Saturday morning the girls and I attended the Poulsbo Marine Science Center’s Beach Exploration at Fay Bainbridge State Park on the northern side of the island.
Anticipating the event, Abigail and Michaela expressed excitement about the opportunity to see a diver. This morning, the group of us gathered on the beach all watched as the diver disappeared, yellow flippers and all, except for occasional circles on the surface.
When he returned, he had brought a few creatures with him back to shore including two purple crabs, smaller than Dungeness ones in the stores but similiar in shape. The girls wanted to hold one. When Abigail held the smaller crab, she was successful.
But when I tried to hold the larger crab, to demonstrate for Michaela, my grip wasn’t strong enough…
and this one gripped my finger with a pincher claw and clamped down tight…enough to draw blood. I said “Can you please get it off?!” in a loud but calm voice. It hurt!
The sunflower star was lovely although we were told not to hold such a creature up with our palms. Never touch tube feet, we were warned.
Apparently those tube feet can be powerful, assuming that human flesh makes a nice meal, and the sunflower star can be hard to remove from a hand …
2 responses so far ↓
1 VJ // Nov 14, 2004 at 6:07 am
I remember when my brother was in junior high he got his SCUBA certification. Several times over the next year or so, he went out and brought back such creatures as those you mentioned. He was thrilled, whereas I held my nose at the stench of dead fish he always seem to bring back with him. I was such a “uppity” big sister, and it drove him nuts!
2 Mike Marden // Nov 15, 2004 at 6:31 am
Listening to you talk about Bainbridge Island (at least it seems like listening to you) brings back so many memories. I was born and raised in Bremerton, and during my high school years (the early 60s) I spent summers on the island picking strawberrys for spending money. I can remember sometime during the late 50s, spending most of my summer on the island with my father. He was the senior distribution engineer for Puget Sound Power & Light, and was surveying the route for the new underwater high-voltage lines to feed the island. At that time, I think the population of the island was maybe 60-70 people. I imagine it has changed considerably since.
I just happened to stumble upon your BLOG this past friday, and up to that time, had no idea what a BLOG was. I plan on dropping in on you quite often from now on to keep up with the goings-on around there. By the way, I retired from the Navy in ’92, and live in Fernandina beach, Florida (about as far northeast in Florida as you can get). Its really nice to read about the happenings up in the other corner of the states.
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