THE ODDITIES OF WATER

Rex Burress

Lake Merritt in the middle of Oakland, CA, is quite familiar to me, since I worked there as a Refuge Naturalist for 32 years. One section of the 150-acre basin is devoted to the birds--the first Wildlife Refuge in the United States, declared in 1870 to give sanctuary-protection to migratory waterfowl. Naturalist Paul Covel described it in his book,“People Are For the Birds.”

Lake Merritt, unlike the fresh water of Lake Oroville, is a salt water lake connected to San Francisco Bay. Water is water from the outward appearance, but under the surface of salt water there is a different biota present than under the surface of fresh water.

Originally, the refuge was established to protect thousands of migratory pintail ducks that flocked to shore for food and fresh water provided for them. Presently, there is a semi-resident assortment of mallards and domestic fowl, plus Canada geese around the Duck Yard. The real stars though, are the dozens of migratory diving duck species that rest on the lake in season.

The oddity is that those wild birds from the northern wilderness continue to spend winters in the protected city nook even though a metropolis has built up around the lake. The highlight of my working there was when along about October, those wild visitors would start to return, like old friends away on a trip, finding their way back against long odds. As long as there's refuge, you can depend on nature to fill the gaps.

The real oddities of water are the exotic underwater organisms. We wondered how the non-native, calcified masses of Australia Tubeworms, Ficopomatus enigmaticus, had managed to anchor in clusters to everything in Lake Merritt, including the boom that defined the refuge, often to the point of nearly sinking the logs. Our crew had to chop them off the boat barrier. Thousands of black mussels also attached to the logs, sea walls and pilings. Gulls have learned to pry them off and drop the morsel on sidewalks to break the shell.

It took a high school student and Oakland Nature Center volunteer, Jim Carlton, to do a study of invertebrates in Lake Merritt. He discovered that over 35 species had been brought to the Bay, mostly by cargo ships unloading ballast water into San Francisco Bay. Water sucked into ship's ballast tanks takes in organisms which are hauled to distant locations and released, infiltrating places like Lake Merritt with oddities. The odd exotics had made their way from the Bay to the more favorable calm waters of the lake. Jim was so enthused by discovering the marine invertebrates that he went on to become Professor James T. Carlton, Marine Science Emeritus of Williams-Mystic College at Mystic, Connecticut.

Among Jim's discoveries in the lake's brackish water was the Japanese Little Neck Clam, Mediterranean Mussels, Australian Pileworms, Atlantic Mya Clams, Shipworms, Oriental Shrimp, and Chilean Beach-hoppers. The water of Lake Merritt has amassed creatures from all over the world.

Teenager Jim, as we knew him, urged the Center to establish a salt-water aquarium and helped us gather specimens from the ocean-side tidepools. Lake Merritt marine oddities were added, including the tubeworms, and it became a novelty to tap on the tank and see the worms quickly withdraw into their tube tunnels, changing the cluster from brown to white! Carlton has become the global authority on marine bioinvasions, tracing the connection of ships with ballast tanks to the point of origin.

An article appeared in the paper October 6, 2015, revealing that the U.S. Court ordered EPA to revise ship ballast dump laws with more restrictions. Introduced mussels have caused heavy havoc in waterways, and it appears that the Environmental Protection Agency caved to industrial demands for easing the regulations.

I imagine James T. Carlton has been involved in this issue, having appeared in Congress many times to explain the invasive species problems.

The November migrant waterfowl are flocking to our Central Valley fresh water lakes as well as to Lake Merritt along the Bay, and we can be reminded that water is life no matter where or what oddities it supports.

“Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world.” --Nelson Mandela

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one

that is most adaptable to change.” --Charles Darwin