Kelpscape

Happy Earth Day!

Somehow I have the impression that the real Earth Day is on Tuesday.  But, all the festivities in Santa Barbara are today. 

Santa Barbara claims a link to the first Earth Day -- as described here by the Daily Nexus -- from the reaction to the oil spill in the channel one year before.  The LA Times posted some great shots of that spill last week.

I recall proudly wearing a green armband to Highland Junior High School in Louisville on that first Earth Day. The Vice Principal, Cletus "Sonny" Hubbs, stopped and quizzed me about what it meant. 

Meanwhile, the first bluebirds of spring are coming to the Goleta Valley.  The Earth celebrates her own day!

Zooming Horn Shark

This is how I like to see sharks: powering past me, not paying much attention, skin and eyes operating at maximum efficiency.  This fellow was relaxing near Towers on Santa Cruz when I snapped a photo.

Topsnail

Topsnails find the stipe of a macrocystis kelp, and then climb it while eating the life that grows on it.  When they reach the top, they drop off and start over again.  This topsnail has accumulated some barnacles.

Kelp at The Towers

Giant kelp at the divesite off The Towers on Santa Cruz.

Kelp Crab

Kelp crab at The Towers on Santa Cruz. This fellow has accumulated a lot of barnacles on his carapace. I hope that they know that he will shed it at a point not too far off!

Giant Coreopsis

Giant coryopsis, near The Towers on Santa Cruz.  This variety of coreopsis is just like the garden plant, but bigger.  It's one of those things that is much bigger or smaller out there: tiny foxes, pygmy mammoths, and so on.  Like most of the native island plants, it appears mostly in crevices or steep slopes shunned by more recent invaders.

Alas, in the first edition of this post I wrote "Giant Corynactis".  Corynactis are under the water, not on land; and I've never seen one larger than a centimeter across.

 

Oil Pier Pilings

These steel beams supported an oil-drilling pier in the 30's or 40's. The pier was a precursor of the oil platforms, in this case between Sands Beach and Haskell's Beach: supported on pilings driven into the bedrock beneath the beach.  The platform shelled by the Japanese submarine I-17 on Feb 23, 1942 was here; these may have been part of that structure.  In any case, the platform was dismantled when the wells became uneconomical. At some point the pilings were cut off at ground level or below. Erosion of the soft bedrock continues to expose them. In the ocean offshore, divers still find rough beam partly buried in the sand, or boxlike structures made from them. I've never been tempted to explore inside, although I once waited a subjective eternity as my dive buddy (who was divingwhile recovering from a recent hernia operation) poked around inside.

Kelp Flaps

In a strong wind, kelp can lift out of the water and flap.  It looks like a school of fish jumping.

The Towers on Santa Cruz

The Towers at Santa Cruz mark one of the dive sites on the southeast side of the island.  They were associated with the Santa Cruz Acoustic Range Facility (SCARF), which determined the sound profiles of US submarines during the cold war. That work continues, but has moved to quieter waters in Alaska, since those days.  So far as I know, the facility is only as a landmark now, for hikers and divers.  It lends its name to the divesite below, just west of Yellowbanks.