for my great timing skills).

One of the neatest things about this area is the very large (and relatively fast) tides. This is observable in today's pictures: compare the water levels in the 1300 and 1500 pictures; both pictures are looking out over the exact same little inlet/bay. One of the reasons we ate lunch on this island was that we had to wait until at least 1500 so our boat could come in and pick us up.

Our hourly pictures from the day are below. (This text was written after the trip)


06-15-04: 900 Posted by Hello


06-15-04: 1000 Posted by Hello


06-15-04: 1100 Posted by Hello


06-15-04: 1200
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06-15-04: 1300
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06-15-04: 1400
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06-15-04: 1500
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06-15-04: 1600
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06-15-04: 1700
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06-15-04: 2000
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06-15-04: 2200
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1 comment:

Radagast said...

Importing comments:

Radagast
Hmm, my first guess was that these were probably just different names for the same fish. However, on looking further it appears that spiny lumpsuckers and northern tidepool clingfish are indeed different species. Based on the pictures I think this is probably a northern (tidepool) clingfish, but if you wanted I could check with my local marine biologist (who has done a lot of work in your area) and find out for certain.

This is the only example I saw of the fish, and we found it under rocks in the intertidal (we were having far too much fun carefully flipping them over looking for things), so I never saw it in the water column to see if it hovered. That sounds neat!

As a final note, I can't believe there is an actual fish species named the spiny lumpsucker.
July 20, 2004, 10:06:44 PM PDT – Like – Reply

Qov
Your northern tidepool clingfish looks like what I call a spiny lumpsucker? Varying from yellow and with a suction cup on its belly, really little pectoral fins and sort of hovers in the water? We also called it a helicopter fish, but I think that was a kids' name.
July 20, 2004, 9:35:16 PM PD