Abby Thompson of UC Davis has sent in some pictures of California tidepool organisms, as well as a video. Abby’s captions are indented and you can enlarge her photos by clicking on them.
Late January-early March tidepools, plus an octopus.
Bryozoans:
Lepas anatifera (pelagic gooseneck barnacle). Usually found clinging to something drifting around in the open ocean (the “pelagic” part of their name), these were on a large log washed up on shore:
Intertidal zones, illustrated. A well-placed vertical rock face, like this one, exhibits the idea of the different intertidal “zones”, each of which has its own specific collection of inhabitants. You can see mussels and barnacles clustered at the top (in the “high intertidal”), exposed to the air as soon as the tide goes out even a little. There are smaller colonial anemones next, beneath them the orange and purple ochre stars, and below those, arriving at the low intertidal level, some giant green anemones. If you peer into the water under the open giant green anemone, you’ll see a crab, probably a rock crab. There’s some back and forth- there are a few giant green anemones pretty high up in this photo- but the general idea holds.
This reflects each animal’s differing tolerance for specific conditions- time out of the water as the tide goes out, harshness of wave actions, etc. The nudibranchs (next few pictures) are usually in the very low intertidal:
Orienthella piunca (nudibranch):
Hermissenda opalescens (nudibranch):
Doto amyra (nudibranch). Visible through the translucent skin on its back are lobules of the “ovotestis” (thanks inaturalist expert! ). From google AI: “Ovotestes in nudibranchs are specialized, hermaphroditic reproductive glands that produce both male (sperm) and female (oocytes/eggs) gametes simultaneously”:
More eggs, this time from a snail in the genus Amphissa. I like the pointy egg casings, like wizards’ hats:
And here’s an adult of the genus- almost certainly Amphissa versicolor, but it’s an unusual color (they’re usually shades of orange or brown/tan):
In honor of Ghost the octopus, and also because I’ve finally figured out how to include videos, below is a clip from 2021 of an East Pacific red octopus (Octopus rubescens), cruising around the rocks (out of the water!) at low tide. I’ve only seen one twice, probably because they’re too cleverly camouflaged (possibly just too clever) for me to spot. This guy was about the size of a human hand, a miniature compared to the 50 pound Ghost.
Point Reyes peninsula at sunset:
Camera: Olympus TG-7.
Wonderful pictures of the intertidal, especially the one illustrating zonation. This is exactly how I remember seeing Pacific Coast tidal pools at Friday Harbor Labs in the 1980s. It’s great to see the healthy Pisasters in that picture! They’ve had a very rough time of it these past few decades.
Wow, those are cool. Years ago we visited tide pools south of San Diego, and it was amazing. A marine biologist guy came out and quickly found and picked up a two-spot octopus and passed it to me. One of my weirdest experiences.
Thank you so much for the wonderful photos, explanations, and video. Do you know how long an octopus like that can survive out of water? I would assume not very long.