ittibittium's Identifications

Dozens of this snail, Batillaria cumingii (Mudflat Snail), were crawling in the shallow water and in the sand. The photos of a single snail show the only large one I saw, 2" long, and all the others were about 1" long. This is a non-native snail from Japan, and I'd never seen it before.

As part of the University of Washington and Sea Grant's Crab Team, I've been on a small team searching for the invasive Carcinus maenas for three years in a lagoon. We have trapped thousands of Hemigrapsus oregonensis, along with a few H. nudus, and dozens of Staghorn Sculpins. Finally on the last day of this season, second to last trap, my team found a large male, 77 mm. We wrapped him in sea water-saturated paper towels, and drove him to the ferry to meet the lead researcher, who transported him to UW for DNA analysis.