The remains of an Octopus on Taylor Beach
Not a great picture but the remains of evidence that offshore of Taylor Beach, the giant pacific octopus goes through its life cycle, which is very short.. just a few years.
See the entry on the Race Rocks website for the octopus
Domain: Eukarya
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Order: Octopoda
Suborder: Incirrata
Family: Octopodidae
Genus: Enteroctopus
Species: dofleini (Hochberg, 1998)
Common Name Giant Pacific Octopus
My dog led me to this very unusual fish washed up on the shore today, Nov. 12 -2014. There was a brisk cold wind blowing from the North east, with a two-foot chop.
I am posting it here to try to get it identified.
Possibilities here on Fishbase
Note sucker on ventral side
very small eyes indicating it may be an abyssal species.
lateral view of unidentified fish species G. Fletcher photos
Length 24 cm.
Family Liparidae
Liparidae ventral view
A good suggestion has been made by Rick Harbo that it is a snail fish (Liparidae)
From Fishbase:
Deep fin Classification :Osteichthyes | Actinopterygii | Actinopteri | Neopterygii | Teleostei | Osteoglossocephalai | Clupeocephala | Euteleosteomorpha | Neoteleostei | Eurypterygia | Ctenosquamata | Acanthomorphata | Euacanthomorphacea | Percomorphaceae | Percomorpharia | Perciformes | Cottoidei | Liparidae
Also From Fishbase:
“Liparidae – (Snailfishes) Distribution: Arctic to Antarctic, Atlantic, and Pacific. Body elongate, scaleless (small prickles in some) and skin jellylike; dorsal fin (28-82 soft rays) and anal fin (24-76 soft rays) long, confluent, or nearly so with caudal fin; pelvic fin (disc) absent in species of Paraliparis and in the monotypic Nectoliparis; nostrils single or paired (usually in Liparis); vertebrae 38-86. Maximum length about 50 cm. Occur from tidepools to depths of over 7,000 m.”
Below: I took this image in late November of a red-breasted merganser female eating what may be one of these fish. I am not sure if she actually got it down whole!
Laura Verhegge has posted this note about Melibe leonina, seen today in Pedder Bay on the Pearson College Marine Science website
Melibe the hooded nudibranch photo by Laura Verhegge
Melibe leonina photos on Race Rocks Taxonomy by Ryan Murphy
(see other images and a video of the movement on her website)
Ryan Murphy got these images for the Race Rocks Taxonomy.
Domain: Eukarya
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Opisthobranchia
Order: Nudibranchia
Superfamily: Tritoniodea
Family: Tethydidae
Genus: Melibe
Species: leonina Gould, 1852
Common Name: Hooded Nudibranch
Nov 5: Yesterday there were several loons offshore from Taylor Beach. They normally stay over 100 m off shore, so photography without a telephoto is challenging. I think the following images are of two Common Loons (Gavia immer) in various stages of maturity.
Common Loon off the bluff at the North end of taylor Beach
Nov 8 : Definitely Common Loons–a pair of them are feeding every day off Taylor beach (north end) this week.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Clade: Aequornithes
Order: Gaviiformes
Family: Gaviidae Coues, 1903
Genus: Gavia Forster, 1788
Species: G. immer
Gavia immer Morten Thrane Brunnich, 1764)
This morning’s walk on the beach showed a different pattern of macroalgal drift on the shore.
Alex gathers a rich mix of brown, red and green algae for enriching the garden mulch.
East winds of the last two weeks have torn up most of the immediately offshore red and brown algae and have produced drifts of biomass on the beach.
The local organic farmers have had a good stretch of seaweed gathering as a result.
The tangled mass of stipes of Nereocystis leutkeana
Today however, there were rolls of both Macrocystis pyrifera (Giant Kelp) and Nereocystis leutkeana. (our common Bull kelp.)
The Macrocystis prefers growing in water of higher salinity than we have inside the Salish sea, so it supposedly arrives here by coming down the Strait from the West Coast and then ending up on our beaches. I have seen it growing off Bamfield and it certainly grows down as far as California and was harvested experimentally for Biogas extraction.
Reference From Biotechnology for Biofuels: “Macroalgae as a source of bioenergy first received intensive scrutiny as part of the US Ocean Food and Energy Farm project as proposed by Wilcox [10], initiated in 1973 and lasting over a decade [11]. It resulted in the construction of ocean farms for cultivation of the giant kelp Macrocystis[12]; reviewed by Kelly and Dworjanyn, [13]. While farming this species of seaweed in this truly offshore environment presented many technical challenges, the biogasification of macroalgal biomass gave excellent results [10,12,14,15]. This and subsequent research highlights some of the major advantages of macroalgae over other sources of biofuels (see Table 1).”
A roll of the complete plants of Macrocystis pyrifera
The more usual macroalgae that we get on Taylor Beach is Nereocystis leutkeana. In the 1980’s there was research done on the volumes of biomass that could be derived for energy extraction from kelp around Vancouver Island, but since kelp beds are such a valuable habitat and fish nursery, fortunately those plans have been put on hold.
The small floats. or Pneumatocysts of macroalgae often become detached and turn up on the beach . Here is a comparison of pneumatocysts of three Brown algae species.
Pneumatocysts of egregia menziesii on the left, Nereocytis leutkeana in the middle and two floats of Macrocystis pyrifera on the right.
The arrival of these macroalgae on the beach starts the process of decomposition which is really the first time that the energy fixed by these rapidly growing macroalgae, with very high rates of productivity, is passed on in the food web.
Surf Scoter off Taylor Beach: photo by Garry Fletcher
From September on through winter we see flocks of Surf Scoters feeding offshore on Taylor Beach . Today they were 100 metres offshore. They usually do not approach the shore as closely as the grebes and loons.
“The British Columbia Ministry of Environment, Land and Parks (BC Conservation Data Centre 2000) has designated them as a “Blue Listed” species. Blue List taxa are of special concern because of characteristics that make them particularly sensitive to disturbance from human activities or natural events. Blue-listed taxa are at risk, but are not extirpated, endangered or threatened (Master 1991). “(SFU biology)
A western grebe hangs out with a flock of Surf scoters
Surf Scoters on Taylor beach Oct 28, 2014
| Scientific classification | |
|---|---|
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Anseriformes |
| Family: | Anatidae |
| Subfamily: | Merginae |
| Genus: | Melanitta |
| Species: | M. perspicillata |
Western Grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis) photo by Garry Fletcher
Western grebe : Taylor Beach Vancouver Island photo by Garry Fletcher
The Western Grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis) overwinter here on Southern Vancouver Island in the protected coastal bays. In the past two weeks they have returned to the waters of Taylor beach.
They are one species which is having a difficult time due to habitat loss for nesting, and are also vulnerable in the event of Oil Spills here in the Strait of Georgia and Strait of Juan de Fuca.
From the Race Rocks website it was noted that three pairs were seen in Pedder Bay throughout January and February of 2006. Although our observations here have them diving and feeding throughout daylight hours, past research has shown that they also feed at night: following trails of bioluminescence as the fish swim through the water. (see reference below) It may surprize some to know that this is one of the few prairie-wetland nesting birds which do not migrate South during the winter, but instead migrate West over the Rocky Mountains to the Coastal Bays of Vancouver Island.
A western grebe hangs out with a flock of Surf Scoters
The Western Grebe is classified by the Alberta Government as a Species at Risk. This Field Summary gives further information on it.
| Domain | Eukarya |
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Sub-Phylum | Vertebrata |
| Class | Aves |
| Order | Podicipediformes |
| Family | Podicipedidae |
| Genus | Aechmophorus |
| Species | occidentalis |
| Common Name: | Western Grebe |
Along the shoreline of Metchosin and underwater we have ecosystems which are at risk of being heavily impacted in the event of an impending oil spill catastrophe given all the proposed projects which will increase ship traffic to unacceptable levels in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The presentation by Garry Fletcher linked here was done on the evening of October 23rd, 2014 at the Metchosin Community Hall organized by Karyn Woodland and the local Dogwood Initiative Group. ( NOTE: comments are included under the images and all images are copyright of the photographers who took them, John Harper(GeoBC); the ecoguardians at Race Rocks: Ryan Murphy, Raisa Mirza, Alex Fletcher, Anne Stewart, Adam Harding, Mike Robinson and Courtenay Edwards, and myself. The graphics from the first part on Oil Spill Risk are from posts of Nov.4 on Oil Spill Risks
Link to a description of the three presentations to the Town hall meeting by Kai Nagata of the Dogwood Initiative, Andrew Weaver, Green Party MLA for Oak Bay and Intervenor in the Kinder Morgan hearings, and Garry Fletcher, Intervenor for the Board of Friends of Ecological Reserves in the Kinder-Morgan / Trans Mountain Expansion project hearings. 
Horned grebe Podiceps auritus off Taylor Beach, Oct 10, 2014
These photos were taken by G. Fletcher off the shore of Taylor Beach on Oct 10/14 Unfortunately I didn’t have a telephoto along!
The tentative identification is the Horned grebe.
The following is quoted from From the Species at Risk Registry
“Horned Grebe: Scientific Name: Podiceps auritus
Taxonomy Group: Birds
Range: Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario
Last COSEWIC Assessment: April 2009
Last COSEWIC Designation: Special Concern
SARA Status: No schedule, No Status
The factors limiting Horned Grebe populations in Canada are not known, but several possible causes for the decline have been identified, including degradation of wetland breeding habitat and droughts. Permanent loss of wetlands to agriculture and development threaten Horned Grebe populations. Temporary loss of wetlands during droughts can also negatively impact Horned Grebe populations, and the length and frequency of droughts in the Prairies is expected to increase in the future, due to climate change. Eutrophication, i.e., the alteration of an aquatic environment linked to a significant input of nutrients that increases the production of algae and aquatic plants, as well as degradation of nesting sites from the accumulation of fertilizers used in agriculture or other contaminants could also threaten populations. In the Prairies, the major expansion of some predators, including Common Ravens, Black-billed Magpies and racoons, could be a factor causing a decline in the Western population. Type E botulism has been reported in the Great Lakes since the late 1990s and may be an important source of mortality for both resident and migrating waterbirds. Oil spills on their wintering grounds can also threaten Horned Grebe populations. At sea, these birds are particularly vulnerable, since they spend most of their time on the water. Competition with Pied-billed Grebes for breeding habitat could be a limiting factor for the Western population. Similarly, Red-necked Grebes may exclude Horned Grebes from nesting on some ponds. Finally, Horned Grebes become entangled and drown in nets in some commercial fishing areas. It is estimated that 3000 grebes and loons are netted annually by fishers on the southern part of Lake Winnipegosis in Manitoba. On the Great Lakes, birds are killed annually in fishing nets during both spring and fall migrations.
This week Alex Fletcher reported seeing a beaver (Castor canadensis) come ashore and go up into Gooch Creek which flows into the ocean on Taylor Beach. He is well aware of what the river otters which usually come into that creek look like so was able to identify this as definitely being a beaver. I checked the tracks later on that day and was able to confirm the set of beaver tracks over the beach and into the stream entrance on shore. The tell tail heavy wide groove left by the dragging tail was clear. We have been on the watch for evidence of it up in Gooch Creek since but have not seen anything.
I would be interested in hearing if anyone else has seen evidence of beavers this far south on Vancouver Island. ( See attached distribution map)
