Carmel tidepools

Costaria costata, 2014.

The Monterey Bay area is one of the coastal gems of California: strikingly beautiful marine life, diverse and easily accessible tide pools, and a rich tradition of marine research and education. Ever since my undergraduate days at UC Santa Cruz, I've loved to explore tidepools from the San Mateo County coastline south to Monterey and Big Sur. Spring-time low tides are an ideal period to visit the rocky intertidal, though that often necessitates an early rise of 5 or 6 AM to catch the action.

Carmel Point is one of my favorite places to tidepool. It is a few minutes south of the Monterey Peninsula by car. The town of Carmel is probably one of the most affluent coastal communities in California, but it is small and has a laid back feel. Carmel Point is a short stretch of rocky coastline that interrupts two more-or-less crescent shaped coves of sandy beach to the north and south. Offshore kelp forests run right into the low intertidal, so at the right times one can literally walk through a grove of giant kelp by just getting wet up to the knees.

Panorama at Carmel Point. Tidepools extend to the south. The Monterey peninsula is in the distance at center and right.

Corallina officinalis, 2014.

Carmel Point is an incredible spot for seaweed lovers like myself. There are interesting finds in all of the three major phyla of marine seaweeds. Green seaweeds are represented by alluring plants like "dead man's fingers" (Codium fragile) and the delicate Bryopsis. Reds appear in their varied hues, including the rich blades of Chondracanthus and Erythrophyllum delesserioides. There are various species of branching coralline algae in the lower to mid intertidal, lending a vibrant pink to the mosiac of benthic organisms on the rocks. 

Low intertidal Macrocystis pyrifera, 2007.

And, of course the large and conspicious brown algae are very diverse here. In addition to long strands of giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) in the intertidal, there is bull kelp (Nereocystis), low intertidal groves of Laminaria setchellii and occurrences of feather boa kelp (Egregia menziesii) and Alaria marginata. The higher rocks host several species of rockweeds: Fucus distichus, Pelvetiopsis limitata, Silvetia compressa and Hesperophycus californicus.

Chondracanthus exasperatus, 2014.

I've made a half dozen or so trips to this site over the years, so I'm starting to have a few places I can check for favorite seaweed species. For instance, I've observed during intermittent visits a mid-intertidal population of the sea palm, Postelsia palmaeformis. The population this year grew on only a single rock, and plants looked a little tattered. One of my all time favorite kelp species, Costaria costata, appeared to be pretty common this spring. I found it in a usual pool just south of the Postelsia rock and in a high density at another low intertidal spot.

The nudibranch Triopha maculata on an opaque tunicate, 2014.

While tidepooling, my attention is usually taken with the seaweeds, but occasionally I notice some showy invertebrates too. This spring I found three species of colorful nudibranchs. On a previous visit I found a really cool green shrimp, its body colored perhaps from ingesting green algae.

Super cool green shrimp, 2009.

A small bull kelp, Nereocystis luetkeana,
submerged in a tidepool, 2010.

One thing I thought of during my visit this spring to Carmel was the intellectual challenge of understanding the ecology of these diverse rocky intertidal communities. There are literally hundreds of species of benthic algae and invertebrates packed tightly into the complex amalgam of bedrock, boulders and sand. Sure, there is the obvious vertical zonation of species that is driven heavily by the tides, but there is also so much three dimensional habitat structure creating seemingly infinite combinations of light, wave energy, sand scour and temperature. Add to these physical gradients the host of possible biological interactions (competition, herbivory, facilitation) among the dozens of co-existing species, and the unique life history patterns of immense phylogenetic diversity, and comprehension of the grand picture can seem unattainable. So, an observation here or experiment there that lends insight into these incredible ecosystems is a tremendous intellectual reward.

The strawberry anemone, Corynactis californica, growing underwater in the low intertidal, 2014. 

This is a small red alga, Pterosiphonia dendroidea, that I captured with my macro lens growing in a sandy area at Carmel Point in 2009. Most fronds of this plant are only a few cm in length. I love how individual cells can be seen on this plant!