Bleeding Love

Dec 6, '07 12:07 AM
for everyone

Exploring your water world

Here are few guidelines for going tidepooling.
Safety tips for you and the creatures you want to see...

GO WITH A FRIEND. If something happens, you always want someone there to help you out. The rocks can be slippery. Also, you don’t know if there are naughty people about. And of course, it’s better with two sets of eyes to find new creatures.

WATCH THE OCEAN. When tidepooling, keep one eye on the ocean and never turn your back to it, unless you are well out of the wave zone. There are such things as ‘sleeper’ waves, which are random really high waves that can knock you over if you're not paying attention.

WATCH WHERE YOU PUT YOUR FEET. You don’t want to kill anything by stepping on it, so look very carefully. Plus, stepping on seaweed is very slippery business. If you can’t tell if those pebbly lumps are alive, feel them with your fingers. If they give with a little pressure, don’t step on them.

REPLACE EVERYTHING WHERE YOU FOUND IT. It’s okay to turn over a rock to see what's growing underneath, as long as you turn it back over once you are done. There is a reason why those animals are under the rock, and that is because they can’t live on the top of the rock! This is also the hardest one because some people think that they are helping or saving creatures by picking them up and moving them. In reality, the creatures know what they are doing. Starfish can go for 6-14 hours out of water; so moving them back into the water does not ‘help’ them. If they were hang out up there because it was a good spot to get food when the tide comes back in, or to stay away from predators you’ve just ruined their dinner, or possibly made them a snack for someone else. As hard as it seems, don’t try to ‘fix’ things, just leave everything the way you found it.

HAVE FUN. Look in all of the cracks of the rocks. Hang out at your favorite pool and see what moves around after a while. Come back again to see new and different creatures. Bring your camera!

visit Girl Scientist's blog for more of cool underwater stuffs!