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The easy to find and fun to look at Tide pools are rocky areas on the edge of an ocean that are filled with sea water. Many plants and creatures live there. For example, you might see starfish, anemones, urchins, barnacles, crabs, kelp and other sea plants in a tide pool.
A little less people-friendly are the Tide pools found in a more brutal habitat where the ocean meets the land. This tidal zone is continually shaped by the actions of sun, wind, water, and rock. The sun bears down, heating exposed surfaces and organisms. Winds blow and contribute to the wave action, erosion, and drying of exposed plants and animals. Water in the form of waves endlessly pounding at the rocks, constantly reshapes the coastline. Rocks are pounded by the waves and loose stones and sand grind into the shoreline.
Life is tough for plants and animals that live in tide pools. Here portions of the shoreline are regularly covered and uncovered by the advance and retreat of the tides. In order to survive, tide pool life forms must avoid being washed away by the tidal waves, keep from drying out in the sunlight of low tide, and avoid being eaten.
Tide pools are subdivided in four zones. They are the splash zone and high tide, mid-tide, low tide areas. Check the tide charts for low tide times to really have some fun in the Tide Pools.
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