Small Worlds: Exploring the Hidden Ecosystems of Tidal Pools

In this episode of Wildly Curious (formerly For the Love of Nature), co-hosts Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole dive into the fascinating world of tidal pools. Though small, these vibrant ecosystems are teeming with life, from tiny crabs and mollusks to hardy seaweeds and starfish. Katy and Laura explore the four zones of the intertidal area, explaining how animals and plants have adapted to survive in these ever-changing environments. Whether you're a beach lover or just curious about nature's hidden treasures, this episode will give you a whole new appreciation for tidal pools and their resilient inhabitants.

Perfect for marine enthusiasts, nature lovers, and anyone curious about the intricate ecosystems that thrive at the ocean's edge. Tune in to learn about the creatures and plants that call these 'fancy puddles' home.

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to For the Love of Nature, a podcast where we tell you everything you need to know about nature and probably more than you wanted to know. I'm Laura.
And I'm Katy, and on today's episode, we're going to be talking about tidal pools and how they may be small, but they contain amazing ecosystems. We've been, which, I mean, tidal pools, I'm glad to at least be talking about this one because it is hot as the surface of the sun in Texas.
It is the sun, but it's definitely like, I don't know, like Venus here.
It is insane. Like, it's unhumanly. Like, nobody should have to be-
Like, nobody should have to exist in consistent, like 110 degree weather for like months. Gosh, it's so freaking hot. And yeah, it's just unfair.
I mean, Texas is hot. We get it. But we normally hit in like the hundreds, like end of July, August, and then done.
Last year, we thought it was hot, but it just like stayed like in the 90s until like October. But now we've been in like the 105 plus since like the end of May. It's ridiculous.
You just look outside and everything's dead.
I mean, pretty much. And, you know, water main breaks like crazy because everybody's using so much water because people still insist on having green lawns.
That's insanity. Right?
So, good.
It's gonna dry up.
Well, I mean, have you seen everything going on with the Colorado? So we did the Colorado River, like I talked about the Colorado River back in September of season, well, that three year. Yeah.
And so, man, it's happening. Like, it is happening. They are prepping.
I mean, we're prepping for a possible drought here, maybe October, if we don't get any more rain. But Colorado is, they're prepping right now. I mean, it's getting bad.
And everything downriver from them too is, the Colorado is just drying up. Lake Mead has like nothing in it.
Yeah, I think I have seen a picture of that from like an aerial view.
Yeah. I mean, it's getting bad. It's hot everywhere this summer, but dang.
Everything just dried up.
People are still using that much water when you guys have like your aquifers that are running out.
Oh, pretty much gone.
Yeah, like there's just no more water.
Yeah.
But Lord forbid, I'm gonna have my green lawn.
Yeah, a lush green lawn.
There should be a law against such a thing in a place that's like under drought conditions.
So there are, so there are. So once we hit like a certain level of drought, like once the lake levels get low enough, and I'm bleeding, once lake levels get low enough, then we go into like drought stages. So technically, I believe we're in stage one drought right now.
However, because Texas is a drought prone state, we're pretty much always in stage one drought. So you water twice a week, or water no more than twice a week. Can't water between the hours of 10 a.m.
to 6 p.m. And then everybody, you have certain days that you can water. So that's pretty standard.
Now whenever we go possibly this fall, up to the next stage, that's like when crap's getting real. Because then we don't really start to hone in on people watering and stuff like that. So in every place in Texas has a drought plan, like the conservation group for the water utility.
You have a drought plan. It says whenever you hit X stage, the next one, the next one. But it tells you as you're going through the different stages, what you need to be doing when and everything.
And so then it's up to us to make sure people actually know about that sort of stuff.
What forces the law on watering?
So we actually have our own enforcement team at the utility that I'm at. And then because we have remote read readers, we can kind of, we can see who's using water, what. And so everybody freaks out that it's big brotherish.
But at the same time, it's just so many people don't understand, like, Texas doesn't have a lot of water. I mean, same thing with California. Like, you don't have water to spare, especially right now.
And so when people are just watering because they're like, oh, I can, I want to pay for that lush green lawn. I'm just going to water whenever the heck I want.
It's not a matter of money. It's an actually having water.
Yeah, of having water. And, you know, yeah, you can go do that. But then everybody else in your area does it too.
It's just taking up water. And so it's just unfortunate that people have that mindset and they don't see nor do they care to have that foresight to be like, oh, this is actually gonna, like, if everybody did this, this is really gonna mess us up in the long run. So that's kind of where we're going.
And unfortunately, you know, everybody around in the Colorado River Basin, it's gonna be tough for them. And the whole US is gonna feel it too because there's so much agriculture that goes on down there over the winter months. It's gonna be interesting to see what happens in the near future, so it's not all bad.
I mean, the good news is, again, it's like we talked about, what was that, last couple episodes ago about different things that we could do to sustainable. And what we can do, you know, calling companies and things like that. So I mean, there's still, I mean, now's the time to do it.
If people don't see, you know, climate change, it's not political, and I wish people would stop viewing it as political. But if people don't see like, hey, we're really messing up our system now, I don't know what it's going to take. We shall see.
So yeah, like Katy said, we're going to talk about tide pools and how they're tiny little worlds unto themselves. I actually have only ever seen tide pools once when I went to Maine. It's the only coast I've ever seen with rock because I've never been to the West Coast.
South Africa and Australia.
Cool, yeah, no, in Costa Rica, they didn't have, it was sand, so no rocks.
Yeah. Alrighty, well, we're going to first talk about, because, you know, where are tide pools? Well, they're located in the intertidal zone.
So we're going to keep saying that, but you guys all know what these intertidal zones are. It's the area between like the highest tide on the coast, the highest tide marks, and then the lowest tide marks. So when it's low tide, and you can like walk out on those, walk out on the rocks, and then it's high tide, wherever the highest point is, it's all in that area.
So that's kind of what we're going to be talking about in this episode, is that habitat between the lowest point and the highest point. And that land in there, it could be rocky, and it can sometimes be sandy or covered in like a mud flat. It all depends on the ecosystem that you're in.
Because I know, what was it? South Africa, I think it was. It was like rock and sand and all kinds of like, yeah, like a mix of it.
That makes sense. Yeah.
And then yeah, like tides in general, I guess if nobody's, our young listeners or anyone who hasn't been to the ocean, the tide is just the ocean rising and falling. It goes through that twice per day. It's like an alternate rise, fall, rise, fall.
Depending on where you are. Apparently, the Gulf of Mexico, they only have one tide per day. I did not know that.
Yeah, I guess so. I didn't know that either. I guess I never thought of it.
I've never been to the Gulf. I've just never thought.
I just thought it was a given. But yeah, so like Katy said, the intertidal zone and this place, it's actually a lot like our extremophile episode. So it's not like crazy, crazy extreme.
No.
It's definitely a harsh place to live. Yeah, because you're dealing with this fluctuation in temperature, salinity, oxygen, wave force, predators and tons of competition. Like it's a pretty extreme place.
But it is great to live here because there are lots of nutrients, plenty to eat, and quite a few places to hide and cling to. And so Katy and I kind of broke this up because there are four main zones in the intertidal area. There is the splash zone, the high tide zone, middle tide zone, and the low tide zone.
These are based on location and how long they're exposed to the air, with splash being the highest and low being the lowest. Each has different things that live there, and within those, there are layers of living things. And usually there are certain index species, which are ones that occur abundantly in specific zones and therefore indicates where you are.
So we're going to kind of be talking about what lives in our zones.
You want to start with the tippy top?
Yeah. Yeah.
So I'm going to talk about the splash zone or the supra literal zone, the fringe zone or the white zone. Apparently has a bajooing different names. Yeah.
I heard the supra literal I've heard of, but the white zone. Yeah.
I guess.
Maybe like the salt?
I don't know. I guess. Yeah, maybe.
Yeah, probably. So the splash zone is the bit of shore above the highest tide. So we talked about the inner tidal zone, low tide to high tide.
This is kind of the splash zone. Think sea world.
The front, not quite the front row, but the one where you get all the mist all the time.
You get wet at some point.
Yes, so it's above the highest tide and below of the start of the actual terrestrial vegetation, aka it's the upper part of the beach that occasionally gets splash but never covered by the ocean, technically.
Gotcha.
So the width of this zone changes with the slope of the shore, of course, variations in light and shade, exposure to waves and spray, tidal range and the frequency of cool days and damp fog.
Damp fog.
Heavy fog.
So it all depends, because you could have a very small splash zone or you could have a big splash zone. It all depends on all kinds of terrain factors.
Yeah, I'm assuming like those rocky cliffs probably have a giant splash zone because of the force smashing the rocks.
Yeah, and they just go straight up.
A real long slope is probably like nothing.
Nothing, yeah, nothing at all. A tide pool, and Laura, are you gonna talk about tide pools a little bit more?
Uh, like what is a tide pool?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, I'll go ahead and I'll skip that for you. So, because there are tide pools in all of these areas, not as much in the splash zone, but there are still some tide pools in this splash zone. So, within those pools...
You go ahead, explain, because people are gonna be like, why am I waiting?
Why, what is a pool? So, a tide pool is basically, it's left by the receding tide, and a rock depression or basin often provides a habitat for animals common to the area. So, it's basically crevice, a bowl, something where water sits, and things chill there.
I feel like a fancy puddle. A fancy puddle. It is a fancy puddle.
It is a fancy puddle. So, some of these smaller, isolated tide pools, they do provide very specialized habitats because of the increased salinity and temperature due to solar heating and evaporation. So, in the splash zone, that's kind of the downfall of the splash zone, is there is really never a time where you get cooled off.
It's always just...
Just the desert.
Yeah, it's just hot. Just really, really hot. Typically, because of the high salt content from the splash, because remember, it's not like doused, it doesn't get ever rinsed off, it's just like the mist of salt.
It has, like we said, extreme temperatures and wind. I didn't really think about that, like how bad the wind gets in these splash zones because it's like harsh wind, because you know it's, you know, windy near the beach, but this part is always hit with wind.
Dry, salty, and hot. It sounds like the worst place ever.
Right? And I never really thought about how bad that can be. There's very little rainwater available here.
And because of these problems, oftentimes the only thing that hangs out here are lichen. So if you've listened to any of our other episodes, you know I love me some good lichen.
Lichen, lichen.
Lichen, some lichen. And since lichen don't need a whole lot else to grow, but on a good rock, the splash zone is a great area for them. We've covered lichen in other episodes, but just to give you a refresher, lichen is made up of two organisms, a fungus and an algae, and that's your refresher.
That's a lichen.
That's a lichen.
That's it. But they do serve a good purpose. They break down the rock, lichens do, and so that can help.
It's just, it's such a, okay, go with me here. Picture this, like you've zoomed in into the splash zone, and all you see is this lichen, but it's anthropomorphized, so it's like, just like a little dude, all crispy and covered in salt, chapped lips.
But it's so perfect, because lichen is crispy and crunchy like that.
Yeah, they are.
Or that's totally, they're just fine with it, just like, yay.
Just like, I'm liking my spot here.
If anybody else just laughed at that, please reach out to us, because you are our people.
Goodness.
But besides, yeah, right? We're going insane. But besides liking, there really, there are not a whole lot of flowering plants that live in the Splashland because of how salty it is, and like just all the other adaptations that they would have to have to live there, like the harsh wind and lack of soil, you know, for one.
There are a few that do live in Splashland. Some popular ones are sea plantains and different types of thrifts. I don't know.
It's a plant, a flowering plant. It's like, yeah, like sea thrift. It's like the pink, pink flowers.
I want, if you Google it, you'll know pretty quick. You'll be like, oh, okay, okay. Very few marine mammals live in the splash zone full time.
Rough, or, I mean, well, mammals, as far as like you have sea lions and elephant seals, like those hang out here because they're like missed. Yeah. The sun.
But then they don't live there full time. But there are some that do actually like this area, like the rough periwinkle and the small periwinkle.
The little snails.
And the reason why that they like to live here is because they like to graze on lichen. So, makes sense. Yeah.
Other animals that live here include sometimes barnacles, lice, limpets, sometimes whelks. And this area, like I said before, is also typically where you're going to see sea lions and elephant seals out sunbathing. You're also going to often see seabirds perching here.
And depending on the habitat of the splash zone, you might see some sea turtles and, you know, as they're coming up, kind of chilling there, getting some sun, too.
Laying eggs and stuff.
So because of these larger, there are some larger animals there, but in particular, because of the seabirds, predation is very common because you figure there's nothing there to hide. Yeah, you're just completely exposed. So, I mean, besides the harsh environment, if you're chilling there, you have to be ready to be swooped down and taken up by a damn bird at any minute's notice.
Death could come at any moment.
By those stupid gulls that we've talked about. A French fry out of one side of its beak and a little periwinkle on the other.
This periwinkle will go nicely with my French fry.
But anyway, splash zone, very harsh environment. It's a splash zone. It's never fully cooled down.
You're just sitting there baking and liking. Really likes it, but that's about it.
Okay, well, let's go down the beach a little to the high tide or upper midlatoral zone. This is where actually the high tide does reach. So it's wet.
It's just wet for a short period of time, only during high tide, only the twice a day. So the conditions here are that it's pretty darn salty because lots of evaporation happens here. It can get really hot from the sun, basically high stress environment.
And because of that, just like the splash zone, not a ton lives here, but a little bit more than the splash zone because it does get wet a little more often. So the index species and the animals that are almost only found within this belt are limpets, although that you can see they creep up into the splash zone time.
They're probably just confused.
I just love the word limpet too. It's such a funny word. They're grazers, so they're probably going around looking for algae and stuff.
They're pretty flat. They basically look like a fingernail. So if you're like, what's a limpet?
It looks like a fingernail.
That's such a gross way to describe it though. I know, it's just gross though.
Yeah, there's a species called a fingernail limpet. What's cool though is that they form their shells to the rock so that they can get a tight seal to prevent desiccation. And so they make this little depression in the rock, essentially.
They fit themselves perfectly to it, and then when it's wet, they go around, they graze, and then they come back to that same spot called their home scar, and go back down to prevent desiccation or drying out. Also, plenty of other, I think it's latourine snails, which are like whirly ones, coiled shells. So periwinkles are also in this area.
Which, cool thing about periwinkles snails is they can cluster together, and they secrete mucus that glues them to the rock.
So gross. I mean, so cool, though. Just like, you imagine if our snot was glue, like how horrible that would be.
Like the things you would get, like the things that little kids would get stuck to them.
Like, oh.
They're just walking around with, like, hot wheels cars attached to their face, and like just everything would get stuck. Oh, so gross.
Yeah, so like, limpets are moving around quite a bit. Periwinkles not so much, and then barnacles not at all, because barnacles look like rocks with mouths. And they will cut the living daylights out of your feet, which I know.
Ugh, yeah.
They are permanently attached. They're filter feeders, and they close their little shells tight to prevent desiccation, and if you haven't, please go back to one of our animal mating, animal sex separations. Because the barnacle makes an appearance.
They've got some crazy reproduction stuff.
They make an appearance.
Some other species that you might find here are some types of C anemone. How typical that I can't say anemone.
Uh, so yes, sea anemones, crabs, starfish, and some mussels. Many of these species have shells to keep them from drying out, or they clustered together to reduce exposure, or they're mobile, so they can just leave this place. Um, there are a few species, but lots of individuals.
So not much biodiversity, but lots of them. So like, if you're gonna see limpets, there's gonna be a ton of limpets. If you're gonna see barnacles, there's lots of barnacles.
But there aren't very many different species. That's high tide.
And that's high tide.
Alrighty. The middle tide zone. Um, so as the name would imply, this area is submerged and flooded for approximately equal periods of time per cycle.
Makes sense. This seems like a nice place to live.
It would, except for everything that lives everywhere else is pretty much also living here.
So like, so like, you like the water, you like the land.
Great spot. So, um, anyway, so because the temperatures here are less extreme than up in the splash zone, and, you know, there's shorter direct exposure to the sun. Therefore, salt concentrations are only marginally higher than this ocean levels because it's not again, not splash zone where it's just like salt everywhere.
This at least gets, even though it's salt water, we get kind of rinsed off. Yeah, every so often. The wave action generally is more extreme here than in the high tide and spray zone, the middle tide zone.
It also has a much higher population of marine vegetation, specifically seaweeds. So this is the area, like, as, if you see like sea lions chilling in seaweed or like seals, like pictures of seals, like just hunkering down in seaweed, that's the middle zone. Because again, they're partially exposed, partially under water.
Organisms here are often larger in size than those found at the high tide and splash zones. Organisms in this area include also anemonees, more barnacles, chytrons, chytons, chytons, chytons.
Crabs, grain algae, other isopods, limpets, mussels, sea lettuce, sea palms, sea stars, snails.
You added an R in there, and there's no R in that word.
Wait, and where?
Chyton. It's like C-H-I-T-O-N.
What did I say?
You put an R in there.
Put an R where?
Chytron, chytron, chytron.
Maybe I did. Anyway, the listeners know by now.
I have trouble reading. It's cool looking. You guys should look it up.
They're pretty. They look like a living shield.
They're also known as gumboots, or sea cradles, or coat of mail snails.
Coat of mail snail actually makes sense. But gumshoe? What the heck?
Gumboot, gumboot, gumboot. I know gumboots in South Africa. They're rubber rain boots, gumboots.
They don't look like a boot.
I don't think so either. But they're pretty cool.
Yeah, they're kind of mollusk.
Yeah, interesting.
Sorry, I don't know anything about them.
No, I don't know a ton. So again, rock pools, like little tide pools, can also provide a habitat for small fish, because they'll like wash up, get kind of stuck here for a bit, and then when the tide comes out, like goes back up again, fish just go right back out into the water. Shrimp can live here, different types of krill, sea urchins, and a variety of zooplankton.
So apart from being more populated, life in the middle zone is more diversified than the high tides and splash zones. But like we said, it's kind of like a little bit of everything in anything that live here, just because it's the middle zone. So whatever you're going to see in the high tide, whatever you're going to see in the low tide, chillin in the middle zone, too.
Just right.
Right?
The Goldilocks Zone.
Yeah, I didn't see that anywhere. Why was it not called the Goldilocks Zone?
It should, that we're coining it right now, people.
Boom. Katy and Laura, we have said it here first, Goldilocks Zone.
Goldilocks Zone of the beach. You only have to worry about the tide half the time. You can get wet.
You can be dry. You can be hot. You can be chilly.
Perfect.
Perfect. Everything.
Um, all right. Well, then all the way down to the bottom is, of course, the low tide and low tide pools. This is also known as the lower littoral zone.
This is just above, like, just straight up ocean. So it's mostly underwater, except on the lowest of low tides. So, like, once the low tide is completely out, like, and there are certain times, so as the year goes by, tides fluctuate.
Some are really, really high, and some are really, really low. And so sometimes this area is exposed to the air. The conditions here, like I said, mostly underwater, there are, of course, way less fluctuations with temperature and salinity here because it's basically just the ocean with just a little bit of drying out.
But because of that, the biggest issues here are predation and competition. So just like predation was really high in the splash zone because you were exposed, down here, you're basically exposed to all the ocean creatures that want to eat you.
Because it's like a buffet.
Yes, this is the seeking buffet zone. Also coining that one.
We'll have to think of something from the high zone. Predation and competition. Because everybody wants to live here.
Because there's a lot of good reasons. This is where most of the nutrients are because of the constant fluctuations in the water. Index species here are a lot of them.
Sea stars in particular. Picture the typical star shape with five limbs. Many sea stars are keystone predators of urchins, barnacles, and mussels.
And guys, we should really do an episode on starfish.
We should.
With our living taxon ones. Our taxonomy ones will have to.
But them just alone. They're intense. Yeah, no, they are.
They're insane.
You're like, oh, it's just a cute little star.
It just goes along on its cute feet.
But if you're zoomed in and you're at the level of a starfish, oh my gosh, you do not want to be on the wrong end of a starfish if you're anything else, because they never get tired because of all their tube feet. They just take rests with different tube feet. So what they do is they're eating these mollusks.
They cover it up. You're a mollusk. There's nothing you can do about this.
You just have to take it.
Meanwhile, something is prying you open with a million feet. And some feet are taking breaks, and some of them are going to keep going. It's relentless.
They never get tired. And then once they've opened it up a crack, they puke their stomach in there, and their stomach digests you from the outside.
It's a lot. It's a lot. I also wish you guys could see Laura's hair.
Is she saying that?
I look like the guy from Alien.
It's all like, you want to talk about a messing ball. It's just like sticking up. And she's like, it's intense.
I have to do, I look just like the alien's guy. But it's about sea stars.
And of course, sea stars are known for their incredible regenerative powers. They can regrow from just an arm. They don't even need the rest of it.
Can you imagine if people were like that? I mean, granted, we don't just have human arms laying around everywhere, but could you imagine?
If you get blown up, that would be convenient.
But a whole new person, so you lose your arm, alright? And then a human, the rest of a human just starts growing from it.
Is that a twin? No, right, so there's some ethical things here to think about. Because when is it you?
Are you still you?
Or is it a different thing? It's different.
But also, the new parts that regrow, you know how like if you've ever seen like a lizard that lost its tail, it's tiny. Or if you see a starfish that's regrowing, it's tiny. It starts over.
It's like it literally, imagine a person. By an arm. It's literally just an arm with wings.
Because all I'm picturing is the tiny little alien from Men in Black.
Right?
That little tiny alien guy, but with a beefy, like with the most beefy arm. Like a normal human arm.
Like a big man arm of just like.
And yeah, and it like, because it's a big man arm, like an anchor tattoo. And so when this tiny little fetus thing like opens its mouth, it's like, hello. Just really unexpected.
Walk around, it just flips itself up on its hand, and it's like walking around.
That would be so terrifying.
That would be one of the scariest things ever. I mean, I don't think that was a normal thing, but it would be normal.
I don't know, it would still be terrifying.
Can you imagine having to hold the door for something like that?
Hold the door.
As you let in this just whole hand, you, the guy, just sleuts you up.
Think of all the amenities that would need to be changed to be able to help.
Oh, yeah. Like a leg.
Like just hopping.
I guess if it's a head, you're just out of luck.
Yeah, right?
This is a teeny tiny little body. We're not able to do anything with a giant head.
Oh, we are so weird.
The conversation. This is an extra weird episode. People probably think that if you...
We don't do drugs.
We don't do drugs. Let's just roll. Roll Katy and Laura.
Sunday night roll.
Done.
So besides sea stars, guess what? More anemones, which anyone who's like, what the heck is an anemone? It's sort of like a flower.
It's a stalk with tons of little tentacles. The tentacles are, they've actually got two kinds of tentacles, which I didn't know. Some are for fighting, and some are for fighting.
I didn't know.
Like they got their feeding arms, and their fighting arms.
Fighting arms. That would be convenient. My left arm, it's like my left arm, my fighting arm, my right arm, and my feeding arm.
It's like very dainty and long-fingered. The other one's all big and hairy. Okay, this should be an episode idea where we like have the faith of like if humans were like...
Like animals, oh man. Something about nature, and then we just have to like rush on the other person. It's coming, folks.
Most filter feed, although some can photosynthesize because they team up with algae. Also, brown algae lives here. Seagrasses, bryozoans, tunicates, tubeworms, and coral.
And then just other species. Those were just index species. Other species.
Crabs, snails, limpets, barnacles, mussels, sponges, shrimp, chitons, sea urchins, abalone, sea slugs, sea cucumbers, fish, octopi, brittle stars, sea hares, and green algae.
Geez Louise.
Yeah, so this is obviously crazy biodiversity here. But not many individuals. Because of the competition and the predation, you've got a lot of variety, but not a lot of individuals.
And again, we've talked about octopi before, but I could talk about sea slugs for a whole episode too, because they're so cool. They are pretty neat. Talk about beautiful.
And sea hares?
You need to Google what a sea hare looks like. It's so cute. It's like a slug with ears, like a bunny.
Oh, I've seen them.
I know what you're talking about.
Yeah. So the things that live in this zone, they have to have something to help them, like, cling on. So basically everything I named can cling, because the pounding of the waves here is intense.
If you don't have things to cling with, you're small enough that you can hide. Like, you can take shelter underneath of something. These animals live here because they're more sensitive to changes.
So these animals, they live in this particular place because they can't deal with the extreme salt or the extreme heat or anything like that. So this is more of like the delicate little tide pools that are full of life, but as soon as something is off, everything dies. So it's this like very sensitive little world.
So yes, which I think will lead us into the last thing we wanted to talk about, which is human impact.
Yeah, yeah. So obviously, I mean, this is a really cool place to go, really cool place to explore. But as we know, as we were talking about earlier, climate change and how hot everything is getting, you know, our coastlines are taking a huge hit.
I mean, how many, there was that video that was going around not long ago with East Coast of the US where that house just like fell in because of the tide. Did you see that one where it just like, I'm not surprised at all.
I mean, here in Maryland, we're very low. I mean, we're obviously very close to sea level because of the Chesapeake Bay. And it's definitely rising.
Like there are parts of DC that are more flooded than ever.
Yeah, which is crazy.
So, and as for sure are changing.
Oh, definitely. And these are two of the intertidal zones are. So that has a huge impact.
But then human populations in general, because everybody wants to live, you know, near the beach or tourism.
Hang out at the beach. Yeah.
Yep. So there's just constant like people down there. So the human impact on the intertidal zones, generally a direct result of trampling or collecting things.
I believe that. Because the health, I mean, everything is so beautiful.
It is really cool. It is really cool.
Forever.
So, as Laura said, you want to keep it forever. Rule number one, don't collect things whenever you're there. Kind of carefully, carefully.
Tip two is step safely. So step one is just don't collect crap.
Yeah, unless, I'm sure, like, if it's dead and you're in a place where you're allowed to collect.
Where you're allowed to, yeah.
A lot of the shoreline is protected.
Protected, yeah. So definitely be aware of where you are. Because even sometimes, like, in national parks, I believe it is, like, even taking shells.
Yeah, you can't touch any, like, can't take stuff. So look and, you know, look, check it out. Because they are really cool places to explore.
And you want people outside exploring. It's just, one, don't collect things. Two, step safely.
Like we said, like, there's all kinds of things that live in these areas. And so just be...
And usually small.
And usually, yeah, very tiny. Yeah, and they're just trying to survive. And you take out one thing in the area, and then, you know, the whole ecosystem there collapses.
So no bueno. Thirdly, just don't trash it. Like, unfortunately, just like any other park, people just leave their trash out there because they'll be hanging out, exploring, bloop, throw something, you know, drink in a can or whatever, have trash, throw it, chuck it, done.
But there are some things that you can do to help, like volunteering. There's all kinds of... At most beaches, they have, you know, cleanups.
Yeah, for sure. And there's an international one. One day a year, I know it's like a shirtline clean up around the whole world.
Yeah, which is really neat. I mean, and the stuff you get from... Yeah, it's so neat.
Because it's not even just stuff from people leaving it there, hanging out.
Wash up.
It's just right. It's the wash up, too.
Yeah, just constant washing up. And so that's kind of like... That's the fourth one, is just go ahead and volunteer for stuff like that if you're nearby.
And then also, you know, we talked about it on the other episode about, you know, yes, your individual actions, you know, are beneficial and everything, but, you know, bugging companies to be more sustainable and everything, too, is... It makes an impact, and these are typically the areas they get hit the most because they're right on the coastline. So a few quick tips.
So don't collect things.
Leave.
Just go. Don't touch. Kind of the leave no trace.
Take pictures.
Yep. Step safely. Like I said, don't trash it.
Leave no trace. Principles. Volunteer.
And then just be a little bit more sustainable.
Sounds good. I can't wait. I really want to go exploring tide pools on the West Coast.
I've heard they're incredible. I have an ex-coworker who just moved out to Oregon and is going to take tide pool classes, like down ID stuff. I was like, that sounds so cool.
That is really neat.
I'm pretty jealous, because there's really not tide pools. There's mud flats and stuff here around the Chesapeake Bay. And so, of course, there's little crabs and everybody, but you don't have octopi and Yeah, yeah.
and stuff hanging out in the East.
I really got to make it to the West Coast. I really do. I haven't been out there.
West Coast to the US. If anybody lives out there and would love to surf couch for Laura and I, we would love to come out there.
That would be really cool. Oregon, Washington.
Cool places to be. All right, everybody. That was a fun little quick episode.
It wasn't too long, but really neat. I mean, really cool ecosystem, again, that I wish I could explore way more often.
Yeah, and I just love, I mean, I love the whole concept of the small worlds. Like you talked about before with the bromeliads and trees, how it's like a tiny ecosystem in just one plant. It's like a whole world.
A tide pool is a whole world.
Just in that tide pool, yeah.
Yeah.
And a fancy puddle.
And a fancy puddle.
And a fancy puddle.
In the Goldilocks Zone beach. Or the buffet.
So the high, the splash zone already has some good names. Although I think it should really be called the crispy zone.
The crispy zone. Okay, so you have the crispy zone, high tide.
And then the high one is like, just sounds unpleasant.
Just unpleasant zone. So you have the crispy zone, the unpleasant zone. The unpleasant zone, the goldilocks.
And the buffet zone. You heard it here, folks. Katy and Laura are just renaming science.
All the marine biologists out there are like, ugh.
These two idiots naming things.
The unpleasant zone.
All right, everybody. Well, until next time, if anybody lives near a tidal zone, or if you guys have pictures, send them to us.
Take some pics. That's what I was going to say. Take some pics.
Or send us pictures if you have some, and then we'll go ahead and we'll post them and give you credit and everything for it.
Yeah. People up in Maine, I don't know if they're anywhere near the coast, but if they are, we want pictures.
For sure. All right, everybody. Until next week, go ahead and go check out our Patreon or follow us on Twitter, and chat with us on there, because we will definitely send us any kind of bizarre pictures you have of wildlife or nature.
Of nature. Please, dear God, of nature. Because we like to see it.
Of nature.
Bye.