Chinook Salmon Arrive at Big Beef Creek

As August passed, the Chinook salmon came to Big Beef Creek. Although signs of the arriving Chinook had been seen for weeks, the rains at the end of August were just what the salmon needed to move from the safer waters of the Hood Canal up the estuary and into the mouth of Big Beef Creek. Gordy George, Facilities Manager, counted over twenty salmon in the first weekend after the rains and expected the fish to keep coming up the stream. Because the Chinook Salmon are not native to Big Beef Creek, George removes the salmon at the beginning of the creek and places them into large tanks until they are spawned.

During late summer Big Beef Creek is also home to the Hood Canal Summer Chum Salmon, which are on the Endangered Species List. Fewer chum salmon have been spotted at the Creek. Most of the chum will be let into the natural creek, where they will swim further up stream before naturally spawning. Several organizations have been working with UW to restore the Summer Chum to Big Beef Creek after they were extirpated there for the last twenty years. 

Chinook and Summer Chum salmon are two of five salmonoid fish found in Big Beef Creek. Coho, Steelhead trout and Cutthroat trout also come to Big Beef Creek to spawn at different times of the year. Salmon are anadromous, which means they are born in the freshwater of a stream, move out to the Pacific Ocean’s saltwater for the majority of their life, and then return to the same freshwater as they were born to spawn. 

Big Beef Creek’s

Low Tide Beach Walk

The University of Washington Big Beef Creek Field Station’s low tide beach walk on Saturday, August 18, 2001, was a great success. It is the first public beach walk of its kind at Big Beef Creek. Twenty-eight guests, including ten children, attended the beach walk, which took place at 10:00 a.m. The walk met at the Big Beef Creek Bridge, and then before heading out on the tide flat, Kerry Olson, Big Beef Creek Summer Project Coordinator, who guided the walk, told the group about the research and educational projects that go on at the field station. She explained that the University treats this land as a preserve and asked that nothing should ever be taken from the beach. While she spoke, she passed around an old heart cockle shell and pointed out that there were at least six species of animals and two algae using this old shell as a home, including barnacles, hermit crab, small snails, mussels, limpets, and an orange sponge. 

As the beach walk started out onto the tide flat, they stopped to talk about the algae and how important it is, not only to the beach and it’s life, but also to humans as a food, food ingredient and also as a source of oxygen, a by-product of photosynthesis.  The group then found and learned about moon snails, sea stars, starry flounders, oysters, and three species of crab as well as many others animals.  The mud was thick and several people struggled with getting their boots unstuck, but a good time was had by all.

What’s Blooming at Big Beef??

Douglas’s Aster (Aster subspicatus)

Patches of aster are found near the salt marshes of Big Beef Creek’s inner estuary. They are most easily seen next to the Seabeck Highway causeway over Big Beef Creek.  On very high tides the plant can be partially covered by water. The Douglas’s Aster grows in a patch with violet ray petals and a yellow disk making up the 1 ½ inch flower. The leaves are narrowly lanceolate and mostly toothed. Generally Douglas’s Aster blooms during August and September in lowlands, especially beaches, salt marshes, ditches or stream sides. As you can see here it is very well liked by many types of bees and other insects.

Research Wrapping Up for Summer

As the fall school year grows closer and closer the population at Big Beef Creek Field Station dwindles. The Station had more students this summer than it has had for several years. Jon Lee, a graduate student from Cornell University, completed his second summer of field studies at the end of July. Carolyn Margolin, a recent BS graduate also from Cornell, and Emily Lang, an undergraduate from University of Washington, assisted Jon with his research on plainfin midshipman (Porichthys notatus). Jon returned to Ithaca, NY, for the fall and winter to continue his studies and complete the lab portions of his project. He will return next year to continue his field research.  Margolin stayed an extra month at Big Beef Creek to work with Karl Polivka and Karen Alofs, both from University of Chicago.  She departed at the end of August to return to her family in New York before coming back to UW’s Friday Harbor as part of the East-West program. Polivka is a Phd student and has been studying stream ecology and sculpin life history at Big Beef Creek for four years. Alofs is an undergraduate working at Big Beef Creek under an undergraduate research grant. It is her second summer at Big Beef Creek studying why the sharp–nosed sculpin (Clinocottus acuticeps) live in algae patches. Polivka and Alofs will be staying at Big Beef Creek until mid-September.

Dr. Ken Chews Visits Big Beef Creek

Gordy George cooked up fresh salmon to celebrate the visit of Dr. Ken Chew to Big Beef Creek, who announced his retirement this year. Dr. Chew, Karen Schmitt, Director of Big Beef Creek, Linda Maxson, Director of Development and Community Relations and Angie Thomson-Bulldis, Manager of Development & Community Relations, joined Kerry Olson, Summer Project Coordinator at BBC for a beach walk on the Big Beef Creek tide flats. 

Dr. Chew shared his knowledge of the tide flat and the animals that live on and in the tide flat.  As the UW group dug for clams, Dr. Chew explained the difference between a jackknife clam, a native softshell clam, and a manila littleneck clam.  After many pictures and several few stories, the group joined Gordy and the Big Beef researchers for a lunch near the cabins.  Everyone appreciated the great food and the opportunity to join Dr. Chew at Big Beef Creek, where he and many of his students conducted an invaluable amount of marine research over many years. 

MOON SNAIL (Polinices lewisii)

Moon snails are hiding under the sand of the Hood Canal. They are the largest snail in the intertidal zone and can grow so their shell is five inches in diameter. The shell is round and thick with three large whorls and often cream, tan and pink in color. The shell normally sits on top of a large, fleshy foot. Under extreme stress, the moon snail can pump all of the water out of their foot to fit in shell, but they cannot breathe well in this condition. The foot is covered with slime and sand which helps it move through and on the sand.

Moon snails are predators that eat clams, mussels, oysters and snails by wrapping their foot around their prey to suffocate it and then drilling a hole in the shell with its radula. Many people dislike the moon snails because they like to eat the same bivalves that humans eat, but really they cannot eat enough to impact human’s harvesting. They are eaten by shore birds, raccoons, and otters.

At the Big Beef tide flat, they can be found at the low intertidal and subtidal zones buried in sandy/muddy areas with little eelgrass. Look for mounds of fresh sand. Sometimes they can also be found past the tide line on top of the sand. Always be sure to rebury the moon snail where it was found so the gulls do not have any unfair advantages!

Through the summer you will find these things on the beach that resemble a piece of rubber or old tire. DON’T THROW THEM AWAY.  They are Moon snail egg collars. Moon snails lay thousands of eggs packed tightly into that slime, or mucus, and sand that covers their foot to form a collar-like ring. Microscopic larvae are released from the eggs mid to late summer into the sea where they free float as plankton for many weeks before growing into their adult moon snail form.