My guest today is Cricket Raspet. Cricket is a Curatorial Assistant at the California Academy of Sciences, specializing in marine mammals.  She’s a passionate community scientist, raptor bander with GGRO and a rescue and animal care volunteer at the Marine Mammal Center. 

An interest (obsession?) with the colorful sea slugs of the pacific coast led her from the tidepools to the strange community of creatures that make floating docks their home. With a handful of like-minded explorers, she founded the Dockfoulers Union to educate people about this unique ecosystem and document its inhabitants through photography and iNaturalist observations. 

Dockfouling is like "biofouling", where marine organisms collect on submerged items. But with docks, you can easily observe this amazing array of organisms. Think of it like tidepooling, but with some distinct advantages. Unique and colorful creatures can be readily seen, and these areas are ripe for personal and scientific discovery. Simply put, dockfouling can be both a crash course and a masters course in marine ecology.

We discuss Cricket's amazing finds in these floating dock biomes, the emergence of a dock fouling community, and how you can observe these magnificent creatures next time you are near a floating dock. It turns out it is easy to get started - no equipment necessary! But if you want to start taking photos, Cricket offers suggestions as well.

Find Cricket on Instagram at chilipossum, dockfoulersunion, glamourslugs, and iNaturalist.

Full Show Notes

Links
Dock Fouling in California
Dock Fouling in Washington State
Doctober
Nature Lookings
Olympus TG-6 Waterproof Camera- recommended for underwater and terrestrial macro. And a tutorial to use the TG-6 for Tidepool Photography
The Light and Smith Manual: Intertidal Invertebrates from Central California to Oregon, by James T. Carlton
Seashore Life of the Northern Pacific, by Eugene Kozloff

People and Organizations Discussed
California Academy of Sciences
Damon Tighe - presentations on YouTube at Lake Merritt
Dockfoulers Union (instagram)
Luan Roberts (instagram)

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Music: Spellbound by Brian Holtz Music
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist site: https://brianholtzmusic.com

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