Linear view vs. Masonry View

Pulchritudinous Pneumatophore

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Found in Mustang Island State Park, Corpus Christi, Texas June 2019

This is the most complete Portuguese man o’ war (Physalia physalis) I have yet encountered on the beaches of the Texas Gulf Coast. While the tentacles remaining on this specimen stretched about five feet across the sand, that is minuscule compared to their average 30-foot span. Since the damn things can still sting after death, I gave this one a wide berth. Aren’t the colors of the pneumatophore, the gas-filled bladder that helps it float, phenomenal?

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Creepmeter: 11

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Okay, so you non-geology geeks may not know that creepmeters actually exist. They are used to measure horizontal movement along fault lines. Which is important information to have, especially if you live nearby.

I have co-opted the term and use it to place a numerical value on the “skin-crawlingness” of my beach finds (yes, I just made up that word). Disembodied doll heads crank my Creepmeter to 11.

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Sad Snack

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Diamond-shaped Bite Marks by Juvenile Sea Turtles, Mustang Island State Park, Corpus Christi, Texas June 2019

After the hatchling release last weekend, Lindy and I strolled down the Padre Island National Seashore (PINS). We enjoyed the cloud cover and cooler weather but we weren’t purposeless, instead we gathered trash along the beach. By the end of our three mile jaunt, we filled two twenty gallon bags and hauled off armloads of larger debris. It should come as no surprise that the majority of the items we picked up were plastic.

A survey published in 2018 found that Texas beaches have ten times the plastic trash of other gulf coast states (primarily due to the flow of currents in the Gulf of Mexico). It went on to state that Texas leads the nation in marine debris (and that’s saying something considering the waves of trash that washed ashore in the Pacific Northwest after the 2011 Tōhoku tsunami). Note: the study began with NOAA’s hands-on assessments in 2010 and ran through 2015, but it also utilized over 30 years of data accumulated by the Ocean Conservancy.

We felt good about our effort that morning, even though we knew the next high tide would deposit yet another load of trash. When I get disheartened I remind myself that every little bit helps…

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Flotation Device

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Violet Sea Snail, Padres Island National Seashore, Texas June 2019

A couple weeks ago I found my first few Violet Sea Snails (Janthina janthina) on the shores of Mustang Island. Just this past week I came across some that still had their bubble rafts attached. They spend their entire lives bobbing upside down on the ocean’s surface, suspended by their floats.

FYI – they can really stink up your car if you forget to remove your bag of them overnight during a humid summer in south Texas. Just sayin’…

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Antithesis

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At a distance, they may look similar. Up close the two couldn’t be more opposite. The top item is a bit of yellow plastic twine that is often found on the beaches of Mustang Island. It is immediately scooped up and placed in my trash bag.

While it looks like electrical wiring, the tangled mess at the bottom of the photo is a bundle of Colorful Sea Whip (Leptogorgia virgulata). Though there are several different hues of soft coral (including purple, red, and white), yellow is the one I most commonly see washed ashore. I leave the sea whip in place so it can cycle nutrients back to the sand.
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