Today was the most beautiful day on the water-- and quite warm too! I paddled out with two couples from the Northwest and we took advantage of the incredible low tide and spent our morning investigating the tidal zones. There were clams, jellies, anemones and crabs galore, but the real highlight was seeing almost all of our local sea stars. We saw purple and orange ochre sea stars, a few orange and purple sunflower stars and a pale orange and gray leather star. We were able to pick up one of each kind and realized up close how different they all are.
The hand-sized ochre sea stars are quite rough and firm, and almost always have 5 rays. Sunflower sea stars can grow up for a few feet across, have up to 27 rays, and are very malleable with hundreds -if not thousands- of tube feet. The leather sea stars are quite heavy with 5 rays, few tube feet and soft, slippery and smooth leathery backs.
It was great to see fine examples of the Sound's biodiversity, and go so far as to hold them in our hands!