Tidepools on the Maine Coast

First of all, a big thank you for all of your wonderful thoughts and comments regarding my latest finish, Found on the Beach.  It feels great to finish a project and even greater when folks show up to the party to help celebrate.

I wish I could have answered you all personally but, right after I hit the "publish" button, Jim, Jack and I left on a one week road trip to Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park in Maine.



We expected to be hiking and biking through gorgeous scenery but we hadn't even considered the one thing which delighted us the most.

Tidepools.

Our first ever.

Until now, our seaside discoveries have all occurred on sandy shores so we were overjoyed to discover the beauty of rocky tide pools.

Tide pooling became one of the highlights of our week in Maine and clambering over rocks to see what wonder was in the next one gave us one of the biggest thrills of the week.  It was treasure-hunting at its best.

The challenge was getting close enough to peer into these miniature aquatic ecosystems without being scraped by barnacles or slipping on seaweed and being swept into the sea.



When successful, we were rewarded with vignettes of all type of sea life in microcosm and close-at-hand...



Red algae, periwinkle snails, dog whelks, urchins, seaweed...each one was its own composition of color and design.

The tide pools exist in the intertidal layers...the area between low and high tide.  The first layer below the high tide mark is the barnacle layer.

Since I had already been researching barnacles a bit for my last project, I was over-the-moon excited about getting to observe them up close.

When the tide drops leaving the barnacle layer exposed, many of them close up shop and wait for the sea to return.  They can survive for a few days on water they conserve inside their homes.

Barnacles that are empty have most likely fallen prey to micro predators, eager for a meal.



In this tide pool, take note of that extra-large, open barnacle just underneath the blue mussel...

It was alive, opening its trap door and extending its feathery feet to feed.  I tried to catch the feet on camera but all you can really see is a bubble indicating movement.

Below the barnacle layer is the rockweed layer.

From far away it looks like a mass of greenish brown...

But as we climbed down to get a closer look, the varieties of life were more evident.

I liked to imagine all these plants standing straight up when the sea returns, held afloat by their air bladders.

The colors and textures just blew me away.  

I am still working to identify a lot of what we saw but below you see a few periwinkle snails, red algae and what I believe is coral weed?

Periwinkle snails are very common in the intertidal zone, feeding on algae.  

This guy, with his foot and mouth extended,  looks like he's crawling across a barnacle "flower" garden...

Such variety of life.

Blue mussels...

Green urchins...

Silver-spotted anemones...

And a colony of dogwinkles drilling holes in barnacles to feast on the little shrimp-like animal barricaded inside...

This rock crab is munching on a bit of irish moss...

Notice all the other invertebrates growing on his shell...like the ivory barnacles and the little tortoiseshell limpet on his right claw.  And isn't his blotchy, purple shell a feast of color?

And speaking of feast, this colony of blue mussels is quite the meal for birds and other shell-drilling predators...

Even the rocks were gorgeous with red striping caused by iron sulfate and other minerals.  

The geology of Mt. Desert Island is equally as interesting as the marine biology and I find myself coming home with more questions than answers and tons of pictures.

And this guy...

Wants to thank all of you for his Happy Birthday wishes.

It's good to be home.

Happy Monday everyone!