It’s relatively rare to trek the cold, windy beaches of the Peninsula at night, laying down squares of PVC pipe and counting glistening flatworms, tiny snails, snaking strands of eelgrass, and any number of other delightfully interesting marine creatures.
But that’s what a group of folks do several times throughout the early winter, helping Harbor WildWatch gather important biodiversity data as part of its Beach Monitoring Program.
Headed by Harbor WildWatch’s Stena Troyer in partnership with Pacific Lutheran University’s Dr. Michael Behrens, the program is a participatory science endeavor modeled off the Beach Watchers Program at the Snohomish Extension of Washington State University (WSU). The “participatory science” part of this program means that everyone can join, from the littlest elementary school kid to a 90-something retiree looking to shake up their evening…