In the pre-dawn hours of a morning in mid June of this year, a small group of coastal volunteers joined scientists from UC Santa Cruz on the rocky reef at the south end of Walk On Beach Working during an extremely low tide, our group of volunteer “citizen scientists” helped by recording counts of sea stars and barnacles, measuring mussels, taking photographs of survey plots and other tasks that help to characterize the intertidal environment. We assisted the UCSC biologists in collecting these data for a multi-agency and decades-long study of intertidal life along the coast of North America from Alaska to Mexico (MARINe, https://www.marine.gov/Research.html). The data captured on the surveys are useful for addressing questions regarding species and population shifts resulting from disease, climate change, natural or human-caused disturbance, and a host of other issues.
The historical Sea Ranch site data can be viewed at: http://tinyurl.com/nn4c8rt