SEASIDE AQUARIUM

Aquarium News

• Aquarium at Necanicum Bird Discovery Day. On March 7 the North Coast Land Conservancy offered bird walks, presentations by bird biologists and rescuers, and helped people build bird boxes. Aquarium staff provided support and were available to answer questions.



• 30 foot gray whale washes up on the beach in Long Beach, WA. Dr. Debbie Duffield of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network spent two days on-site with her class from Portland State University performing a necropsy.



• Aquarium at Cannon Beach’s Earth Day Celebration. April 25 Seaside Aquarium Staff provided marine life in touch tanks to help Earth Day attendees learn more about intertidal life.



Tufted Puffins at Haystack Rock

In spring, 200-300 tufted puffins return from the ocean to Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach to breed and to rear their young. The birds arrive in late March or early April and stay until late July or early August. They build a tunnel with a small chamber at the end for their nest and lay a single egg. Both parents share incubation and feeding duties once the chick hatches. Babies do not leave the nest until they are 6 to 8 weeks old. The Haystack Rock Awareness Program holds a series of programs called "The Great Cannon Beach Puffin Watch" July 3-5. A full schedule of events can be found at the HRAP website.

The basket star is an incredibly fragile animal. In the wild, it lives deep in the ocean and never has to deal with the turbulence of the surf. To collect a basket star, a diver must place it in a sealed bag underwater and transfer it, sealed, into its new container of water. If any air touches it, the basket star will break into pieces and fall apart. We rarely have the opportunity to have basket stars on display. The two on display are only the third and fourth we have had in the past 10 years.