Some are a little larger.
Under the boardwalk, gaillardia were about to blossom and yellow primrose were in full bloom.
Just as I reached the shoreline a light rain started, peppering my work shirt with polka-dots. Distant thunder warned that serious rain was approaching, but I decided to stay long enough to document an unusual phenomenon: a massive die-off of Portuguese Man 'O War babies. They are the iridescent blue ovals in this photo.
These tiny bodies were strewn along the waterline for as far as I could see in both directions. A few adults were beached, as well.
This peculiar life form, physalia physalis, travels by means of a bladder with a sail on top. It has no locomotive powers at all; it merely goes where the wind takes it. The creature trails tentacles as long as 30 feet through the water below it, prepared to inflict painful stings to any living thing it encounters. They are a great hazard to swimmers, since they travel in "navies" of several hundred.
The next morning all the Portuguese Man 'O War bodies were gone, but spring break celebrants were there in droves. The entire beach was covered with tire tracks from pickups, vans, SUVs and dune buggies. To my dismay the vehicles had obliterated all the sand art. What's worse, the celebrants, either uninformed or uncaring, were riding dune buggies on the dunes.
Dune ecology is fragile. The formations are held in place by various plants -- grasses, succulents, etc. -- that are slow to take hold. People should not even walk on dunes, much less drive vehicles over them.
For all of human history some people have shown no regard for their environment while others have lived in harmony with theirs. What, I wonder, causes us to go one way or the other?
4 comments:
I wonder that myself when I listen to a so-called "friend" say that Obama is keeping us from our natural gas and that we shouldn't be so concerned with the environment! This, while she drives some giant SUV-type-thing that costs almost $100.00 to fill with gas. I sure hope she chokes on her own fumes!
Reincarnation as a pedicab driver in Shanghai, where she will breathe exhaust fumes created by other people, would seem a possibility.
I don't think she believes in:
1. Karma
2. Reincarnation
3. Self-Reflection
How convenient for her!
After making this post I learned that driving on dunes is illegal, punishable by a fine as much as $10,000. That may explain, in part, why helicopters regularly patrol the shore line.
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