Beach Wrack, Santa Barbara, CA
N 34° 24.723 W 119° 41.320
11S E 252879 N 3811123
Beach Wrack is an area of the beach where nutrient-rich debris from the ocean is deposited by wave and tidal action, and becomes habitat and food for micro-organisms, birds and animals.
Waymark Code: WMAQE2
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 02/12/2011
Views: 3
The sign reads:
"Beach Wrack is important to animals and plants that live on beaches.
Beach Wrack
Biological Significance of Beach Wrack
Beaches change shape constantly because of changing swell and tide conditions. Plants cannot grow on the unstagle surfaces of intertidal beaches. The mose important food source for animals of the upper beach comes from kelp forests offshore. Kelp washed on to the beach is called wrack. Many kinds of invertebrate animals eat wrack and provide an important food course for dozens of shorebird species that habit Santa Barbara beaches. Seeds of coastal strand and dune plants are washed up from the eroding shoreline during major storms. These seeds and kelp wrack may later be deposited high on the beach by storm tides. Wrack deposits and the plants that grow from them initiate the growth of new coastal strand and dune habitat when the shoreline rebuilds during spring and summer."
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Additional information:
Beach Wrack, these piles of kelp, seagrasses, seaweed, plant and animal remains are washed to shore by waves and become an important part of beach and marine ecosytems. Researchers have learned the debris accumulates and becomes an important nutrient source in the natural process of decomposition. Although unsightly, and appearing to be worthless debris, it would be damaging for the micro-habitat and many organisms to have the wrack removed. Beach hoppers, small insects that hatch in the wrack, is a major source of food for many shorebirds. Grunion, a fish that comes ashore during the spring and summer seasons to reproduce and lay eggs, depend on wrack, which is especially high in nutrients during these times of year.
Additional information can be found in back issues of California Coast and Ocean publication. The Winter 2004 issue is very informative and can be downloaded from this site: (
visit link)