As you're strolling along docks or wharves, this animal is easy to spot - just look over the side. Attached to the dock's submerged surfaces, this anemone's dense clusters are white, tan, brown or orange. Closed, they look like hanging blobs, but when open the anemone's short column is topped with a hundred, slender tentacles, gracefully waving in the current.

The Plumose Anemone's tentacles have stinging cells for defense and feeding. They mostly eat zooplankton, tiny marine animals they stun with their stinging tentacles. To defend themselves against other anemones, they have a different defense. Near the animal's mouth are long threads the anemone can fire. When it does, the threads' tips break off and give a sting strong enough to kill some victims.

The Plumose Anemone can reproduce by budding. Buds form at the base of the anemone's column or on torn pieces of its foot left behind as it creeps along. These buds grow into miniature anemones and detach to form new colonies.

Few creatures prey on Plumose Anemones. The shaggy mouse nudibranch, a kind of mollusk without a shell, feeds on small anemones, while the leather sea star goes for the big ones.

To survive, all types of anemones depend on clean water and a healthy environment. Coastal development and polluted run-off are degrading the ability of Puget Sound to continue supporting its rich and varied marine life. You can help by doing things like avoiding the use of chemicals around your home and shop. They can easily end up in Puget Sound.