Limpets – Limpets hold on to rocks so tightly that attempting to remove them will result in a broken shell. Then they produce mucus that acts as “glue” to stick them in place on rock. They resist drying out when the tide is out by pulling their soft bodies into their shells and tightly closing their shells with a “door” – the operculum. Periwinkles – Periwinkles are very tiny black snails. Who lives in this zone and how do they survive? The splash zone is covered only by the “highest high tide” each day (there are two high tides and two low tides each day on our coast-more on tides later) and this zone is dry three-quarters of the day. A wave breaks over the barrier and churns the glassy water for a moment and mixes bubbles into the tide pool, and then it clears and is tranquil and lovely and murderous again.” – John Steinbeck, Cannery Row. The anemones expand like soft and brilliant flowers, inviting any tired and perplexed animal to lie for a moment in their arms, and when some small crab or little tidepool Johnnie accepts the green and purple invitation, the petals whip in, stinging cells shoot tiny narcotic needles into their prey, and it grows weak and perhaps sleepy and soon the searing, caustic digestive acids melt its body down. Hermit crabs like frantic children scamper on the bottom sand. The lovely, colored world is glassed over. Starfish squat over mussels and limpets, attach their million little suckers and then slowly lift with incredible power…and then finally the starfish stomach comes out and envelops its food. Crabs rush from frond to frond of waving algae. The sea is very clear and the bottom becomes fantastic with hurrying, fighting, feeding and breeding animals. But when the tide goes out, the little water world becomes quiet and lovely. A tidepool “ is a fabulous place: When the tide is in, it is a wave churned basin, creamy with foam.
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