Text Box: Geoduck (pronounced gooey-duck) clam. It is the biggest, with nine inch shells. It also lives deepest in the sand, three feet deep; it takes a tremendous effort to dig them. Mature geoducks are unable to move in the sand, and die if they aren’t put back in their holes at the correct depth with the siphon pointing toward the surface. They characteristically stick their incurrent siphons half an inch above the bottom, and can’t completely withdraw the siphons into their shells. Found in the low intertidal zone, they aren’t common in the Cove. Text Box: Bent-nosed clam. They lie on their side, instead of being vertical like other clams, at a depth of 3 to 6 inches (not to scale). They feed on phytoplankton with a siphon like a vacuum cleaner hose, which you can watch in the “Tubie” videos at the Museum auditorium. Text Box: Gaper or big-neck  clam, Tresus nuttallii. They lie 1/2 to one meter below the surface. They are smaller than the gooey duck but still large. The indians use to dry the siphons in the winter for use as food.   Text Box: Washington clam.  From a depth of 2 ˝ feet it can squirt water several feet in the air! The incurrent and excurrent siphons are next to each other, like the holes in the end of and elephant’s trunk. The squirts of water and paired in and out holes are characteristic. Fairly common in the lower half of the intertidal zone at the Cove. The indians use this clam as money for barter. Text Box: Blue mud shrimp Text Box: Ghost shrimp. Text Box: Sickle razor clam. Text Box: Blue mud shrimp.  Text Box: Moon snail collars are fairly common on the low intertidal zone at the Cove and Coleman Beach. Search when the tide is “minus”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More About Burrowing Animals
As suggested by this cutaway and the number of holes on the surface, there is a lot of life below the surface. Vehicular traffic (cars and trucks, like those allowed in the Off Road Park at Oceano, and repeated or prolonged stomping) kills many of these animals by collapsing their burrows.

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Revised 18-Feb-2008 02:26 PM