It is still a mystery what caused the one week long massive stress event which affected many of the critters inhabiting the muck there. Many of the affected species don't come up into the world above sand and show only parts of they bodies if they do. It all started on Thursday September 18th when I finished my weekly survey of the Sea Star Wasting Syndrome which almost wiped out the zillions of Mottled stars which used to live under the wharf. With lots of air left, I decided to explore new territory.
At one spot I found some Burrowing Brittle stars which normally show only their arms, waving them above the sand. Here there were out in open. And as I continued swimming, more and more of them appeared. Also found Red Sea Cucumbers in very bad shape. Something was wrong. And so started my obsession with Penn Cove, making daily visits and contacting scientists, looking for answers. It is still work in progress, even if the marine life there returned to normal, most of the affected critters disappeared under the muck, except the cucumbers...
My first blush was that it was caused by Oxygen depletion, caused maybe by the great die-off of the sea stars which left the area under the wharf covered with white microbial mat, combined with the hot weather we had and rather poor circulation of the water in the cove. Especially after the stormy weather we later experienced coincided with the end of the stress event. At the peak of the crises, there was a white layer of water on top of the affected area where the visibility was less then three feet. It was not possible to even estimate the area of the problem area, that would require a boat and much more effort. Plus I didn't even know what I am dealing with. Nearby Mussel farm did not issue any warning about pollution.
Here are few samples of what I found there...
![Image](http://jankocian.smugmug.com/Other/New-Arrivals/i-gPL34kM/0/XL/9.22.14%20Marine%20Life%20distress%201%20S%20-XL.jpg)
![Image](http://jankocian.smugmug.com/Other/New-Arrivals/i-2HWZsf5/0/XL/9.22.14%20Marine%20Life%20distress%202%20S%20-XL.jpg)
![Image](http://jankocian.smugmug.com/Other/New-Arrivals/i-5vfQktN/0/XL/9.18.14%20Red%20cucumber%20dying%20S%20-XL.jpg)
To be continued ...