This is a quick visual report on a sunny summer day’s activity for kids of all ages, an annual July ritual on Saturna Island in coastal BC.

Around 1 p.m. last Saturday, people started showing up at East Point, on Saturna Island, to come play and discover critters at the edge of the Salish Sea.

The point was a busy place, with divers headed into the water, to gather all kinds of creatures and bring them back to shore, so everyone could have a look…

Tanks were set up on the beach, with recirculating water, so their temporary residents would be comfortable.

And everyone gathered to hear about the animals and plants that make the intertidal zone their home… Student biologists from the University of Victoria were on hand to share their knowledge about life below the surface.

There were sea stars, in their variety…

California sea cucumbers…

Sea urchins, including this big one (and look at the little baby one in the tupperware container on the side)…

And crabs, including these kelp crabs…

And we learned that male crabs have a “lighthouse-like” marking on their abdomen…

… while female crabs have a wider plate on their abdomen… So now, we can tell them apart. Also, notice that this female has been busy adding some camouflage greenery to her legs and back…

Finally, this brown kelp is known as Sargassum, an invasive algae now present in the Salish Sea… We can pick it and plow it into our gardens as fertilizer without any guilty feelings…

And finally, no Beach Safari is complete without a little kite flying! There was a nice breeze, and people gave it a shot.

Summer weekends, the right time to go play outside.