be a tide pool p.i.
Tide pools are only found during low tide along the intertidal zone, as high tide covers up the habitat. The animals that live in tide pools are distinctively adapted to surviving with the various amounts of water. If you have the opportunity to spend any time at the beach during low tide you’ll certainly want to investigate these small habitats that are vibrant and filled with life. John Steinbeck wrote in The Log from the Sea of Cortez, “It is advisable to look from the tide pool to the stars and then back to the tide pool again.� Some animals you may want to seek out are fish, sea stars, limpets, mussels, clams, and crabs.
Limpets Limpets are small, flattened snails with a conical shell that live on rocks in the intertidal zone. They trap water beneath their shell and use it to survive from high tide to low tide.
Clams
While making your way to the tide pool, did you see tiny colorful clams wriggle under the sand? These clams use a muscled foot to dig a burrow and hide from their predators: crabs, sea stars, and snails. They are able to feed themselves with the muscle coming out Mussels attach themselves of the other end, called a to any type of hard sub- siphon. The siphon absorbs strate in the intertidal re- the nutrients from the sea to gions, including pilings. On help the shell grow. These pilings, the top most mussels clams grow quickly in the indicate the high tide line. summer and slowly in the Mussels tend to aggreagate winter. You can tell the age together to reduce individu- of a clam by counting the allexposure during dry con- darker rings. The pale rings ditions in the tide pool. indicate the winter. 22
Mussels