We head out to Kuiu Island to explore an intertidal zone by Saginaw Bay in the Tongass National Forest from our base the Uncuise ship SS Legacy. The intertidal zone is the area of the marine shoreline that is exposed to air at low tide, and covered with seawater when the tide is high. Intertidal zonation refers to the tendency of plants and animals to form distinct communities between the high and low tide lines.
This is a sea garden, brimming with life, shells are everywhere, like sand dollars in the same family as ikaloderms, they are grazers, cruising along the coast eating algae off rocks and are the number one food source for sea otters. The otters keep them in check, if they don't eat urchins the kelp beds suffer, so the otters is a key stone species here.
There's more shells, baby razor clams like oysters, there's green seaweed like a sea hair and sea lettuce you can eat which is richer in iron than spinach, there's pickleweed grass, and kelp, soft shell crabs and giant sculpins
There are 3 types of algae growing here, green, red and brown and mottled sea stars, and purple ochre sea stars, sea cucumbers, and a top predator Big Sun stars that can grow the size of a car tire and could have as many as 24 legs.
UnCruise Adventures which is a unique cruise company that specializes in adventure and nature experiences in remote locations around the world.
UnCrusie offers small ship cruises in Alaska, Columbia and Snake Rivers, Galapagos, Hawaiian Islands, Latin American, Mexico, Pacific Northwest and Land Packages.
Our expedition guides for this Alaska adventure are Sarah Sinn-White and Jessie Mathews.
www.uncruise.com/
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video: Stephen Smith
producer/narrator: Ilona Kauremszky
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