Tide Pool Animals

Information about Tide Pool Animals:

Tide pools are home to a wide variety of animals, many of whom are dependent on one another to survive. Some common residents are anemones, barnacles, crustaceans (such as hermit and shore crabs and shrimp) starfish or sea stars, sea urchins and mussels and other bivalves. Large marine mammals such as sea lions and seals also visit these areas to sun themselves. But for the permanent residents of the tide pools, they live in what’s called the intertidal zone (also sometimes called the foreshore/seashore or the littoral zone, which is then divided into three subzones: the High tide zone (upper mid-littoral), which is only flooded during the high tide, the Middle tide zone (lower mid-littoral which is flooded equally during the period of the tide ebb and flow, and the Low tide zone (lower littoral) which is exposed only during the low tide) This zones can vary in width from just a few feet, or stretch for many yards, depending on the terrain and how the area is influenced by the tide. Because of the meeting of the land and the sea, this zone is a very important ecosystem and provides homes for many different types of animals. Many plants also are able to live in these conditions, as are various types of algae, which often is the only living thing that can tolerate the increasing salinity of an evaporating tide pool.