Fort Ross in the Spring part. 2

During my visit to Fort Ross Conservatory, I was able to tide-pool and see some amazing organisms. 

My marine class and I went to Gerstle Cove on Sunday April 30th at 7:30 a.m. The day was beautiful with a bit of windy, witch made it a bit chilly.  The inter-tidal was at -0.1, making it really nice to tide-pool. Gerstle cove is a marine protected area in the north central coast in California. It lies on Salt Point State Park. In August 2009, Gerstle Cove became one of the marine protected areas, which was adopted by California Departmetn of Fish and Game. Gerstle Cove became one of the protected areas becase local divers, fishermen, and scientists want to protect the area. By protecting this area, sea life would be protected, while enhancing recreation, study and education opportunities. Gerstle Cove protects intertidal habitats in a marine reserve and the cove will be able to protect a broader range of species. Gerstle Cove is also able to provide recreational and educational opportunities for the public because of an interconnected land-sea protection and management regime in waters. Since Gerstle Cove is a marine protected area, there is a prohibition of taking all living resources. With that said, California marine protected areas still encourages recreational and educational uses of the ocean, At Gerstle Cove, you can enjoy kayaking diving, snorkeling and swimming. All of these activities are free to do, unless otherwise restricted. 

During our time at Gerstle Cove, I noticed some trends when collecting data from the intertidal. We located a 30 meter transect line in the high, mid and low zones of the intertidal. We used the point contact method to collect data. We wanted to see what species were living in those areas . So we recorded the species that were underneath each meter and we also noted if there were any sea stars near each meter. We did this exact method on all three of the zones. As we recorded our finding through out the three zones, I noticed that as we got lower into the intertidal the amount of brown algae decreased and the amount of coralline algae increased. In the higher zones, there was a higher significance of mussels and barnacles. Rock abundance was much lower in the lower zone, which makes sense because the species that live on them were in the higher zones (mussels and barnacles for example). Another interesting trend was that more types of species were appearing in the lower zones and they were in higher abundances. Species such as sea stars, chitons, sea urchins and abalone. It was really exciting seeing all of these species, but especially the sea stars and abalone. I have seen Pisaster and Bat stars before but never in the high amounts of Gerstle Cove. Its good see that there are higher amounts of sea stars. This was the first time that I had seen gumboot chiton and red abalone in their nature habitat. As the zone was lower, the more species of each I saw. I will definelty visit Fort Ross again and tide-pool at Gerstle Cove. 

Gumboot chiton (Cryptochiton stelleri):
The gumboot chition is an organism that is not very familiar, which has a thick, leathery and brick red mantle. Thins mantle hided their eight shell plate and its muscular foot. They use their foot to attach to rocks. The reason why gumboot chiton are red in color, is becasue about 20 species of red algae live on their mantle. This chitons even eat the red algae, which possibly adds to their color. They have a tongue like radula, that is composed of tiny teeth capped with element magnetite. They use it to scrape algae from the rocks.  There are about 650 species of chiton and the gumboot is one of them. They have changed very little in the past 500 million years. They have simple body parts and they do not eat a high amount of food. They don't even have many predators to worry about, other then the lurid rock snail. In a big number, chitons gather on rocky beaches during the spring to get away form deeper waters and spawn. Some interesting facts on gumboot are that they are nocturnal and they usually feed at night. They are the largest chiton in the worked when exposed to air during low tide, they can breath oxygen form atmosphere. When the plates of the gumboot break, they can repair them. 

Red abalone (Haliotis rufesens):
Red abalone inhabit rocky areas of kelp and they are more common in areas around 40 m deep. They range from Oregon to Baja. They have a shell that is exterior and in red to pink colored. They are largest type of abalone species in the world. They usually feed most;y on drift kelp. There biggest predators are humans and sea otters. The reason why the red abalone at Gerstle Cove were out in the open was because there are no more sea otters at Fort Ross. Abalone broadcast spawn and climate change could affect them because it is known that warmer water affects their sperm production. Red abalone populations have decreased because of over harvesting, predation by sea others and a disease, such as withering syndrome. Since their population declines, the commercial fishery of red abalone was closed in 1997. Only in Northern California, they are being legally harvested on a restricted, recreational basis. There is a common goal of recovering the depleted abalone in the rest of California. Abalone farming has become very successful, due to the decline in wild populations. In the year 1960's, red abalone cultivation began in California. Red abalone is one of the two largest farmed species in California.