In the drift line

  

I didn't expect to find a Purple Sea Snail (Janthina umbilicata) tonight (2 March 2026), but I also thought there was potential.  Ocean temperatures have been warm this winter and there was a lot of debris washed up on the beach tonight, so I kept the color purple in my search image and I happened to spot one individual.

The last time I recall Janthina being in our area was during the winter of 2024 (see post called "It's been a while" on 21 February 2024.)

It looks like there were several Janthina sightings in San Mateo County and Santa Cruz County in late February, so it's a good time to keep your eyes open for these beautiful pelagic snails.  If you come across one, I'd love to hear about it!

Changes in latitudes

  

Wow!  News started trickling in yesterday afternoon that a Waved Albatross (Phoebastria irrorata) had been spotted at Cordell Bank (5 October 2025).  I wasn't on the boat, but I asked if I could share a couple of photos because this is an intriguing record — and a first for North America!

Waved Albatross are more often seen off Ecuador, Peru, and northern Chile.  They nest on Española Island in the Galápagos and on Isla de la Plata off Ecuador.  They are unusual among albatross species in having a primarily tropical distribution.  Prior to this record, the farthest north one had been observed was off Costa Rica (looks like possibly two records there, one in 1993 and another in 2014?).  Marin County is the farthest north a Waved Albatross has been seen by far.

This is a distinctive albatross.  Note the pale head and dark body/wings, the large yellow bill, a hint of yellow (sometimes called a suffusion) along the back of the head and neck, beautiful black-and-white vermiculations along the lower neck area, and blue legs and feet.  [You can click on the images for larger versions.]

 

 

Not sure why this species appeared in Marin County at this time, but others have mentioned that prior out-of-range records might have been associated with warmer water conditions.

With many thanks to Glen Tepke who kindly provided these terrific photos.

On the windward side

  

While in Hawai'i, we walked some east-facing beaches to look for pelagic invertebrates washed ashore.

Above, a small Portuguese Man O' War (Physalia physalis) on Kaua'i on 4 April 2024.

Below, a Purple Sea Snail (Janthina umbilicata).  (Interestingly, the Janthina we found on Kaua'i were quite a bit smaller than the Janthina we observed in California back in March.)

 

 

 

One of the beaches where these species were found:

 

 

 

Comparing goosenecks

 

Close-up of a pelagic gooseneck barnacle (Lepas sp.) on a piece of driftwood, 11 March 2024.  These barnacles attach to floating materials in the open ocean.  

Lepas is similar to Pollicipes polymerus, the gooseneck barnacle that lives in the rocky intertidal zone, but you can see a number of differences: 

- Lepas has fewer calcareous plates.
- Lepas has a smoother stalk texture.
- Pollicipes tends to have dark pigment (red, brown, or black) at the edges of the largest plates, whereas these areas are paler in Lepas (but can be orange).  

See below for a comparison!

 

 

Up close and purple

  

I've been surveying for Purple Sea Snails (Janthina umbilicata) and encountered some washed up this morning (5 March 2024).  Janthina is rare in our area, and these snails were still alive, so I took a few photos for the record.

Remember that these snails float upside down at the surface of the ocean, hanging from their own bubble raft!  So these photos show the snails suspended below the surface of the water.

Above, note the bifurcate or forked tentacles, with one long and one shorter branch (highlighted with black pigment).

Next -- look for the large, rounded, black foot.  Janthina reaches up to collect a pocket of air and then surrounds it with mucous to create a bubble to add to its raft:

 

 

They also use their foot to smooth the bubble raft:

 

 

Janthina is a predator, feeding on By-the-wind Sailors (Velella velella) and Portuguese Man O' War (Physalia physalis) when available.  They have a tubular proboscis to reach out and grab prey, and a rasp-like tongue (radula) at the end of the proboscis: 

 

 

 

 

 

P.S.  If you happen to see Purple Sea Snails washed up on the beach this spring, I'd love to hear about your observations!

It's been a while

  

It's been a while (about 6 years!) since we've seen Purple Sea Snails (Janthina umbilicata) in Bodega Bay, but some have appeared on local beaches this week.  

The last time we observed large numbers of this species was during the 2014-2016 marine heatwaves (which included a significant El Niño).  Smaller numbers also appeared in 2017 and 2018. 

Although there is a significant El Niño this winter, we haven't observed too many biological signs of it in Northern California — i.e., in terms of marine invertebrate occurrences — at least not yet.

I don't know if these Janthina observations will be isolated or if we will continue to see them during the next several months.

The post I shared back in 2016 is a good introduction to Purple Sea Snails, so if you're interested in learning more about them you can check that out here.

These snails are pelagic — usually found offshore.  They're fragile — they don't live in an environment where they need a thick shell (they float upside down with a bubble raft at the surface of the ocean).  And they're small — most of the individuals I saw this morning were ~5 mm long (with some smaller, some larger).  The purple color is eye-catching!  I'd love to hear if you come across any in Northern California.  Watch for them washed up in the wrack line, especially perhaps on south-facing beaches, and after strong southerly or westerly winds.

 

 

P.S.  Quite a few pyrosomes have also washed up this week, along with Diphyes (a siphonophore).  I'll post some more photos soon.

 

Washing up

 

 

With ocean temperatures quite warm recently (in the 17-18°C or 62-64°F range) and with El Niño conditions present in the Pacific Ocean, we're keeping an eye out for more southern/warm-water species.

 

Above is a piece of a Purple-striped Jelly (Chrysaora colorata) that we encountered at Limantour Beach on 26 August 2023.  (To see an entire individual, see the post called "Southern drifter?" on 27 July 2014.

We also came across this wooden pallet covered with pelagic gooseneck barnacles (Lepas sp.).  These barnacles aren't necessarily associated with warm water, but they are typically found offshore, so seeing them on the beach indicates that offshore species are appearing closer to the coast.

 

 

 

 

 

Nestled among the branchlets

 

 

We looked down to see this interesting seaweed on the beach today — Cumagloia andersonii.  It usually doesn't have little white specks on it, so we took a closer look.  Below you can see a hint of what's attached to it:

 

 

These are juvenile pelagic gooseneck barnacles (Lepas sp.).  That means it's likely the seaweed has been drifting offshore for a while (long enough for planktonic barnacles to find it, settle, and start to grow).  Although we often see Lepas attached to drift kelp, I couldn't recall seeing Lepas on Cumagloia before, so took a few documentary photos.  

 

Here's an even closer photo where you can see the barnacles nestled among the branchlets of the seaweed:

 

 

P.S.  Ocean temperatures off Bodega Head have been quite warm this week — up to ~16°C or >60°F.  It'll be interesting to keep an eye on these temperatures during the next couple of months.

Sailor at sea

  

By-the-wind Sailor (Velella velella) during the offshore boat trip on 7 May 2023.  We encountered quite a few convergence zones with lots of Velella sailing over smooth seas.  [You can click on the image for a larger version.]

Visitors from the South Pacific

  

I finally found a few minutes to look through my Murphy's Petrel (Pterodroma ultima) photos from the offshore boat trip last weekend (7 May 2023).  These aren't stellar shots, but they're the best I have from the day, and I think they're still helpful for learning about different field marks for this species.  Murphy's Petrels are generally rare on day trips from shore, but on this day we observed over 40 individuals.  It was quite a show!

Some individuals were close enough to see the combination of brown and gray feathers on the back and upper wings.  The patterning of silver highlights on the back appeared to be unique to an individual.  (Sometimes it was hard to tell whether some individuals made multiple passes by the boat, but looking at feather patterns in the photos I could distinguish different individuals.)

 

 

Although the lighting was tough for photos and I ended up with a lot of silhouettes, you could still see the pale panels under the wings, and some of the white mottling/frosting on the chin:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Murphy's Petrels are active flyers and although there wasn't much wind this day, they would still arc high above the horizon:

 

 

 
And sometimes bank at strong angles:

 

 

 

It was a good day for learning overall shape — note the relatively large head and thick bill (especially if you are comparing them to a Sooty Shearwater):

 

 

 

Murphy's Petrels are visitors from the tropical south-central Pacific.  Although in the northeast Pacific during their non-breeding season, they'll return to nest on islands in the South Pacific, e.g., Austral, Tuamotu, Pitcairn islands. 

Wish them luck on their journey!

Spanning the Northeast Pacific

  

Black-footed Albatross (Phoebastria nigripes) offshore on 7 May 2023.

And here's a view of the entire bird so you can appreciate its wingspan:

 

 

P.S.  You can click on the images for larger versions.

 

With or without porpoise

  

It's a busy week (!), but here are a couple of Dall's Porpoise (Phocoenoides dalli) photos from the pelagic trip on 7 May 2023.  One with porpoise (above) and one without (below) — by that I mean the splash is more visible than the animal, which isn't uncommon!

 

 

'Ua'u!

  

A beautiful Hawaiian Petrel (Pterodroma sandwichensis) flyby during the offshore boat trip on 7 May 2023.  It was a little distant for my lens, but I think you'll still be able to appreciate this handsome species.

Here's a view as it banked away from the boat:

 

 

 

And one more (below), this time as the petrel approached low over the water.  You can probably tell that there wasn't much wind at the time.  Petrels are often easier to find when winds are stronger, but the calm conditions allowed us to go farther offshore (30-35 miles?) which probably increased our chances of finding petrels.

 

 

 

If you're interested, there's a little more about this endangered species in the post called "With aloha" on 25 May 2021.  And there's a helpful species account at this U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service web page.

 

Out of the water

  

Whoops, I'm running out of time tonight, but here's a dolphin photo for you — Pacific White-sided Dolphin (Lagenorhynchos obliquidens) from yesterday's pelagic trip out beyond Cordell Bank.

A day at sea

  

A bit of a sneak peek — Murphy's Petrel (Pterodroma ultima) from an offshore boat trip on 7 May 2023.  More photos from the pelagic trip will be coming this week!

In the grooves

  

Along with Velella and other wash-ashores, Eric spotted this glass bottle washed up on the beach yesterday (2 April 2023).  The bottle's shape was unusual, but the grooves and indentations were perfect attachment spots for pelagic gooseneck barnacles (Lepas sp.):

 

 

P.S.  Anyone know what kind of bottle this is?  I tried to locate something similar on the Internet but couldn't find a match.  If you have any ideas, let me know!

Gray on gray

 

 

I'm still sorting through photos from the boat trip on 21 August 2022, but here's a Buller's Shearwater (Puffinus bulleri).  They were quite common throughout most of the day.

Lions, porpoises, and a mystery

  

Several Steller Sea Lions (Eumetopias jubatus) swimming by while we were offshore on 21 August 2022.  

And although we saw several small groups of porpoises, here's the only photo that came out of a Dall's Porpoise (Phocoenoides dalli).  They're incredibly fast:

 

 

P.S.  In part I thought I'd show these marine mammals tonight because I also had an interesting observation from shore today.  Around midday it's possible I saw a group of Risso's Dolphins (Grampus griseus) swimming south past Bodega Head towards Point Reyes.  I'm not 100% certain, but I feel that it's likely, so if you're near the coast, keep your eyes open for tall, curved fins.

P.P.S.  And I'll add a few more photos to this post.  This is just for fun, and also in case anyone can help provide input re: an identification.  During the boat trip I turned to see an animal at the surface that I couldn't identify.  I thought I saw a somewhat bumpy back and then a gap and a bulbous head.  At sea I thought through the mammals it could possibly be, even something like a Pygmy Sperm Whale.  I snapped a few quick photos in the area, and I did capture something, but it was just a glimpse (a "Loch Ness" view?).  I won't bias you, but I'll tell you what I'm thinking below the photos.  [You can click on the images for larger versions.]

 

 

 

 

This is the same photo as the last one, but showing a wider view:

 

 

Although I don't think the photos are good enough (at least for me), my best guess right now is a Leatherback Turtle (Dermochelys coriacea).  In the first mystery photo, it's possible that's one or two of the bumpy ridges along a Leatherback's shell.  And in the third mystery photo, perhaps that's part of the head and maybe the top edge of a flipper?  I'm not at all sure, so if you have more experience with Leatherbacks or small cetaceans, let me know what you think!  (And for better photos of a local Leatherback Turtle, you can review Doug Wilgis's photos from 2015.)

Offshore Brown Booby

  

Well, these photos didn't come out very well, but I think they're still the best photos I have of a Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster) in this area.  These were taken during an offshore pelagic boat trip on 21 August 2022.  (I think we were in Marin County when we encountered this bird.)  Brown Boobies are rare in Marin and Sonoma counties (they generally have a more tropical distribution), so I'm sharing a couple of pictures for the record, although I'm sure other folks on the boat trip ended up with better photos!