On 11 March 2011 a magnitude 9.0 earthquake occurred off the coast of Japan. About 14 hours later, at 11:15 a.m. local time a tsunami came through the Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbor. It sank dozens of boats and significantly damaged several of the docks. People were ordered to evacuate the area before the expected arrival of the tsunami, but of course there were those who chose to stay behind and shoot videos like this one (the real action starts at about 1:00):
As a result of the damage to the infrastructure of the marina itself, many of the docks have been replaced since 2011, including those that are closest to the mouth of the harbor. For several years now I have been taking marine biology students to the docks to examine the organisms growing on the undersides of the docks, and this year the biological community is finally getting interesting again. These particular organisms are described as “fouling” because they are the ones that colonize the bottoms of boats and have to be scraped off periodically. They are characterized by fast growth rates and short generation times; many of them are also colonial. The first arrivals settle onto the surface of the docks, and later arrivals can take up residence either on the docks or on their predecessors. A healthy fouling community has a rich diversity of marine invertebrates, algae, and the occasional fish. This semester’s trip to the harbor occurred a few weeks ago, and as usual the students were amazed at the amount and diversity of life on the docks. I remembered to bring the waterproof camera and snapped some shots.
This is what you see when you lie on the dock and hang your head over the edge:
It’s a mosaic of color and texture, really quite beautiful. You can see that mussels are the largest organisms in this community, and in turn are substrate for a variety of other animals.
Peering a bit closer to take notice of individual animals, you start to see things like this:
Colonial sea squirts, those orange-ish blobs in the last picture, are extremely common in marinas. In this photo, each distinct colored blob is an individual colony, and each colony consists of several genetically identical zooids connected by a protective covering called a tunic. Each teardrop-shaped zooid has its own incurrent siphon (the visible hole) through which it sucks in water, and the zooids in a group within a colony share a single excurrent siphon through which waste water is discharged. In Botryllus, the zooids are arranged into flower-like configurations called systems. In Botrylloides the systems are much less distinctive and wind around over the substrate. I’ve outlined a nice colony of Botryllus in the photo below, so you can see the easily recognized systems.
Such a wonderful world of animals and algae, right under our feet. Even people who spend a lot of time around boats don’t pay attention to the stuff on the docks. To me it is a secret garden that is easily overlooked but greatly appreciated when you take a moment to get your face down where your feet are.