At Home In...Rock Pools

foreign the outer Rock pools of the Pacific coast provide homes for a host of exciting animals many of which are seen only during very low tides brilliantly colored spiny sea urchins are here in great numbers they are often found hiding in cavities in the rocks though still for much of the time sea urchins can extend their long slender tube feet and move along smoothly they feed mostly upon pieces of seaweed which they chew up with their five sharp toothed Jaws the little flat lined chitin is one of our most attractive species the shells of chitins are made up of eight overlapping plates chitins are usually seen gliding slowly over the surface of rocks in search of the small animals and seaweed upon which they live this giant chitin is the largest member of its family in the world while the upper surface is quite rough and gritty the under surface consists mostly of a smoother broad orange foot a narrow band of dark gills runs around the body near the edge while the mouth at one end is quite small sea slugs are perhaps the most irresistible animals found in the outer Rock pools the Yellow Sea lemon is a very handsome slug with a ring of seven feather-like gills clustered on the back sea slugs prefer different kinds of food the sea lemon lives mostly upon a very small sponge called the crumb of bread sponge sea slugs come in many different colors some are red some gray and speckle some whitish with a greenish yellow border this bright red alga often attracts an equally bright red slug but the most beautiful sea slug on the west coast is surely this form with its glistening pearl white body and Brilliant Orange markings the antenna-like horns on the head are really special tentacles used for touching and perhaps even for smelling and tasting like the sea lemon this large slug also has a ring of gills on the upper side in front of the tail sea slug seems a harsh name for this most stunning creature the Red Sea Cucumber adds a touch of brilliant Scarlet to the ocean floor foreign sea anemones look more like beautiful flowers than animals except for swimming forms most anemones do not move freely from place to place they are almost always attached firmly to rocks or pilings and so cannot hunt actively for the food which they require the mouth in the center is surrounded by rows of tentacles which capture small animals and draw them in for swallowing the body closes in around the food while it is being digested the bright emerald green anemone gets much of its Rich color from the thousands of tiny green algae cells living in its tissues since the Anemones do not have any teeth for grinding their food animals such as small fish snails and crabs are swallowed whole in a short time the hard Parts which cannot be digested are passed out of the mouth When the tide goes out and the water levels drop most of the Anemones begin to draw in their tentacles and start to close up no longer resembling beautiful flowers that closed bodies are often covered with grains of sand and bits of the shells of the animals upon which they've been feeding this anemone is busily swallowing a whole crab they do not wolf their meals it will be some time before the crab has completely disappeared it is hard to believe that these are the same anemones we saw a short two hours ago foreign is very important to the Anemones since it brings in a fresh supply of food the Anemones extend their tentacles once again in search of food they Shimmer like shot silk in the crystal clear water the Flowing Tide washes over the masses of close packed Goose Barnacles too out come there are six pairs of black feathery legs to sweep water and food particles to the mouth the great crabs become active again too and brush about in search of food they will eat the Flesh of any dead animal that they find [Music] even when watching closely it's hard to be sure of the order in which all 10 legs are moved when walking or swimming the tiny fish darting about in the water are tide pool skeletons they are usually very difficult to see until they move tide pool skeletons have very large bowl-like heads and well-developed front fins but they do not have any scales some people call them bullheads they can hide just by remaining Motionless their food consists of other very small sea animals hermit crabs in their borrowed snail shells are here too decorator crabs often Place seaweed on their backs and limbs where it remains alive and grows this one has only a small garden of seaweed thank you another is almost completely dressed in seaweed but moves so freely that we know it is an animal crabs without seaweed growing on them are easily spotted this decorator looks much more like a thick patch of seaweed than a crab most people call this animal with its five arms a starfish but it doesn't look a bit like an ordinary fish so it would be much better to call such animals sea stars many different kinds of sea stars are found in rock pools especially at very low tide the commonest one occurs in several colors orange purple and brown it may be nearly a foot across and has a rough stiff skin bat stars are smoother and seem to have webs between their arms they are found in deeper water The Blood star is the most brightly colored sea star found along the west coast its arms are long and slender viewed closely blood stars appear to be covered with Rich velvet since they live in deeper water they are seen only during very low tides other stars are smooth skinned sea stars with shorter thicker arms as the name suggests the surface has the appearance of some kinds of well-tanned leather the sun star usually has 10 long slender arms the light-colored spot near the center controls the amount of water in the system of tube feet often one of the arms may have been lost in some way shortly after this happens the sun star begins to grow a new arm in the same place a strange little worm is sometimes found crawling on the underside the mouth of this sea star is surrounded by little finger-like growths a common orange sea star has a firm grip upon a clam which it is captured but how can it possibly get at the clam inside its tough shell the sea star refuses to let go even when raised out of the water the suckers on the ends of the tube feet hold the clam securely in this position the sea star will slowly open the clam a very short way then push part of its stomach into the clam shell the body of the clam will then be digested while still inside its own shell large sunflower sea stars may have as many as two dozen limbs foreign the underside of the arms are covered with many hundreds of tube feet the sunflower star is using its tube feet to turn over so it can glide away into the farther reaches of the rock pool The Observer is left to wonder about the many fascinating creatures with which it shares its salty world foreign