I took a walk down to Hut Point today hoping to take some samples from the melt water ponds to dig through under the microscope. Apparently they are loaded with cool organisms. Unfortunately, the ponds were all frozen solid due to the cold temps.

However, I did make it down to the freshly opened intertidal zone (not much for tides here) and found some pretty amazing stuff. The little guy next to my glove is a chaetiliid isopod and by isopod standards... not very "little." They can get up to 8 inches long live 8 years!

I also saw a bunch of these ctenophores or comb jellies that just seemed to be everywhere and so beautiful. The cilia along the little ridges glow with a sort of phosphorescent purple sheen. Truly amazing to watch swim. It brought me back to the good 'ol days of the Spaulding Beach tide pools in Auke Bay.

It was such a lovely day outside and the water just looked too inviting to pass up, so I stripped down and had a quick dip from the beach.

~G