Wandering around a tide pool

[paul b]

I am lucky enough to live on an island surrounded by water that is also full of Islands and all of my life my favorite thing to do is to wander around at low tide in a tide pool.

Yesterday I did just that all by myself. My wife and I went out in our boat to relax and get away from a hectic week and while she read a book in the boat, I took the dinghy to shore to be alone with my friends.

Most of those friends have shells, antenna, fins or feathers.

As I rowed to shore daydreaming I was distracted by the oars hitting the sand and mud of the bay bottom.

I put on the insect repellent (because bugs are not my friends) and I started walking in the tide pool which is about 100 yards across and is composed of mud areas, sand areas, weedy areas and shallow water.

I Pulled the inflatable dingy up on a sandy area and walked through the stream of seawater that feeds the pool.

The first thing I came across was blue claw crabs mating. They were huge and did not appreciate me disturbing them. There were many of them all with the same idea of chasing me away. I don't blame them but they should have gotten a room.

When ever I come across a piece of wood or discarded part of a boat or pier I lift it to see what is living below.

If the object is stuck to the bottom I know there will be nothing living there because of the lack of oxygen it will just be black mud full of stinking hydrogen sulfide. Most heavy objects sink in the mud and that is what happens, but if the object is not too flat and not stuck in the bottom I know it will be just full of life. When you lift an object like that there are dozens of crabs running away, mostly Japanese Shore crabs that took over the native green crabs that are now completely gone. After the mud clears you find huge worms and sometimes clams.

Large amphipods will be jumping from the lifted objent to my arm and everywhere else.

Occasionally you see an eel or two dart out.

I always replace the object before I move on. The next area is just filled with oysters and you really can't walk without shoes. The pool shrinks down to about 20 feet across and goes under a road. In that 50' long tunnel with a barnacle covered cement floor you find more blue claw crabs that can't get away or dig in. They just threaten you with their claws as they scamper left and right. The tunnel ends at the other side of the road and becomes fresh water as that is a spill basin for a large lake that emptys here into the sea.

Sometimes you see freshwater turtles resting in the cement spillway that is about 5' high.

Walking back under the road you notice mussels stuck all over the walls covered in barnacles as everything in the Sound is.

I return back to my dinghy on the opposite side of the pool. This side has very low sand dunes that stay wet and are covered in marsh grass. The place is full of 1/2" to 1" wide holes in the sand that are homes to fiddler crabs. If you look ahead about 15' you see the males out of their holes holding up their large claw signaling to the females. I walk through a small salt water stream that leads to a marshy area. Here is where I call horseshoe crab city. The place is just full of tiny newborn horseshoe crabs some just barely visable.

They spend their time plowing through the fine mud which is perfect for them as the tiny crabs can't yet push the relatively heavier sand.

You can't venture too far into horseshoe crab city because a few steps in and you will sink up to your knees in a sticky ooze that will steal your shoes.

Walking back I look up and there is the resident Osprey in a high man made nest. That is a sea eagle that "guards" the place and is awe inspiring to see catch a large fish and carry it back to feed his chicks.

I get to my inflatable and walk out into deeper water all the while starring through the shallow water to see if I missed anything. I did. I count about a dozen hermit crabs and they make me smile because they disappeared from this area years ago and I have not seen any in a long time. They are always running and remind me of when I took the Subway to Manhattan for so many years. I pick up a few just to say hello then put them back. In a few seconds, they turn over and start running again. Then must stay in great shape with all that running.

I row back to the boat to find my wife smiling at me because she knows I am at my happiest after I spend my time with such good friends

 

[zygote2k]

That was a lovely story and you tell it so well.

Makes me want to explore at the beach.

[Origami]

Sounds like a lot of fun, Paul. Thanks for the moment.

[extreme_tooth_decay]

Great stuff.

 

Wandering in a tide pool is one of my favorite things to do as well.

 

Here is a pic of a tide pool I took when I was in Crete (Greece) last year. All kinds of stuff to see there.

 

 

 

Check out these anemones I saw...

 

 

 

This one was eating a fish. Might have been a bait fish from a local fisherman.

 

[Aurora]

Some of my fondest childhood memories were of tropical beach vacations that involved exploring the local tidal pools. I still remember a mesmerizing scene of a deep clear tidal pool amonng the rocks chock full of tiny glass shrimps.

 

 

[dcreefer]

Wow Paul,

 

That story was told so eloquently.

 

I've never explored a tidal pool...but now I have too!

 

Thank you for sharing.

[SeanH]

That was a really awesome description of a tide pool. Talking about the scallops and shoes reminded me of the Mississippi River where I grew up. We never swam in the river without shoes because of razor clams. The clams would open the sole of your foot open like a fillet knife if you stepped on them. Clams really love the Big Muddy.

 

A couple of months ago I was out on a pier on the South River in Edgewater, MD. I had been working on my boat (in something like 98F, 85% humidity) and had to cool it because I was suffering heat exhaustion. How did I know? I couldn't remember how to tie knots that I've tied for over 25 years ... so I went off to the local pizza joint and got cool. When I came back at nightfall, there was a blue heron fishing off a floating platform. The heron croaked at me and flew to a nearby post, got disgusted with me and flew off because I wasn't leaving. I expected to see small bait fish or even some juvenile blues in the water, but it wasn't fish the heron was hunting. There were uncountable juvenile blue crabs swimming along the surface of the water! They were sifting the water for food, but I couldn't tell what they were catching. Probably tiny shrimps. The crabs were from about 1" to 4" in size. I had to watch them swimming sideways along the surface of the water for about 20 minutes because I had never seen this behavior from them before.

 

Speaking of osprey, I have to pass 4 day markers on my way to the river and the Bay. Every one of them has a pair of osprey nesting on it and I watch their progress throughout the season as they hatch, turn in to fuzzies and finally fledge. I read some where that our Chesapeake Bay birds, which are all tagged by volunteers every season, some times end up in the Ohio Valley, so they get around. The other thing I read, if I recall properly, was that their average lifespan was about 3-5 years. Fishing birds apparently meet with lots of accidents. I can believe it because I've seen osprey on the Potomac grab a big fish, lift it out of the water, fall back in and use their wings as paddles to paddle to the nearest island (I saw this over by the Three Sisters if any one knows where that is). So, I'm guessing their fist-in-the-cracker-barrel attitude toward fish some times leads them to drown.

[paul b]

Extreme_tooth_decay, I may have been in that same tide pool in Crete. I was there a few years ago.

Tropical or semi tropical tide pools like in the Greek Isles are vastly different from temperate tide pools like we have here in the northern states. Mud is like a life magnet.

If you put some of that mud in a jar and spin it around, the microscope life in it will amaze you. Every drop is full of life. If you do the same thing in a tropical pool such as in the Caribbean, you will find nothing. This is why all the great fisheries in the world are in northern waters, thats where the life is. Those tiny animals in mud is the start of the food chain and provides nourishment to the vast schools of fish that are caught in these waters.

[Guest thefishman65]

Thanks for sharing I loved it.