Beach naturalists show off Puget Sound's wonders at low tide

Eight-year-old Colby Taylor hovered over the five-armed creature nestled into the soggy ground of West Seattle's South Alki Beach.

"I found a orange starfish!" he yelled, grinning ear to ear. "It's ooey-gooey!"

Not far away, Seattle Aquarium beach naturalists were there to help make sense of it all — to explain what was living and what was not, to note the shiny red anemones hiding within rock formations, and ultimately to promote conservation of local natural habitats.

Every late spring and summer, when low tides lift the curtain on Puget Sound's hidden wonderlands, these naturalists help grade-schoolers like Colby, and their parents, mix it up — delicately, of course — with marine life.

The 11-year-old summer beach-naturalist program started as a defensive measure, when aquarium officials started to notice that local beaches were being "hammered," coordinator Janice Mathisen said. "There were school groups that loved the beaches, but they didn't realize that they were harming animals."

Now, 173 mostly volunteer naturalists fan out along nine beaches in Seattle and King County, including those at South Alki, Carkeek, Richmond Beach and Golden Gardens parks. With their guidance, kids and adults alike wander the shores in search of creatures that dwell in rocks, tide pools and little-known nooks and crannies of Puget Sound.

The aquarium's program runs from May through July, when low tides occur by day, versus the nighttime low tides of fall and winter months.

Low tide is what lets landlubbers see animals such as purple sea stars plastered to the underbellies of rocks, mottled anemones nestled nearby and possibly — if rarely — a giant Pacific octopus.

On a recent weekday morning at South Alki, more than 100 people stumbled over the wet rocks and shrubbery exposed by receded water. Kindergartner John Chesney Jr., a student at Bellevue's Puesta Del Sol Elementary, found an odd-looking shell the width of a tuna can with an egg "collar" resembling a sand-colored plunger — a moon snail, whose collar can hold nearly a half-million eggs.

The area's slick surface didn't stop children from walking as fast as they could, mindful of creatures that could end up below their feet. Naturalists reminded them of the two main rules of beach etiquette: Touch marine life with only one wet finger, so as to prevent harm to sensitive bodies; and leave creatures as they were.

"We always tell kids, 'This is someone's home. You want to treat the animals as if you went to a friend's home,' " naturalist Kas Vitelli said.

The naturalists, with their identifying vests, carry laminated pamphlets and cards showing animals that might be seen. Their ready knowledge is what makes Nancy Peñate-Bush a big fan of the program as a kindergarten teacher at Puesta Del Sol, which has been conducting field trips to South Alki for eight years.

"It should be a requirement to be here," Peñate-Bush said, "especially if you live by the beach."

Puget Sound's diversity of animals is compelling, naturalists say, because there are so many creatures to see. Some are easy to spot while others are carefully tucked away from the world.

"I think we get very used to people and pets, and when you get to look at an animal that doesn't have a head or a spine, it's just so cool," said Mathisen, the program coordinator.

"It is a different world. And it's great to be able to know enough to point that out."