Opinion ID: 1190882
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Little Whale Cove

Text: Little Whale Cove  we call it a cove because that is its geographic name, not because it necessarily fits any traditional definition of such a body of water [4]  is a small, somewhat unique body of water located at the Pacific Ocean south of the city of Depoe Bay. [5] The mouth of the cove lies on its west side between two rocky points directly to the north and south. The cove lies just east of a sloping rocky foreshore which rises from the ocean up to a rocky sill  also called a bench and a dam in the testimony  which then opens into the cove. The eastern half of the cove is bordered by a narrow beach. The narrow beach rises steeply from the water's edge to a berm which is about five feet above the surface of the cove. Behind the berm, the land slopes up to steep sandstone cliffs and upland vegetation. Two small freshwater streams flow into the pool from the east. The rocky points and the sill at the westward edge of the cove are basalt. The sill is covered with marine organisms, including algae. The pool has a smooth, sandstone bottom which slopes upward to the narrow beach from a depth of about seven feet at the base of the sill. At its widest point, the pool is about 150 feet from the inside edge of the sill on the west to the narrow beach on the east. The cove has a fan-shaped configuration that is characteristic of areas formed when waves enter through a relatively constricted opening and then spread out. The bottom of the cove is scoured clean in most places by wave action; in sheltered areas, the bottom is made up of sediment whose rippled texture is also consistent with wave action. The berm was formed by wave action. Waves periodically deposit kelp, seaweed, and even driftwood on the narrow beach and at the base of the cliffs on either side of the pool, forming what the witnesses called a strand line. The narrow beach itself is composed of coarse grains of basaltic material and small snail shells, sea urchin spines, broken clam shells, and other debris from coastal animals. These materials are for the most part washed onto the narrow beach from the ocean. Mean high tide lies seaward of the cove's mouth on the downward slope of the rocky foreshore, roughly 50 feet from the inner (eastern) edge of the sill and 3.1 feet below it. Tides alone rarely (if ever) rise to a level above the sill; sea water only enters the cove through wave action. Ocean waves do not reach the interior of the cove at low tides, but will enter it sporadically at higher tides, depending on how high the waves are. The two streams at the east end of the cove continuously flow into the pool, keeping the water level at the lip of (and spilling over) the sill. The result is a stratification of the water in the pool, with the lighter fresh water lying on the surface of the pool and the heavier salt water, periodically deposited by waves, settling on the bottom. During storms or extreme high tides, the entire pool may be inundated by waves, pushing most of or all the freshwater out to sea. When this happens, it takes at least a week for the stratification of fresh water over salt water to reappear in the pool. A variety of plants and animals inhabit the cove. The craggy sill is covered with red and green algae, intermixed with small intertidal organisms such as snails. Inside the pool live marine snails, mussels, hermit crabs, and shore crabs. These are marine organisms. Although resistant to fresh water in varying degrees, they cannot survive continuous exposure to it. A vegetation line is visible on the upper, easternmost boundary of the narrow beach above the cove. Experts at trial characterized this upland vegetation as typical of coastal areas in the Pacific Northwest. The vegetation nearest the narrow beach consists primarily of silverweed, which is a perennial plant that becomes dormant in late fall or winter, although its extensive root system survives and sends up new shoots in the spring. During winter or when exposed to ocean waves, the tops of silverweed turn brown. Landward from the narrow beach, the silverweed becomes mixed with other upland species of vegetation including sea rocket, grasses and sedges, thistle, Queen Anne's lace, and horsetails. Between the visible line of vegetation and seaward to the mean high tide line, there is no vegetation of any other freshwater upland species. The question is  what is Little Whale Cove? Is it part of the Pacific Ocean? If not, what is it? On this question, the experts disagree. The state's expert witness, Dr. Jefferson Gonor, believed that the cove was a large intertidal pool that was subjected to wave action often enough to maintain what he described as a well-formed typical beach profile, typical of ocean waves. He could not say, however, how often waves actually entered the cove. Asked to categorize the cove, he had some difficulty: Q [COUNSEL FOR THE STATE] Did you consider Little Whale Cove to be a tide pool? A [GONOR] It is  that would be the closest thing that I could compare it to or describe it as. It's a high intertidal pool, a very large one. So large that a beach builds up, a small area beach builds up at the back shore area. That's how I would compare it. I don't know of anything else like it, so it's  it doesn't  it defies classification because it's unique, in my view. Q Would you classify it as a freshwater pool? A No, sir, I would not because it has marine organisms in it. Q Would you characterize it or classify it as rocky headland?      A This part of the cove I would not characterize as a rocky headland. I would  if you use the word `cove,' and would say that this is a cove. Defendants' expert, Dr. Richard S. Caldwell, an environmental consultant, had a different view. He had visited Little Whale Cove to try to determine what kinds of marine life were to be found on the sill, and what the makeup of the pool behind the sill was. Caldwell testified that there are various tidal zones, from those just beneath the lowest tides to those above the highest tides. These are called the sublittoral (below the low tide line, i.e., in the ocean), the eulittoral (between low and high tide, i.e., subject to daily tide action), supralittoral fringe (above normal high tide but still subject to tidal influence), and supralittoral (no tidal exposure except perhaps during heavy storms). Of these, he could identify all but the supralittoral on the westerly, rocky foreshore of Little Whale Cove. The top of the sill he classified as supralittoral fringe, based on its flora and fauna and particularly on the presence of enteromorpha intestinalis, an algae which normally requires some fresh water influence to thrive. Caldwell concluded that the pool should be considered akin to an estuary, rather than to the usual supralittoral pool: [CALDWELL] All of those are species [of crustaceans that he had identified as living in the pool] that are not characteristically found on the open coast. In fact, they're fairly common species in estuarian areas in Oregon. Q [BY COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANTS] Meaning what?      A Meaning, to me, that the environment is more like  if you will  an estuary than an intertidal open coast area, and that's because of the freshwater influence, which is characteristic of high rock pools that have some source of fresh water. Caldwell also testified about the salinity, temperature, and dissolved oxygen profile of the cove, based on a sample he had taken at the eastern edge of the sill. The upper two feet of water were nearly fresh. The next two feet exhibited increasing salinity. The bottom layer, from four feet down, had a constant salinity value near that of sea water. The fresh water is found on top, he explained, because it is less dense. This profile is consistent with infrequent tidal intrusion. The temperature profile  the pool was warmer at the bottom than at the top  was also consistent with infrequent tidal intrusion. The warming at the bottom was due to the fact that sunlight, passing through the relatively clear top layer of fresh water, was able to strike the bottom of the pool and warm the water just above it. The heavier, more dense salt water retained much of the heat, rather than passing it through to the fresh water layer. The oxygen profile was consistent with the other two factors. The bottom layer was supersaturated with oxygen, indicating no recent contact with surface air. Considering these three profiles of the pond, together with the types of organisms he had found in it, Caldwell concluded that the pond was not influenced by any regular tidal action. Caldwell acknowledged that the layering he found in the pool could be disrupted by a storm, and that it would probably take longer than a week to reestablish the pattern he had found, although he could not state with any precision how long it would take. The biological characteristics, however, indicated that the pond is stable and that fresh water is present a great deal of the time. The trial judge announced his decision this way: [The state] rests its case upon the doctrine of custom as announced in the case of State, ex rel Thornton v. Hay   . The short answer to the State's contention is that there is no, quote, `dry sand' area abutting mean high tide and Little Whale Cove.      I conclude that the pool situated landward of the basaltic barrier is not part of the ocean. It is a fresh-water pool occasionally influenced by the Pacific Ocean. The dry sand area is a beach abutting the pool situated entirely on private land. The beach is not dry sand area along the Pacific shore open to the public for recreational use. The [defendants] are entitled to a decree against the State on that issue.