Will I See Eels At The Tide Pools? April 9, 2024 Peppered moray eel (Gymnothorax pictus) in the tide pools at night, Maui Short Answer: Possibly  Long Answer: Eels are some of the most frequent large marine visitors to the tide pools; more common than octopuses but less common than small, shallow-water sharks. While not an everyday occurrence, if you visit the intertidal enough and know what you look for, you are fairly likely to see an eel, depending, of course, on your location. Lt’s break down some common factors that will impact your eel sighting success rate in the intertidal ..read more

5 Kinds of Intertidal Animals that Look Like Plants March 26, 2024 Diadumene franciscana, an anemone The intertidal is bursting with animal life, the shape, size, and color of which are often foreign to us land-dwellers. Many animals disguise themselves as plants while other things that look like plants are really animals. It can take time to learn to recognize all the kinds of animals you’ll encounter in the intertidal, but today we’ll look at just a few of the animals that you might mistake for plants while exploring the tide pools Sponges Phylum Porifera Pink barrel sponges on the sid ..read more

Tide Pooling Log: Cinque Terre, West Coast of Italy March 18, 2024 The Mediterranean is known as non-tidal as the tides of the Atlantic just barely squeeze a little water through the straight of Gibraltar before moving on. But on our trip to Italy this month, I was determined to see some intertidal animals. After doing some research and asking helpful friends on iNaturalist, I found a spot I thought had some life and made a point to visit.  I had visited the Cinque Terre before, one of Italy’s most famous national parks that includes five seaside villages nestled among hills of cov ..read more

The Hopkins Rose Nudibranch–That Bright Pink Sea Slug February 29, 2024 Hopkins rose nudibranch (Ceratodoris rosacea) If there’s one nudibranch that a beginner tide pooler in SoCal might notice, it’s the Hopkins rose nudibranch (Ceratodoris rosacea). A shot of bright pink among the many shades of green, blue, and brown, this moderately sized nudibranch is more likely to catch your attention than any other species.  Hopkins rose are one of my favorite slugs to photograph because they were my first introduction to nudibranchs. I spied one while at the tide pools when I had no idea wha ..read more

What are Echinoderms? February 21, 2024 Panama serpent star (Ophioderma panamense) For the beginner tidepooler, one of the most exciting animals to find is the sea star: large, colorful, bizarre and beautiful. There are no terrestrial sea stars. Neither are there any freshwater sea stars. Only in the sea can you find one of these animals.  The sea stars, and many other animals you will see in the intertidal, belong to a group called echinoderms. The word comes from the Greek echinos that means spiny, and derma which means skin. The “spiny-skins” are some of the most fascinating animals f ..read more

Cold Water Bias February 14, 2024 Hopkins rose nudibranch (Ceratodoris rosacea) When I show people photos of the animals I love from the intertidal, I frequently get the response, “I had no idea we had such colorful animals in California.” And while at first, I thought it was just a couple people here and there, I soon sbegan to realize that this is a pervading thought on the West Coast. A small number of us have seen the immense beauty in our coastal waters and the rest of the millions remain in ignorance, assuming only a few dull color fish swim off our shores.  At first, this struck m ..read more

Striped Shore Crab: The Tide Pool Clean Up Crew February 7, 2024 Striped shore crab (Pachygrapsus crassipes) If you’ve visited Southern California tide pools, chances pretty good you’ve seen a striped shore crab (Pachygrapsus crassipes) scuttling away from your steps. These small crabs are prolific in some intertidal zones, so much so that I hardly notice them when visiting the intertidal. But these creatures a worth a second look. From their remarkable ability to survive terrestrial conditions to their stunning coloration only visible when they let you get close, the striped shore crab ..read more

Is Dock Fouling Worth It? January 30, 2024 Dock fouling is a cousin hobby to tide pooling and many tidepoolers can also be found searching beneath floating docks when the tide is high. If you are new and haven’t heard about dock fouling before, check out this article.  A common question for amateur tidepoolers is whether dock fouling is worth their time. The answer depends on a variety of factors.  What do you want to see? A seapill on a floating dock What you are aiming to see greatly impacts if it’s worth your time to go dock fouling. Many avid tidepoolers are after unusual ..read more

How to Edit Intertidal Photos: Blackwater Photography January 23, 2024 Ancula pacifica Taking photos at the tide pools is one of avid tide poolers’ favorite ways to document what they see. In this post, I’m going to walk you through how to turn your favorite tide pool photographs into blackwater photography.  If you’re new here, check out my series about how to improve your tide pool photography before you read this article. While everyone can take awesome photos at the tide pools, the technique outlined here is designed for compact underwater cameras using a flash or flash diffuser ..read more

Microhabitats: Inconsistencies in the Intertidal January 16, 2024 The intertidal is far from homogenous. Mud flats, rocky shores, sandy beaches, and even mangroves are all kind of intertidal shores. But even among these places there are inconsistencies, like a single boulder laying in the sand or mud flowing from a creek making its way to a rocky shore. These inconsistencies are called microhabitats and they are all over the intertidal. Read on to explore how they function and what you can find there. What are Microhabitats? Most intertidal creatures are highly specialized, only surviv ..read more