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Home | Image Galleries | Emergency Response
Mearns Rock Time Series
A photo time series of Mearns Rock, a large boulder located in the intertidal zone at Snug Harbor on Knight Island, Prince William Sound, Alaska.
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Mearns Rock 2003
What You See
This year, the barnacles have died back somewhat, and no new Fucus plants have been established. The Fucus plants that remain appear slightly larger this year. Sea lettuce continues to grow in the lower left corner of the boulder.
What's Happening
Conditions are very similar to 2002, with perhaps somewhat less cover of barnacles. We expected both young Fucus and mussels to colonize the rock by now, as they had in 1994/95, but they have not. This could be due to a lack of reproduction in both species or heavy grazing by animals such as limpets and snails. Neither are apparent.
(07.01.03, Snug Harbor, Knight Island, Alaska)
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- Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Overview of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Includes links to many related resources, including photo galleries.
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- Graphing Changes in Marine Life Abundance Try your hand at some marine biology! Follow these steps, designed for middle and high school students, to make a study of the marine life occupying a section, or quadrat, of Mearns Rock.
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- Mearns Rock Time Series How does marine life recover from a major, one-time stress, such as an oil spill? As you will learn here, the answer is not simple.
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- Northwest Bay Study Site Photos of one of our study sites, a rocky beach on an islet in Northwest Bay, shortly after high-pressure, hot-water washing in 1989, and again in 1998.
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- Response to the Exxon Valdez Spill Within hours after the tanker Exxon Valdez spilled nearly 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989, a team of NOAA OR&R scientists arrived on-scene.
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