We now have it on good authority that the “gull on a rock” was NOT a California Gull, it was a Thayer’s Gull–there was a lot of researching and discussion about that in the audience afterwards. Also the “Tiger Rockfish with Purple Encrusting Sponge” was probably actually a Painted Greenling. And of course bull kelp is not really an annual–it dies back and regrows annually, similar to a perennial plant, although of course it’s not a plant. More info here: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/sea/pugetsound/species/kelp.html

We also forgot to show the slide at the end with photo credits. Val and I are responsible for most of them; thanks to the following folks for sharing their beautiful photos for the book and the presentation: Scott Stevenson of Pacific Marine Imaging http://www.8arm.com/ , Mark Hiebert, Gavin Schaefer, Dane Stabel, and Ashley Park.

Just wanted to take a moment to say thanks to the two of you for a wonderful talk this evening! Been in Victoria a little over a year, and while I’ve been along the Dallas Rd. shoreline quite a bit, have yet to make it out to the breakwater. I had no idea there was such diversity there!

Hugs,
Mike.

P.S. Val, you mentioned about the cruise ship passengers who had seen the ‘whale’ rocks at low tide; it reminded me of when I was working on a black bear study and we had radio collars on a number of bears, esp. sows. We were often stopped by the public, who wanted to know about the project. Put the headphones over their ears and they’d hear the ‘beep… beep… beep…’ of the collar signal. “Wow! Is that its hearbeat?” “Yup.”