Category Archives: ER Warden Report

Henricia leviuscula The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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Blood stars are seen frequently by divers in the 0-15 meter depth at Race Rocks. They are planktonic feeders.

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Echinodermata
Class Stelleroidea
Sub Class Asteroidea
Order Spinulosida
Sub Order Leptognathina
Family Echinasteriade
Genus Henricia
Species Leviuscula
Common Name Blood Star

The Blood Star is characterized by its brilliant red or reddish-orange color. Its comparatively small and graceful its body is only 10 to 12 cm from the tip of one ray to the tip of the one across from it. It has an arm radius to 8.9 cm, usually less; its disk is small, its arms are long, tapering, and are usually five in name (sometimes four or six); it has an absent pedicellariae; its aboral surface has a tan to orange-red or purple color., often banded with darker shades, and bearing many groups of short spinlets arranged in a fine network.
Habitat: Common on protected sides of rocks, under rocks, and in caves and pools, more frequently where rock is encrusted with sponges and bryozoans, low intertidal zone, subtidal to over 400 m.

The sea star feeds on bacteria and other tiny particles, which are captured in mucus and swept to the mouth by ciliated tracts. It may also feed by applying the stomach to the surfaces of sponges and bryozoa.

Breeding habits in the sea star vary with size. Smaller females brood their eggs in a depression around the mouth formed by arching the arms. Larger females discharge eggs directly into the water and do not brood them. The sperm have spherical heads and the eggs are orange-yellow and yolky, and development is direct.

REFERENCES CITED:

1. Robert H. Morris, Donald P. Abbott, and Eugene C. Haderlie,Intertidal Invertebrates of California, 1980, Stanford University

LINKS:

http://elib.cs.berkeley.edu/photos/fauna/sci-invertebrate.html

http://enature.com/fieldguide/showSpeciesSH.asp?curGroupID=
8&shapeID=1072&curPageNum=9&recnum=SC0074

Other Members of the Phylum Echinodermata at Race Rocks 
taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams.

 Dec 2001Tania Melendez (PC yr.27)

Strongylocentrotus purpuratus: Purple sea urchin– The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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Purple Urchins and Californianus sp mussels at a “zero” level tide on the west side of Great Race Rocks.
July 2000

The purple sea urchin is about 10 cm. across, spines up to 2cm. and is bright purple. Its body “skeleton”, called the test, is shell like with bumps and holes from which the moveable spines and tube feet extend .The spines are used for protection, movement and for trapping drifting algae. It has a claw like mouth with 5 teeth-like plates. It is composed of over 60 shells and is called Aristotle’s lantern and is located on the underside or oral side of its body. The anus and the genital pores are on the aboral side of the sea Urchin.

In February, 2004 we had a note from CECIERJ requesting permission to use our video of the purple sea urchin in media being prepared for their undergrad distance learning courses. By offering these courses, the consortium CEDERJ contributes to bringing high quality free education to the inner cities of the Rio de Janeiro State. As well as permitting such use of our resources, we have added for them, an introduction by one of our Brazilian students, Rita who helped us make this video in Portuguese about the Sea Urchins and Echinoderms..

Diet: The Sea Urchin feeds on algae, plankton, kelp, periwinkles, and occasional tiny barnacles or mussels.

They are eaten by crabs, sunflower stars, snails, sea otters, some birds, fish, and people.

Reproduction: Fertilization in Sea Urchin is external, the female release several million tiny, yellow jelly-coated eggs at a time. The gametes join the water column as planktonic forms .

Behaviour: Although they often live in sheltering holes that they have worn in the rocks and they have also been observed to makes holes in solid steel, this behaviour is not evident at Race Rocks. Most of them live in shallow water here, They move surprisingly fast on their tube feet and spines. Moving their feet by a hydraulic water vascular system which creates suction in the end of the foot by pulling water out of the madreporite. They can also regrow broken spines.

The following images show the structural features on the test of a dead purple sea urchin. The image was produced by scanning.


This image shows the aboral view of a purple sea urchin.The dark patch in the middle is the anus. These were dead specimens.Thus the spines are missing.

Domain Eukarya
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Ecinodermata
Class Echinodea
Order Echinoida
Family Strongylocentrotidae
Genus Strongylocentrotus
Species purpuratus
common name Purple Sea Urchin

The lower image shows the oral view of a purple sea urchin. The hole in the middle is its mouth with the sharp edges its 5 teeth. Note the pentaradial symmetry.

Parastichopus californicus The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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 Video of Albinism and Leucism in Sea Cucumbers

 

 

 

 

Video of escape response when attacked by Pycnopodia sp.

 

 

 

 

Video of a male sea cucumber releasing sperm

 

 

 

Emily finds a partially albino (pinto?) Parastichopus while diving near Church Island… just up the Strait from Race Rocks. 

 

 

DESCRIPTION:

The California Sea Cucumber grows up to 50cm long. They are the largest cucumbers in B.C. waters. They range in colours from red in juveniles to brown or mottled brown, with all white individuals occurring rarely. They are covered on the dorsal side with flesh coloured papillae, and on the ventral side by tube feet. A circle of peltate feeding tentacles surround a subterminal mouth, directed ventrally at the anterior end. Oxygenated water is forcibly pumped into the sea cucumber’s respiratory trees in several successive inhalations, and then deoxygenated water is forcefully expelled. Eye-witness accounts have noted small fish being expelled with this force of water, perhaps living in symbiosis with the California sea cucumber.

RANGE:

Gulf of Alaska to Cedros Island, West of Lower California. Intertidal to 249m. Common on mud, gravel, shell, rock rubble or solid bedrock, from exposed coast to sheltered inlets. Greatest densities occur in quieter waters where organic sediments settle on hard surfaces. Harvesting of Sea Cucumber is also done by divers, throughout their range.

FEEDING, BEHAVIOR, AND BREEDING:

Sea cucumbers feed as they move along the bottom, traveling up to a maximum of 3.9m a day. They gain nutrition from organic material in sediment, mostly form bacteria and fungi. California Sea Cucumbers cease feeding and become dormant from September to early March. Once they reach maturity at four years of age, they will migrate to shallow water to spawn from late April to August, although this timing varies with location. Fertilization takes place in open water. Free swimming larva feed on plankton for 35-52 days before settling to the bottom. Parastichopus californicus has few natural predators. Sunflower starts sometimes eat them, and the sea cucumber reacts strongly by rearing back and flexing violently to avoid being eaten. They are harvested commercially in B.C., Washington, and Alaska for meat, and limits have been set for the amount that may be caught. When disturbed, as other sea cucumbers, it will contract and squirt a powerful stream of water from its posterior end. Five pairs of muscle bands which run the length of the body help this organism in contracting and escape from sea stars. Perhaps one of the most interesting features is this organisms ability to regenerate new organs for winter after expelling them during its dormant phase. It seems there is controversy as to whether sea urchins expel or reabsorb their organs. Recent evidence cited by Philip Lambert of the RBC museum in Victoria(1997) indicates that the sea cucumbers reabsorb their organs.

FURTHER INFORMATION NEEDED:

-further study at Race Rocks of commensal fish living in respiratory tree

-behaviour studies

-colouration, how long it takes to occur in full pigmentation, as a white individual found near Race Rocks has recently begun to change tan colour–later development?

-mechanism of absorbing/ejecting and regenerating organs

WEBSITE LINKS TO SEA CUCUMBERS:

Sea cucumber fishery – Pacific Region
http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/ops/fm/shellfish/Sea_Cucumber/biology_cucumber.htm

A paper by Phil Lambert on Sea Cucumber Taxonomy
http://rbcm1.rbcm.gov.bc.ca/nh_papers//taxing.html

REFERENCES CITED:

Carefoot, Thomas (1977), Pacific Seashores : A Guide to Intertidal Ecology
Lambert, Philip (1997), Sea Cucumbers of B.C., Southeast Alaska and Puget Sound
Morris, Abbott, Haderlie (1990), Intertidal Invertebrates of California
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams.  – Sarah Trefry Dec 2001 (PC)

Other Members of the Phylum Echinodermata at Race Rocks 
taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File

Tonicella lineata: lined chiton–The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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Lined chitons are seen frequently by divers in the 5-15 meter depth at Race Rocks. Their color is highly variable, some being a turquoise colour while others are brown with white markings on some of the shell segments as noted on those in this video clip. Observe in particular, the patches of grazed Lithothamnion sp. , the pink encrusting algae.

 

Characteristics:

Tonos (stretched/braced) Cell, lineatus (lined/marked with lines).

The lined chiton eats the surface layers of this encrusting algae, including the film of diatoms and other small organisms on it.

All chitons have a muscular foot for locomotion, a complete digestive tract from the mouth to the anus, a calcium carbonate shell with 8 overlapping plates. This is produced by the mantle, where organs are suspended in coelom. A gill extracts oxygen and disposes waste, a chiton exposed to air consumes only 73 percent of the amount it does when submerged. It remains in oxygen debt until re submersion. Even though the body has bilateral symmetry, the gill numbers on both sides may very well be irregular, asymmetrical.

Physical Description: The lined chiton- Tonicella lineata -covered by 8 smooth plates,. Endless colour variations exist. The girdle around the plates is smooth and leathery, often with a row of lighter spots or bands. Size up to 5 cm long.


It is brightly colored, having a zigzagging dark black/ brown lines over a background of yellow, orange, pink, orchid, and lavender predominate. This aids in its camouflage around the Lithothamnion coralline algae, where it is usually found.
Geographical Range: Aleutian Islands to San Miguel Island, CA, Sea of Okhotsk, Northern Japan
Habitat: They live on rocks covered with coralline algae that are in the low intertidal or subtidal zone. They can also be found in urchin burrows in the rock.
Feeding: They eat encrusting coralline algae.
Predators:Predators of this invertebrate are sea stars, Pisaster ochraceus and Leptasterias hexactis. Harlequin ducks, and the river otters..
Reproduction: Dioecious broadcast spawners. Spawning occurs in the spring. The males release their sperm into the water while exhaling waste water. Females release a stream of green eggs. Larvae metamorphose into juveniles approximately 12 hours after having settled on coralline algae.
Adaptations: Larval development stops unless the larva settles on coralline algae, which is its food source. This alga also acts as camouflage, as the chiton is often of the same colour.

Possible Further Studies:
The behavior in different depths.
The reproduction cycle of the lined chitons.

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Mollusca
Class Polyplacophora
Order Neoloricata
Suborder Ischnochitonina
Family Ischnochitonidae
Genus Tonicella
Species lineata
Common Name lined chiton

  • References:
    http://www.wallawalla.edu/academics/departments/biology/rosario/inverts/Mollusca/Polyplacophora/Tonicella_lineata.html

Ecology and reproductive biology of Tonicella lineata (Wood, 1815)(Mollusca-Polyplacophora), by JR Barnes, 1972

The larval settling response of the lined chiton Tonicella lineata, by J. R. Barnes and J. J. Gonor, MARINE BIOLOGY, Volume 20, Number 3, page 259-264, 1973

http://wikis.evergreen.edu/marinelife1011/index.php/Tonicella_lineata

Andy Lamb and Bernard P. Hanby, Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest, Harbour Publishing p. 176

Adam Sedgwick , Magazine: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 33, (1881 – 1882), pp. 121-127
Morris, R.H. et al. Intertidal Invertebrates of California. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1980)

Other Members of the Phylum Arthropoda at Race Rocks 
taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams.

 December 2001 – Bassam( Jarbawi (PC year 27)

 

 

Report on work with racerocks.com –June – December 2001

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Report on Ecological Reserve warden Garry Fletcher’s work with racerocks.com . June- December 2001
This past half year my focus has been on a number of areas related to the development of the racerocks.com site as an educational resource.
1. In June I had a student present a live webcast from us at Race Rocks at the AMTEC conference in Halifax.  At the same time we were demonstrating this technique to two representatives from APPLE computers Educational Staff, Keith Mitchell,Internet and NewMedia Technology, Apple Learning Interchange  from Texas and Jeff Orloff, Senior manager, Learning Products Education marketing and Solutions,  from the head office in California.
2. In the first two weeks of June, I again had two students staying out at Race Rocks presenting some live webcasts and working on the development of Quick time archived video and Quick Time Virtual reality  movies (see at) http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/archives/vrindex.htm
3. Development with Apple Learning Interchange of the Conference Room and The Discussion Forum for Race Rocks. In July, I worked with Keith Mitchell in the creation of these two interactive parts of the website. On the Meeting Room Conference site, we now are able to receive written questions from an audience and direct them around to different cameras while retaining the link with our mobile camera.  We used this with a presentation for a conference at South Western University in August.

Continue reading →

racerocks.com Education and Research in Real Time

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This article by Garry Fletcher with contributions by Pearson College students Damien Guihen and Jean-Olivier Dalphond was published in the Fall, 2001 issue of the journal Education Canada . It appears in the edition on Education and Technology. Vol. 41, No 3 . It is reproduced here with permission of the editor, Paula Dunning.

 

Journal Subscriptions: publications (use the at sign)cea-ace.ca

Education Canada is published quarterly by the CEA
Copyright Canadian Education Association 2001, ISSN 0013-1253

Education Canada
317 Adelaide Street W. Suite 3000 Toronto
Ontario. M5V 1P9

visit the website of Education Canada at: http://www.cea-ace.ca

The Race Rocks Activity Group at Race Rocks with Paul Kennedy of CBC Ideas

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Written by the students of the Race Rocks Activity:

Paul Kennedy, the host of the CBC evening program “Ideas” OCT 6, 2001: Paul Kennedy of the CBC Radio program “IDEAS” went with us to Race Rocks on the afternoon of October 6. He was interested in observing one of our live webcasts from underwater. He is in the process of preparing a series on Canada’s Oceans in December of 2001, and has been intrigued with the potentials for distance education that is afforded by the technology we have developed here for racerocks.com.This series is being rebroadcast in February and March 2002. Race Rocks Segment : CBC radio Feb 22 9:00 P.M.

RACE ROCKS MPA FEATURED ON the CBC IDEAS PROGRAM

Dr. Joe MacInnis Dives with Pearson College Students at Race Rocks

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In September 2001, Dr. Joe MacInnnis visited Lester Pearson College. Joe, a member of the Board of Pearson College,  gave a presentation on his ventures of diving on the wreck of the Bredalbane in the Arctic. In the afternoon he went with some of the Diving service students to Race Rocks for a dive.

joe macinnis and dive group

Dr. Joe MacInnis Diving at Race Rocks Ecological Reserve with Pearson College Diving students.

joemtank

Dr. Joe MacInnis prepares for a dive at Race Rocks. photos by Garry Fletcher

 

The RACEROCKS.COM Activity

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http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/rrcom/rrcomactivity/rrcomactive.jpgSeptember 11, 2001 We met this afternoon for the first session of the racerocks.com activity at Lester Pearson College. A tragic day for all of us as events unfold in the US. After a discussion of how the racerocks.com program has developed over the past few years, and projections as to where we may take it from here, we ran a short sample webcast from the biology lab. We were able to show the eight new first year students in the activity the process involved in a webcast.

 

Monica works her magic with the sound system while Garry and Paul check out the webcast on the monitor.

OCT 6, 2001: Paul Kennedy of the CBC Radio program “IDEAS” went with us to Race Rocks on the afternoon of October 6. He was interested in observing one of our live webcasts from underwater. He is in the process of preparing a series on Canada’s Oceans in December of 2001, and has been intrigued with the potentials for distance education that is afforded by the technology we have developed here for racerocks.com.This series is being rebroadcast in February and March 2002. Race Rocks Segment : CBC radio Feb 22 9:00 P.M.

http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/rrcom/rrcomactivity/quicktimelive/crew2m.jpg

On February 14 , 2002, we did a live webcast for Keith Mitchell of ALI ( Apple learning Interchange) in his presentation at QuickTime Live in Hollywood California. This was the first time we tried out the new webcasting software “LiveChannel” from our new partners Channel Storm.

Pearson College Orientation week 2001

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When the Lester Pearson College students arrive at the college for the fall term, the first week is an Orientation Week. This year part of their schedule was a boat trip to Race Rocks and a guided tour by second year student Damien from Ireland.