It was the ultimate field trip! You may recall that my husband and I spent a month last winter on Adak, an island midway out Alaska's Aleutian chain. We returned in August for a 6-week visit, with hopes that better weather would provide increased opportunity to explore the beaches and view wildlife. By coincidence, another Island County Beach Watcher and intertidal enthusiast, Brian Giles also arrived several weeks into our visit as part of his job surveying groundwater for contaminants.
Because the Aleutians are part of the seismically active "Ring of Fire", I was not overly concerned to feel a number of mild jolting earthquakes the first couple of days we were there. Adak was, it seemed having a cluster of small quakes. The earthquakes turned out to be prelude to a volcanic eruption. Three days after we got there, Mt. Kasatochi, just 50 miles to the east of Adak, exploded and sent a plume of ash 30,000 feet into the atmosphere. I was on the beach, with a ringside viewpoint and heard a distinct but distant "bang" and glanced up, wondering about its origin, but quickly returning my attention to examining and photographing the multitude of barnacle molts on the sand. Shortly thereafter I turned and headed for home, thus becoming the only person on Adak who missed seeing the massive ash plume as it billowed into the sky.
An Adak based fishing boat had been only 7 miles from Mt. Kasatochi when it blew. The fisherman on board spent 3 desperate hours driving his boat out of a total visual blackout while his boat was pelted with volcanic rocks, then mud, and finally coated with a thick layer of ash. Using his boat's radar for guidance, he steered his way out of the plume and was then able to head back to Adak. Two U.S. Fish and Wildlife personnel had actually been on the base of Mt. Kasatchi for several days prior to the eruption doing a wildlife survey and became concerned and then increasingly frantic as frequent small earthquakes became continuous and then even boulders began bouncing about. The helicopter that had dropped them off had developed a mechanical problem and could not fly back for them. Another Adak fisherman heard of their plight and courageously raced his boat over to pick them up, plucking them off the beach just 20 minutes before the volcano blew its top.
The volcano continued to simmer with Adak residents noting a frequent smell of sulfur in the air and discovering lots of pumice stones washed up on the beach.
Adak has fascinating wildlife. Introduced species such as rats and arctic foxes have caused considerable impact on bird populations. Because it is too windy for trees to grow there, birds nest on the ground making both the birds and their eggs very vulnerable to predators. In spite of that, it's a great place for bird watching. Over the course of our stay, I saw snow buntings, rock ptarmigan, horned puffins, pigeon guillemots, rock sandpipers, and black oystercatchers. Brian Giles reports that he spotted a peregrine falcon.
Crimson anemone |
A couple of days with calm water, good low tides, and no precipitation allowed me to climb down a seawall to explore for intertidal life. The most obvious animal life on the seawall was a multitude of small Metridium anemones adhered to the rocks. Another much larger and very beautiful anemone that I believe to be the crimson anemone (Cribrinopsis fernaldi) shared the habitat. Our familiar black katy (Katharina tunicata) and lined (Tonicella sp.) 
chitons dotted the rocks in abundance. Several unusual crabs also made the seawall their home. The most flamboyant was a juvenile Puget Sound king crab (Lopholithodes mandtii). The bright red carapace of this cranky little fellow was only about 1-1/2 inches across but he made it plain that he would like nothing better than to pinch the end off my finger. Turning a rock over revealed another unusual lithode crab whose common names "fuzzy crab" and "red-brown bristly crab" pretty much describe it. We have seen Hapalogastor mertensii on high energy West Whidbey beaches a couple of times and its distinctive features made it easy to recognize. One very unusual feature of this crab is its soft belly. A third crab was completely new to me and I sent photos of it to Jan Holmes to help with the identification. One of its claws was considerably larger than the other and had a grainy looking texture and it too had a soft belly. We believe it was Oedignathus inermis, the granular clawed crab.
Graceful kep crab |
Hapalogastor |
Juvenile Puget Sound King Crab |
Brian Giles checks out blowhole Anemones and urchins in blowhole
Brian Giles work schedule allowed for very few days off but at the first opportunity, my husband and I took him to Loren Station beach on the north end of Adak. This site provides a gorgeous view of the Bering Sea. A high steep bluff towers above the beach but thankfully a rope trails over the edge to serve as a safety line to hang onto for descending and then climbing back up the steep incline. The beach has an area of bedrock, a stretch of sand, and also an area of large boulders so it is a varied habitat. Checking it out, Brian found a small crab whose orange tipped black claws helped nail down its identity as Pugettia gracilis, the graceful kelp crab. One very unique feature of this beach is a large blowhole. It consists of an outcropping of bedrock with a circular hole about 8 feet in diameter of indeterminate depth. A window like opening has worn through one side of the blowhole so that when the tide rises above that level, waves crash through the opening creating a geyser-like spray out the top. Because the tide level was low, it was possible to get a good look into the blowhole and surprisingly, it was full of life. 
The salmon run was going full blast during our 6 week stay with countless numbers of pink salmon charging up Adak's streams to spawn. Red and silver salmon were also beginning their runs. Dozens of harbor seals were seen hauled out on the beach and a minke whale was observed in Kulak Bay. Adak is a naturalist's delight!
Pink salmon |
Pumice rock |
