Orange-Striped Green Sea Anemone Diadumene lineata
Science and Ideas Group: Lake Merritt Beneath the Surface by Local Naturalist Damon Tighe
Learn about the immense diversity of life that lives beneath the surface of Lake Merritt. Local photographer and naturalist Damon Tighe will take you through a photographic tour of the organisms, which hail from all around the world. The history of each organism will be discussed and their roles in the ecology of the lake. Lake Merritt is a tidal estuary formed at the end of the last ice age. Its proximity to the port of Oakland has allowed it to collect organisms from all over the world that can survive in a brackish water environment. It is famously the first Wildlife Refuge in the united states and is also the birthplace of the biological discipline of marine invasive species.
Biography: Damon Tighe is a Naturalist at the California Center for Natural History and Biotechnology Educator at Bio-Rad Laboratories. He has been based in Oakland for the past 20 years and has been documenting organisms from Lake Merritt as a qualitative way of understanding the increased health of Lake Merritt due to Measure DD projects.