Tidal Ecosystem (Jordan R. & Emma Lebow)

Everybody likes to go to the ocean… You can build a sandcastle or ride the waves, but if you go at the right times you can see the tide pools. When people come to see them they don’t know that they are really endangering the tide pools.

Tide pools are close to the edge of the ocean so sometimes they are underwater and sometimes they are not. There are different tidal zones depending on how often it is underwater. Animals in the high tide zone are often exposed to air and to rough waves. The sea life that lives in the in the tide pools has to be adapted to air and water. Some sea life lives in little pools instead of on rocks.

Human endanger the tide pools and the animals that live in the tide pools. People used to think that tide pools couldn’t be harmed. Over the past 15 years people realized tide pools were very vulnerable. They found that there are fewer animals in tide pools than before. We think that climate change affected the tide pools. Tide pools are also threatened by coastal development, land-based runoff, and ocean pollution.

Humans endanger the sea life that live in tide pools. The creatures in tide pools consist of starfish, mussels, hermit crabs, owl limpets and octopus. Usually these creatures just have to worry about making sure they’re not washed away at high tide, not drying out from the sun and not being eaten by predators. But now there’s a new worry that these animals can't control and that’s a human. When humans come to visit the tide pools we're doing more then just looking, we're destroying tons of species. For instance we step on mussels, which is not only killing the mussels, but it's also killing the species that eat mussels. If we're not more careful then soon there won’t be much left to see.

There are ways to see the tide pools and not harm them or the fragile sea life. Some things we can do to be saving around tide pools are watch where we step and leave the fragile sea life alone. There are some organizations that are working to save tide pools like the Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network (MARIN). If we make sure to be really careful when we visit tide pools then it will help to save tide pools.

Humans do endanger tide pools but everyone can help save them. So next time when you go to see tide pools make sure to be careful. Have fun but be careful.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network (MARIN) http://www.marine.gov/

National Parks Conservation Assn. (http://www.npca.org/)

''A Rocky life on the Edge'' by Marla Cone(Cyber Diver News Network) 2006 (www.cdnn.info/news/article/a010516.html)

Shore line (http://www.mbg.net)2002/