Cages installed and predators collected

All the mussel bed squares now have cages! Now I just have to hope no one will bother them. I'll put out signs and contact information at the next low tide. I can't wait until the low tides are in the daytime.

An experimental unit. Five snails will go in here.

I just finished collecting all the predator dogwhelks to be the treatments for my caged mussel beds. They came from three different sites around central and southern California. Now I just need to finish measuring and labeling them and put them in the cages!

Snails labeled with bee tags

Here are some photos during a post-collection hike at one of my central California sites, Soberanes Point in Garrapata State Park.

Soberanes point

Big Sur coastline

Field experiment installation

My mussel bed field experiment is coming together! This week I went out each day around 5 am to count what organisms are living in each of my plots and drill holes around them so I can install cages as soon as my cage material arrives. Here are some pictures of my work this week.