Hundreds of Humboldt County school children participated in this year's 17th annual Kids Ocean Day event by helping to restore dune habitat at the Mike.
A crew of researchers clad in orange fishing bibs trudges out to the rocky shore.
It’s early in the AM – their visit timed to capture the brief window when the tides are so low, they reveal a usually-hidden intertidal spectacle. Clinging to the exposed rocks, among the mussels and wobbly sea anemones, are sea stars, colored in hues of tangerine and violet.
The researchers’ mission? To pry the Ochre Sea Stars off the rocks, then measure and weigh them.
Laurel Field is a faculty research assistant in the Menge Lubchenco Lab at Oregon State University. She led the team to this spot on Oregon’s south coast.