King County's 1996/1997 Beach Assessment
Maury Island Marine Park, Vashon Island
Site Description
Maury Island Marine Park is one of the newest of the King County parks. It is located on the east side of Maury Island (which is connected to Vashon Island) on the site of an old gravel pit. This gravel operation may be the source of the high proportion of cobbles on the beach. The beach is more than a mile long, and an old wooden dock is located at about the center of the beach.
The open location of the beach does not protect it from the surf. The wave action has created a beach steeper than most of those which we study. The upper beach (above 0 feet) is composed mostly of loose gravel and cobbles while the lower beach (below 0 feet) is flatter and sandy in some areas.
The adjoining upland was mined for gravel until a few years ago and the dock was used for loading barges. There is some evidence of slides along the north section.
Invertebrates
This beach was the sixth most diverse of the beaches surveyed, with 38 species of invertebrates identified. There is a patch of boulders on the north beach, which is uniformly covered by acorn barnacles. These barnacles do not appear to have been disturbed in a very long time. Their sizes are very uniform and the edges of their plates show little chipping. Most of the invertebrate species were found at the 0' level except for the limpets, periwinkles and isopods.
| Limpets | |
| Shield Limpet | Acmaea pelta |
| Finger Limpet | Acmaea digitalis |
| Snails | |
| Sitka Periwinkle | Litorina sitchana |
| Checkered Periwinkle | Litorina scutulana |
| Emarginate dogwinkle | Nucella emarginata |
| Moon Snail | Polinices lewisi |
| Fringed Dogwinkle | Thais lamellosa |
| Chitons | |
| Hairy Chiton | Mopalia ciliata |
| Woody Chiton | Mopalia lignosa |
| Bivalves | |
| Cockle | Clinocardium nutalli |
| Horse Clam | Tresus sp |
| Sand Clam | Macoma secta |
| Bay Mussel | Mytilus edulis |
| Jingle Shell | Posodesmus cepio |
| Sea Slugs | |
| Rough Mantled Doris | Onchidoris bilamellata |
| Shaggy mouse | Aeolidia papillosa |
| Sea Stars | |
| Mottled Star | Evasterias troschelli |
| Blood Star | Henricia leviuscula |
| Sunflower Star | Pycnopodia helianthoides |
| Purple Star | Pisaster ochraceus |
| Barnacles | |
| Acorn Barnacle | Balanus glandula |
| Thatched Barnacle | Balanus cariosus |
| Crabs | |
| Black Clawed Crab | Lophopanopeus bellus |
| Northern kelp crab | Pugettia producta |
| Graceful decorator crab | Oregonia gracilis |
| Dungeness crab | Cancer magister |
| Red rock crab | Cancer productus |
| Anemones | |
| Colonial anemone | Cribrina elegantisima |
| Plumrose Anemone | Metridium senile |
| Hydroids | |
| Tube worms | |
| Plume worm | Eudistylia polymorpha |
| Parchment tube worm | Chaetopterus variopodutus |
| Flatworms | |
| Large speckled | Kaburakia excelsia |
| Pink | Notoplana litoricola |
| Isopods | |
| Brown Isopod | Idotea urotoma |
| Olive-green Isopod | Idotea wonesenski |
| Large Eelgrass Isopod | Idotea resecata |
| Oregon Pillbug | Exosphaerona orgonensis |
| Beach Cockroach | Ligyda pallasii |
Clams
Clams are very scarce here, so no formal survey was conducted. Cockles and sand macomas can be found on the sand flats but only a few colonies of horse clams were found on steeper parts of the beach where one would expect to find butter clams and littlenecks. Apparently, the surf washes out the juveniles. The lack of appropriate sandy substrate is another factor.
Algae
Some eelgrass is found below 0' tide level. No Sargassum was observed. There are few boulders, overall, on which algae could attach. Much of the upper beach is covered with fist-sized cobbles which would be covered by algae if they were on some of the other more protected beaches, but at this location they are too small to resist being rolled by the surf. That rolling seriously limits algae growth.
| Green (Chlorophyceae) |
| Cladophora sp. |
| Enteromorpha intestinalis |
| Enteromorpha. linza |
| Ulva lactuca |
| Brown (Phaeophyceae) |
| Ectocarpus sp. |
| Red (Rhodophyceae) |
| Iridea cordata |
| Porphyra lanceolata |
| Smithora naiadum |
Other
A few Orca cows were observed June 18, 1996. A river otter was found foraging in the brush along the upper beach.
Use
This area is a marine park and was created with boat access in mind. Although there is a maintenance road to the beach, it is closed most of the time, which discourages vehicular traffic. Foot traffic is not discouraged. This beach is not highly used by harvesters, but it is a destination for some boaters.
Updated: 11/02/98
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