#tide pooling

[fungusqueen]

Giant Green Anemones (Anthopleura xanthogrammica) surrounded by Pacific Purple Sea Urchins (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) and Gooseneck barnacles (Pollicipes polymerus)

[highways-are-liminal-spaces]

tide pooling after work

[layaart]

I love exploring rock pools and finding so many creatures... here's some of them

[boymanmaletheshequel]

The Pacific Blood Star

L-R, U-D: a wild specimen clung on a rock at low tide, Victoria, BC. A small individual in the process of limb regeneration, Deception pass, WA. A beached specimen displaying color contrast against substrate, Clallam bay, WA. Pictures by me.

A bright red beauty often spotted along sheltered beaches of the American west coast, the blood star, belonging to the complex Henricia, is not one species, but rather a complex of closely related stars found in the Pacific Ocean ranging from Baja California up to northern Alaska.

These slender, bright vivid carmine seastars can range in color from a deep red to a light orange. They feast on a variety of demosponges and bacteria, which it sweeps into its mouth via ciliated tracts. Like all stars, it also has the unique ability to eject its stomach, which it may use to feed on small sponge and bryozoans by melting them with its acid!

These stars can be found up and down much of the west coast of North America, though different subspecies inhabit different regions.

They can usually be found under cobbles, attached to rocky reefs, or in tide-pools from the intertidal zone up to 400 meters deep! Waow! What an interesting creature!

[marinebioblr]

This conch was right up on the campus beach. Maybe it was his first day of school :) if you look closely, you can see his eye stalks (particularly the right one, lit by the sun) peering suspiciously at me

[jadafitch]

Saddleback Ledge Light, Isle au Haut Bay, Maine. The lighthouse's first keeper, Watson Hopkins, lived in the tower with his wife and seven (later eight) children. The tower contained a living room with a stove, two bedrooms and a cellar, and the ledge is about a quarter of an acre at high tide. According to a 1842 report, he was miserable.

[noncompliantcyborg]

New (to me!) Species

I recently observed a new-to-me species in the intertidal!

It's the barnacle eating dorid, scientific name Onchidoris bilamellata, a species of nudibranch that can gather in large groups to lay eggs.

On the left is a photo of some of the eggs and on the right is a photo of one of the groups of these slugs I found (also shout out to the Leptasterias sea star chilling next to them - we found a lot of sea stars under the same rocks as these nudibranchs).

I first noticed the eggs on a low tide earlier last week, and then on Friday I went tide pooling with some grad students from WSU for the -2.4' tide. As we scrabbled around the intertidal in the dark, we carefully turned over some rocks and found several different breeding groups like the one above. I thought it was interesting that almost every rock underside with these breeding groups of nudibranchs also had one or more Leptasterias sea stars. After observing and taking some quick pictures, we always made sure to gently place the rocks back how they'd started so the animals could stay moist and protected until the tide came in.

[frontmansdefender]

Hmmm I know octopuses are generally sweet and gentle and are just curious sea puppies (and I love them!), that being said, the thoughts of being dragged by my feet by one of them into the deep and dark ocean is… safe to say new fear has been unlocked

Source

[leonsrightarm]

yesterday's highlight was this crab i saw with substantial kelp growing out of its back

[fungusqueen]

Ochre Sea Star (Pisaster ochraceus) looking like he's chillin in a hot tub or something

[highways-are-liminal-spaces]

A mottled sea star exposed at low tide

May 27, 2023

[sproutfriend]

tidepooling

[catnoli]

a collection of tide pool critters + epaulette sharks from my ko-fi sticker sheet for september!! join here to get it ^_^

[sablecitrus]

A warmup I made this morning of my fursona. If anyone remembers the last drawing I made of them with the white fur, they have brown fur in this one because this is their summer coat! I know sables don’t have different colored coats for winter and summer like ermines do, but I just took some creative liberty and gave them a winter and summer coat anyway lol.

[juniper-clan]

Moon 14: Birth of Venus

(AKA the twins!)

PREVIOUS l NEXT

[summerwages]

low tide spring vibe 💙💛