Who I worked withDana Wu Intern at Olympic National Park’s
Heather works at Olympic National Parks
4 Student Conservation Association staff
Locations-
Beach 4 Starfish Point.
Ruby Beach
Rialto Beach
TimesFebruary, 2015 (time not available)
March 4, 2015 the time was between 2:30 pm and 5:50 pm.
April 1, 2015 the time was between 2:30 pm and 5:38 pm.
April 25, 2015 the time was 7:25 am to 5:00pm (Washington Coastal Cleanup)
ActivitiesAt Rialto Beach I measured the GPS soil survey. I kept track of how many starfish was at the beach, the
amount of starfish infected with the starfish wasting disease, and the amount of healthy starfish. There was 450
starfish and several of them were infected on March 5, 2015. Three of the seven had missing legs. On April 1,
2015 there was 21 starfish and two of them were infected. For Ruby Beach I helped by picking up trash and
carrying the trash to a recycle bin.
Observation of Project siteThere were no animals at Rialto Beach but there was some fallen trees. Animals that were found at Beach
4 included starfish, barnacles, hermit crabs, sea slugs, anemone, eagle, dead Sea lion, and by-the-wind-sailors.
The vegetation is algae and drift wood. People use the beach for recreation or for fun. The debris is plastic
bottles, Styrofoam, bottle caps, aluminum cans. The marine debris at Ruby Beach included two sewage ducts,
one small land one a little bit bigger, nylon rope, rope that loggers use to tie wood, plastic bottles, Styrofoam,
aluminum cans, wooden pallet, buoy, tires. Some animals at Ruby Beach were “By-the-Wind-Sailors” and
eagles.
Observation of Project Impacts/ Results-
At Rialto Beach people were running and playing. The human impact were people picking up trash,
swimming, playing, flying kites, and hiking at Ruby Beach. Two park visitors helped out by taking some of the
trash up to the recycling bin in the parking lot. One person from our group got buried under some rocks. One
piece of trash was some kind of Canadian clothing cleaner that took two people to move it; the container was
green.