Oyster Blog — Tideflat Critters

...include the Lion's Mane Jellyfish. We found a dead one washed up on the beach a couple of nights ago.    The Lion's Mane lives in the cold waters of the northern oceans. In the Arctic it can grow to tremendous size: the largest recorded Lion's Mane had tentacles 120 feet long... longer than a Blue Whale. The Lion's Mane's appearance is not deceptive: these guys can sting. We notice them most during shrimp season, when their tentacles occasionally get entangled with shrimp lines. It's really, really fun to get a splattering of Lion's Mane tentacles in your face as...

The ratfish is a ridiculous creature. It has the body of a shark, the tail of a rat, the eyes of a lemur, and the face of a rabbit. We found a sorry looking specimen out on the tideflats a couple of nights ago. It was alive, but not at all lively. Ratfish don't have scales, live between 40 to 300 feet deep, and eat like an ancient dachshund: they use their teeth to mash up shrimp, worms, clams, and fish. This particular fish had a strange growth on its forehead. It looked like a little worm. We couldn't find...

The Pacific red rock crab (Cancer productus) lives in the shadow of the more popular Dungeness crab (C. magister). Really, who's ever heard of a rock crab??? Here, they confront one another. Which one is the rock? The one with the black fingernails. Rock crab are harvested occasionally by sport fishermen when Dungeness aren't available. They're tasty, but not as meaty and satisfying as the Dungeness. Like Dungeness, rock crab are voracious predators and have done their darnedest to prevent the invasive green crab from taking over estuaries along the Pacific coast. Go here to see pictures of a rock...

Native littleneck clam on the left, Manila steamer on the right. Manilas were introduced to Puget Sound along with the Pacific Oyster in the 1950s and, like the oyster, have since naturalized. They're now the main clam species grown and harvested commercially in the Puget Sound, as their shells are hardier and they last longer post-harvest than the native littleneck. How to tell them apart? In general, the native clams are lighter colored than Manilas, but the biggest difference is in the profile of the shell. As you can see from the photo above, the native clams are more circular...

Dead shore crab get washed up by the high tide by the tens and twenties, where they prove irresistable for underage beach combers.