Rebecca - Catching Sand Fleas

Where the waves wash up.

              This Saturday I am planning on doing a practice run for my project. I got a sand flea rake from Jeff (Thanks!) and have been doing some more research. I found some great resources online and learned a lot about sand fleas. Sand fleas live in the swash zone. The swash zone is the part of the beach where waves crash and wash back into the ocean. Sand fleas live here because they depend on the action of the waves to bring them plankton and other organic debris that they feed on.

Colony of sand fleas.

 In the summer, they tend to form colonies so they can mate, making it easier to catch them. The colonies are easy to spot as you can see in the picture to the left. The sand looks rough and I know I've see this at the beach before but didn't know what caused it. I should still be able to catch a decent amount of sand fleas but I was planning on going to Cape Canaveral National Seashore which is now closed. Hopefully the government gets its act together and I can do my 'real' collection next weekend. Otherwise I will have to wait until the end of this month.

I will also be collecting sediment samples from areas I find sand fleas in. The reason for this is to determine if the sediment size has any affect on the sand fleas. Since sand fleas spend most of their lives buried in the sand, I'm trying to determine if the size of sand grain keeps the sand fleas from gathering in certain areas. The natural sand along this part of the coast tends to have lots of broken test, or seashells, in it and can have a brown/red color to it. My question is, with the popularity of beach nourishment, where the sand tends to be finer and hard packed, will this type of sand deter sand fleas from gathering?
                 
                                 I'm really excited to go out this weekend and get some practice with the sand flea rake. I hope the water is still warm enough that I can catch lots of sand fleas.