By Abraham Freeman
Aug 26, 2024
A drop loomed in front of us. We wanted to descend it, though could we? Grayish-black rocks were piled along the embankment. Some were rough and dry while others were smooth and wet.
I didn’t want to do our usual walk. The flat concrete path seemed safe, boring, and predictable. We needed a sprinkling of adventure. So why not? As we started the five-foot descent down from the dry sidewalk, the exposed tidal zone waited beneath.
Methodically stepping from rock to rock we eased our way down the embankment. Five feet may not seem like a drastic height to some, but for me it was. Over the past couple of months, I had stuck to paved surfaces. It was an exciting change for me. Reaching our new baseline of semi-flat ground, we began looking around. The first thing I noticed was a stream of water exiting from a pipe that was buried under the sidewalk. This stream was about three feet across at the exit of the pipe, eventually spreading out as it met the Sound.
This pipe it turns out was most likely discharging stormwater runoff. I noticed that a car tire without a rim was lying in the expulsion zone of the pipe. This got me thinking about pollution from stormwater runoff pipes.
The tire is a visible piece of pollution, though there are multiple other pollutants gaining access from stormwater runoff that are invisible to the everyday citizen. I presume that most people know that lead is a hazardous chemical. Due to lead's harmfulness, lead paint was banned in 1978 from households in the United States (About Lead).
What I believe is not common knowledge is that copper and zinc are toxic metals as well, expecially in large quantities. Unfortunately lead, copper, and zinc are collecting on roadways, driveways, and parking lots thus being picked up by stormwater runoff. These chemicals are found to be deposited from vehicles. Lead is used in batteries and balancing weights for tires. Copper is ground into fine particles from brake pads when we push our brake pedals. Zinc is a key ingredient in rubber manufacturing for tires. Unfortunately, some of these chemicals are out of the hands of the general consumer (Hwang). However, what is in our control is ensuring that visible trash does not make it anywhere except trash receptacles and landfills. For instance, the tire that was covered in a thin film of algae did not make to a tire recycling center.
It may sound odd, but I was in the tidal zone and wasn’t prepared mentally for the possibility of getting my feet wet. Though, keep in mind that this was a sporadic cry for adventure to break away from the safe sidewalk. The stream of water created a barrier that my wife and I weren’t ready to cross. Ultimately the water barrier directed us to the left of the tidal flats.
A concrete pillar at the edge of the water caught our attention. It was composed of a square outline with a circular inner space. We walked closer, all the while keeping an eye on the water and the rock-encrusted barnacles that covered the ground. The ground was littered with hundreds of these shellfish, making it difficult to navigate to our new destination .Eventually, we reached the pillar. I crouched down. Peering inside, I glimpsed a purple arm hanging from the ceiling. The creature's four other arms clung tightly, thus securing its starfish form to the pillar (McFadden). The free-hanging arm exhibited protrusions of what looked like Enoki mushrooms. In all reality, these were the Purple Sea Stars' feet. They have been described as “tube” like (Ochre).
Finding this Purple Sea Star in the tidal zone ignited the memories of my explorations at the beach as a kid. My siblings and I would peer into the shallow tide pools hoping to find a creature that was slow enough for us to hold or at the very least examine. It was always great fun to show our spoils of exploration with one another. I did just that with my wife.
I called her over. Not wanting to divulge what I had found, I told her to look inside. I wanted her to share in my childhood excitement. She crouched down and looked at the Purple Sea Star. I realized that there were four other stars lining the sides and bottom of the structure. It seemed that they were everywhere. This was a good sign because Purple Sea Stars are known to be a “keystone species.” When an animal is a “keystone species” it signifies when they are present the ecosystem is likely healthy (Ochre).
We watched the stars for a while, but honestly, it’s difficult to find long-term excitement in an animal that has its face stuck to a rock and its anus facing you (Ochre). Out of boredom, we decided we were ready to cross the stormwater stream. We picked out the narrowest, shallowest section and began picking our way across. I made it across first and began making a b line for the other end of the tide flat.
“Hey, look at this,” my wife called.
I looked across the seaweed and barnacle-strewn tide flat to see her looking at the ground. My curiosity and the beckoning from my wife were too much. I picked my way back across the tidal flat to her.
She was looking down at a gelatinous blob. It was beautiful. Multiple hues of orange radiated outwards eventually turning to the color of cream. Around this lay a string of violet, burgundy, light pinks, and cream.
“Do you think it’s a jellyfish?” said my wife.
It seemed plausible. After some research, we found it was a Lion’s Mane Jellyfish. Unfortunately, for this jelly, the prognosis didn’t look good. Lion’s Mane jellies are “90 percent water” (Naylor). The sun was out and the tide was still out. I felt sorry for the creature, though there wasn't much I could do for it. Its mass and the danger of being stung outweighed the ability to move it back into the Sound (Doyle). On top of this, I had no way of identifying if it was alive.
My wife and I picked our way back to the black and gray rocks. We began the five-foot climb back to the predictable boring sidewalk. For a walk that was imagined in my head earlier that morning to be predictable and boring, it turned out to be just what I needed. You never know what experiences you may have if you waver from the path by a couple of feet.
References
“About Lead in Paint” Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, 30 July 2024, www.cdc.gov/lead-prevention/prevention/paint.html#:~:text=
Lead%2Dbased%20paints%20were%20banned,lead%20paint%20chips%20and%
20dust.
Doyle, Thomas K., et al. "Evaluation of Cyanea capillata sting management protocols using ex
vivo and in vitro envenomation models." Toxins 9.7 (2017): 215.
Hwang, Hyun-Min, et al. "Review of pollutants in urban road dust and stormwater runoff: part 1.
Heavy metals released from vehicles." International Journal of Urban Sciences 20.3
(2016): 334-360.
McFadden, Melissa. Edited by Dave Cowles and Hans Helmstetler, Pisaster Ochraceus,
Accessed 22 Aug. 2024.
Naylor, Blayne. “Cyanea Capillata (Lion’s Mane).” Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan,
“Ochre Sea Star .” University of Puget Sound, Puget Sound Museums of Natural History,
sea-star. Accessed 22 Aug. 2024.
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