Tide Pooling

[gf beranek]

Tide pooling is a activity on the coast enjoyed by many locals and tourists alike. The best viewing is in the breaker zone of the ocean and rocky shoreline. It is a zone that you best be prepared to pickup and run for high ground. In my younger years I was washed over the rocks by waves like a piece of common driftwood. Cut, bleeding and bruised.

This series of pics begins with a scene of a rock flat that is normally underwater and scoured with surges of intense wave action. During calm days at low tides you can venture out on this flat and view the tide pools. These are not coral reefs they are temperate zone tidal habitats. Literally every nook, crevice and cranny is pack with some kind of living creature. When you walk up to a pool what's most observable is the mussels, barnacles, anemones, urchins and starfish. Though there are many varieties of fish, eels and crabs that hide when you walk up. Hold still and wait for a couple of minutes and those creatures will come out and the pool will take on a whole new world to view. The pools are very interactive amongst all the creatures. And there is a hierarchy in it.

These pictures really do not show the true complexity of it. It's captivating to look at and watch, but always be on your toes and ready to run.

 

[Paul B]

cool Gerry, I have done that a bit up here, not such pronounced pools though, usually a lot smaller.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Beautiful world! Don't slip.

 

[cory]

That looks like a mighty healthy salt water eco system!

 

[SkwerI]

I have the DVD you did on 'Coast Views' and it's fascinating. Good stuff.

 

[top hopper]

Very cool indeed! As always Gerry, your pictures are awesome.

 

[RIVERRAT]

HOLY CRAP!..JUST BLOWS ME AWAY! That is so other world to me I have a hard time rapping my mind around it. Some day I will travel a bit & see some of this stuff for myself. Thanks for posting the pics Gerry!

 

[gf beranek]

In the DVD video you can really see what's going on with the critters. And beyond that there is a smaller world of creatures within the pools you can only see if you squat down and look very close. Like ants, spiders, gliders and gnats flying inbetween everything. And the closer you look the more there is.

Like Cory said, "That looks like a mighty healthy salt water eco system!" Indeed it is.

 

[OTGBOSTON]

Awesome stuff!

 

[rumination]

Great pictures Gerry. I spent many an hour playing in the tidal zone in Hawaii. It's a beautiful world, but watch out for the waves!

 

[CurSedVoyce]

I loved marine biology in school... Got to play in a lot of tide pools..
Awesome pics Gerry... Still brings out the fascinated kid in me

 

[Che]

I moved to Corpus Christi, hoping to get in at the Marine Biology School there back in the 70s. Didn't work out, but got to play in the pools on Padre Island....Nothing quite as spectacular as what you're showing though.

Thanks Jerry....cool pix.

 

[MasterBlaster]

That is so awesome.

 

[Blinky]

Nice shots Gerry.

We did that on the Oregon coast several years back. Good place for a polarizer.

 

[stehansen]

Beautiful pictures. Anything edible in there?

 

[vharrison]

Very cool!

 

[woodworkingboy]

Anything edible in there?

Sea urchin sushi is very tasty.

 

[gf beranek]

To cut the reflection of the sky off the water surface a polarizing filter is most essential for tide pool photography. However, depending on the angle you're shooting quite often a black background can do just as well, if not better, in cutting the reflection.

So in many shots Terri is out of the picture holding a black roll up piece of cloth, screen, at a specified angle. The screen has weights to keep it from flapping in the wind. It can cut the sky reflection so well that the water almost seems to disappear.

 

[Burnham]

Your photograpy is awesome, as usual Jer.

Here's a few much inferior pics from our visit to the beaches south of Bandon, OR this summer.

 

[sotc]

Urchins, mussels, abalone, crab and more can be found thats edible

 

[gf beranek]

Looks like the sand moved into the pools there, B. Noting that some of the critters I see in your pics are half buried. Hard telling how much. The creatures that are fixed to the rocks are doomed to die if the sand persists, and especially if it builds higher. The starfish can retreat, as can be seen they are all piling up. But even for them the sand can build high enough to strand them completely out of their comfort zone. It may appear natural and siren but many of the creatures there are screaming for help.

About 15 years ago at the Cape an earthquake lifted the shoreline about three feet. Miles of tide pools literally rotted and dried up from that event. Today it has healed over, but the old shoreline and wash zone are clearly visible to the knowing eye.

Driftwood and logs bouncing around in the waves are like asteroid impacts in the tide pools. One log can wipe out an acre of critters in a matter of minutes.

So a lot of the time what you see in the pools today will not necessarily be there the next time you go. And then places you never saw the pools will be a bounty. Much like most of the habitats we are familiar with.

Didn't mean to ramble on here.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Sea slugs are edible as well, but it generally requires being Asian.

 

[SkwerI]

You mean 'being able to suppress your instinctive gag reflex'?

 

[woodworkingboy]

Ha, but believe it or not, things taste different from the way that they used to look, after they are dried.

 

[Mrs.B]

There are locals that eat sea slugs and snails, but I've never felt the need to try them. There are also locals that harvest several varieties of kelp. There's 2 businesses that I know of that harvest and process kelp and sell worldwide. Urchin harvesting has been big here for several years now. Urchins are harvested for their roe, which is all sent to Japan because we won't eat it.