{"id":6557,"date":"2017-12-24T11:50:36","date_gmt":"2017-12-24T19:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/larryeifert.com\/?page_id=6557"},"modified":"2017-12-24T11:50:36","modified_gmt":"2017-12-24T19:50:36","slug":"2014-02","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/published-writings-and-art\/salish-sea-stories-48-north-magazine\/2014-02\/","title":{"rendered":"2014 \u2013 11 Sand Dollar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/2014-11-Sand-Dollars.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6661\" src=\"http:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/2014-11-Sand-Dollars.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"983\" height=\"864\" srcset=\"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/2014-11-Sand-Dollars.jpg 983w, https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/2014-11-Sand-Dollars-300x264.jpg 300w, https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/2014-11-Sand-Dollars-768x675.jpg 768w, https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/2014-11-Sand-Dollars-560x492.jpg 560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 983px) 100vw, 983px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Anchored off a calm sandy beach, I rowed ashore and<br \/>\nfound many beautiful white shells or \u2018tests\u2019 of once-living<br \/>\nsand dollars scattered about. Shells, sure, but I wondered<br \/>\nwhere these creatures lived. On a minus tide, I returned and<br \/>\nwas surprised to find thousands of these off-center reddishbrown<br \/>\ncreatures that are close relatives of sea urchins almost<br \/>\nentirely covering the beach. While urchins, are purple and<br \/>\ncylindrical in shape and have long spines, sand dollars<br \/>\nhave flattened reddish bodies that are off-round shaped or,<br \/>\nas their scientific name (Dendraster excentricus) implies,<br \/>\neccentric. Also called \u2018sea-cake\u2019 or \u2018biscuit urchin\u2019, these<br \/>\ncreatures don\u2019t lie flat on the sandy bottom except when<br \/>\nthey\u2019re moving about. Instead, they upend themselves and<br \/>\nstand erect to catch floating debris that they pass with feet<br \/>\nand spines to a central mouth.<\/p>\n<p>They anchor themselves with those same tiny tube feet to stand angled so their undersides and mouth catch the current. When in a good flow of water, they gather in groups all lined up like little<br \/>\nsoldiers as they funnel and filter water. In heavy currents,<br \/>\nyoung sand dollars will swallow sand to keep them in<br \/>\nplace, but they actually move around rather a lot in search<br \/>\nof better feeding grounds. Able to live at least 13 years \u2013<br \/>\nwhich can be proved by counting the test\u2019s rings, large<br \/>\ncolonies develop and 625 sand dollars per square yard have<br \/>\nbeen counted in some areas, making for many tight rows<br \/>\nof little upright disks all jammed together. Sand dollars<br \/>\nhave few predators, but can quickly bury themselves<br \/>\nif a sea star or crab walks through a sand dollar colony.<br \/>\nA few sand dollar shells make for an interesting beach \u2013<br \/>\nbut imagine what it must be like just a few feet offshore.<\/p>\n<p>Larry Eifert paints and writes about wild places. His work is in many<br \/>\nnational parks across America \u2013 and at www.larryeifert.com.<\/p>\n<p>***previous*** &#8212; ***next***<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anchored off a calm sandy beach, I rowed ashore and found many beautiful white shells or \u2018tests\u2019 of once-living sand dollars scattered about. Shells, sure, but I wondered where these creatures lived. On a minus tide, I returned and was surprised to find thousands of these off-center reddishbrown creatures that are close relatives of sea &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/published-writings-and-art\/salish-sea-stories-48-north-magazine\/2014-02\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">2014 \u2013 11 Sand Dollar<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":6453,"menu_order":91,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6557","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6557"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6662,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6557\/revisions\/6662"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}