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How One Puddle Can Hold an Entire Ocean World · How To Protect The Ocean

• 0:00
  What if I told you an entire ocean ecosystem can fit inside a puddle?
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  Because every time the tide goes out, that's exactly what happens.
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  This is the How to Protect the Ocean podcast, your weekday ocean news update.
• 0:11
  If you care about staying informed on the oceans every weekday, hit that
• 0:16
  follow button right now on your favorite podcast app so you don't miss tomorrow's
• 0:19
  interview with Kirstie Burnett, a coworker of mine at Pisces Oceans.
• 0:23
  We're talking about how she grew up in Nova Scotia on the Scotian
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  Shores, enjoying cold waters, the species, the habitats above and below.
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  It's gonna be amazing.
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  Check that out tomorrow.
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  So hit that follow button if you haven't already.
• 0:38
  Now, today, we're answering a simple question.
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  Why are tide pools one of the best ways to experience the ocean?
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  And the answer is pretty simple, because they are like tiny windows
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  into the entire marine ecosystem.
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  When the tide goes out, seawater gets trapped between rocks along the shoreline.
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  When you first look at them, these pools don't look very exciting.
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  But they're one of my favorite things to look at.
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  It's a little water, maybe some seaweed in there.
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  You know, A few shells, may have somebody, may not.
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  Maybe they'll have a rock crab.
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  But then you stop, and you look closer because you're gonna start to see a
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  lot of things moving around, little invertebrates, maybe some small fish.
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  Tiny fish start darting around the rocks.
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  Snails crawl across the seaweed blades.
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  Crabs hide under the algae.
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  Small worms disappear into cracks pretty quickly, but a whole community appears,
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  and every tide pool is different.
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  You may even get a starfish every once in a while, and that's what
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  makes them so much fun to explore.
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  When you look at tide pools, you can go from rock to rock and jump all over
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  the place, and you have all these pools.
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  And sometimes they scale up, and sometimes they scale down, and you get
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  to just put your rubber boots on and you go from place to place to place.
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  You can lift a rock.
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  All of a sudden, there's a crab there waiting to defend itself.
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  It's a pretty cool place.
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  It really is.
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  In my interview tomorrow with Kirsti Burnett, the marine biologist, she
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  talked about growing up exploring coastal habitats and learning to
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  appreciate the wildlife hidden in places a lot of people overlook.
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  Like, tide pools are perfect examples of that.
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  The longer you look, the more you find.
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  It's, a lot of times, like, if you're a diver, wherever you are, whether
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  you're in the tropics or whether you're in temperate ecosystems,
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  when you're a diver, you go, and you'll see, like, the big things.
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  If you see a dolphin or you see a manatee or you see a shark,
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  you'll see some big fish, maybe a barracuda or something like that.
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  It's pretty cool to see.
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  Then you start to see all these, like, community fish, right?
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  All these schooling fish of tangs and you know, you see the odd pufferfish.
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  And then you'll see, like, a parrotfish that's maybe munching
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  on some algae, on some coral.
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  And then you see all these wonderful things.
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  And then you start to really look down even further, and you
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  start to pay more attention.
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  And you start to see the different shrimp that are around and the
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  different nematodes that are brightly colored, but they're kinda camouflaged
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  right in front of your face.
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  And then you start seeing little crabs that scurry around.
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  Different-looking crabs too.
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  Some look like shrimp.
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  Some look like what you would typically think as a crab.
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  Right?
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  And they're just all different, different colors.
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  Maybe some, like, decorator crabs maybe have some things on it
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  to kinda camouflage themselves.
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  And then you might see some flatfish that are hiding underneath the sand.
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  Or you might even see, like, a stingray or a skate, depending on where you are.
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  There's just so many things that you can see if you just actually just look.
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  And a tide pool's the same way.
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  If you just spend some time looking around, you might find
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  some things darting around.
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  But sometimes it's just more of things that take a while to get comfortable
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  when you have this large human being.
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  I was talking about myself.
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  Everything's large for a human being, like, as a human being for these crabs.
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  Not to say anybody's large here.
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  I'm a large guy.
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  You- You see them and they see, they see a large guy.
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  That's what I mean.
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  As they get comfortable knowing that nothing's gonna hurt them,
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  they start to come out more, and you can start to see how they interact
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  with each other and how they move.
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  It's really cool.
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  The longer you look, the more you find.
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  I think that's really cool.
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  But these aren't just interesting places.
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  They're scientifically important, too.
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  A 2023 study led by Carlos Vignieri found that the tide pools increase
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  the complexity of coastal food webs.
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  So that means that little pools aren't just leftovers from the tide.
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  They're functioning ecosystems.
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  They support interactions between species.
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  They provide habitat.
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  They help maintain biodiversity along the shoreline.
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  For something that looks like a puddle, it's pretty impressive.
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  Even if you think about how the tide goes out.
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  I lived in Nova Scotia for a couple years.
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  They have the largest tides in the world, 52 feet, I believe.
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  It's 52 feet going back and forth.
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  That's a lot of exposure.
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  Sometimes these tide pools really come in handy in preserving the lives of
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  these species, because those that have to live underwater or use submerged
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  areas that can actually survive in those areas until the tide comes back
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  and they can actually escape, that's a pretty impressive thing to do.
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  And it's, it's just kind of a cool thing that nature has provided
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  us to witness again and again twice a day with the lunar cycle.
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  So, life inside a tide pool, it's also surprisingly challenging.
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  You know, even though it's, it may help save some species, conditions can change
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  dramatically over the course of a day.
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  Water temperatures rise and fall.
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  If it's a small puddle of water and the sun is over it for a long time,
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  It's not gonna take long to heat up.
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  But if you're part of this larger system, when the tide comes
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  back in, that will change.
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  Also, the water levels change, right?
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  It could evaporate.
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  Salinity changes.
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  Wave exposure, there's some changes there.
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  Yet these animals that live there can handle it.
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  They're a little hardier.
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  They do it every single day.
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  That makes them some of the toughest little creatures in the ocean.
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  And I think that's important.
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  Because when you start to see how tough these animals are, you really start to
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  see how hardy they have to be to survive.
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  How they have to search out habitats.
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  They have to search out what they need to survive, just like you're searching
• 5:35
  out information to help protect the ocean, to help with your survival.
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  And that's what you do each and every day when you tune in to the
• 5:42
  How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
• 5:43
  So if you are getting value and you continue to get value and you
• 5:46
  haven't hit that follow button, hit that follow button right now so
• 5:49
  you don't miss tomorrow's episode and you continue to get that value.
• 5:53
  Now, one of the biggest lessons tide pools teach us has nothing to do with science.
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  It has to do with our attention.
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  Kirsti, in tomorrow's interview, talks about how some of the most
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  exciting discoveries, especially in these tide pools, happen when you
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  slow down and you stay still long enough to observe what's around you.
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  If you're making noise and you're erratic and you're moving all
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  over the place, these animals are not gonna show themselves.
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  They're gonna stay hidden because they're worried.
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  They see the shadows, they feel the movements in the water.
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  But tide pools reward that kind of mindset where you're just kinda just chilling out.
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  I think that's an important thing.
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  The first minute might seem quiet.
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  The fifth minute is probably gonna be different.
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  By then you're noticing fish, crabs, sea stars, anemones, and things
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  that you don't even know were there.
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  That's the magic of tide pools.
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  You don't need a boat.
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  You don't need scuba gear.
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  You don't need to even to get wet.
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  Maybe you get wet a little bit, but you don't need to get wet.
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  You don't need expensive equipment.
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  You just need curiosity.
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  They're great for kids.
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  If you're a parent and you have some kids, and they're along the
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  coast, take them tide pool hunting.
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  It is a lot of fun.
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  They are gonna have a blast.
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  They're gonna be just able to see these animals.
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  They're gonna be able to wanna pick them up and all that kinda stuff.
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  I tend not to pick them up.
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  I tend to just to look at it.
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  But it'll really feed their curiosity to take a look at these fish and take a look
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  at these tide pools and all the critters that are involved in those tide pools
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  and that you see in those tide pools.
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  So you don't even need to travel far to experience the wonder of the ocean.
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  Sometimes the ocean just leaves its best surprises right at your feet, in your
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  boots, in your waders, whatever you wear.
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  It's a lot of fun.
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  You are gonna have a blast.
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  I highly recommend that you go out on the East Coast, on the West Coast, wherever
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  you live or whatever's closest, wherever you vacation, check out the tide pools.
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  The amount of critters that you find in those tide pools are just amazing.
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  Sometimes you can take a picture, but the best thing to do is just sit
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  in your quiet and enjoy the show.
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  It's a lot of fun.
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  And speaking of show, I hope you enjoyed this show.
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  If you wanna get ahold of me to talk about your experiences with tide
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  pools or ask questions about tide pools, I would love to hear them.
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  You can hit me up in the socials that are in the show notes.
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  You can DM me on TikTok, on Instagram, wherever you see.
• 7:59
  If you're on Facebook, reach out to me.
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  I'll probably answer pretty quickly.
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  That's the episode for today.
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  Enjoy tomorrow.
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  So don't forget to follow this episode if you wanna make sure
• 8:07
  you get tomorrow's episode
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  with Kirsti Burnett.
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  We're gonna talk about the fun part of living by the Atlantic
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  Ocean and cold water oceans.
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  It's gonna be a lot of fun.
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  But thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How
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  to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.
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  Have a great day.
• 8:21
  We'll talk to you next time, and happy conservation.