Seashore Life (1950)

[Music] waves Sunshine smooth stretches of sand and rocks familiar features of seash Shores the seashore is the meeting place of land and water few of us realize that such a lonely looking place fairly teams with interesting plants and animals each especially fitted to living beneath the waves or on the shore or in the air of all the birds of the seashore gulls are most common on Broad Wings they float lazily above the water all the while keeping a sharp lookout for food upon its surface afloat or a loft gulls are thoroughly at home another bird of the seashore is the turn it's a skillful flyer and equally skilled in locating and Diving for prey turns and gulls live their whole lives on or near the seashore they eat live fish and shellfish and they are valuable as scavengers by eating dead animals they help keep the beaches clean one kind of animal that lives just beneath the surface is the hermit crab each wears an old sea shell for protection this hermit is hunting a new home as he grows the hermit has to look about for larger quarters in shells that were once the homes of quels and snails without a shell his soft body lacks protection at such times he can easily be pounced upon and devoured by other Seashore [Music] animals this moonshell seems about the right size a little moving about and the hermit is at home in his new quarters usually hermit crabs change from home to home under the protective cover of [Music] Darkness this is the hard thin covering of a sand dollar a kind of sea urchin the second one is upside down [Music] the horseshoe crab has a strong shell covering and a stiff sharp tail for protection this crab is trying to hide the soft sand of the beach where the water has left [Music] [Music] him soon he is is fairly well hidden he will probably await the next incoming water before venturing out again this is a mud flat animals also live on shores like this more food floats in with each incoming movement of water waiting birds like the Heron search the mud flats for small fish to eat worms too can find food here [Music] this blue crab seeks its prey in the shallow water its large claws help it to seize and hold any prey it [Music] catches the razor clam has a powerful foot at one end of its shell that enables it to dig quickly down into the mud [Music] it takes food from the water which it circulates through its body then forces out here is a rocky pool every Rocky pool has its interesting forms of life fed by Waters washed in from the sea here crabs seek the protection of overhanging rocks Barnacles cement themselves tightly to solid objects like these rocks then waves can't wash them away Barnacles feed on Tiny bits of plant and animal life that the water brings within their [Music] reach pools are often the homes of starfish these starfish are living near a bed of muscles the starfish has tube like feet attached to the undersides of its five arms or rays suckers at the ends of these feet help grasp food or cling to other solid objects a starfish moves very slowly sometimes a starfish loses one of its [Music] arms but that isn't any special hardship because it soon grows a new one as this one is doing brittle stars are so named because their arms break off quite [Music] easily this spiny looking animal is a sea urchin it's about the size of a baseball that center opening is its mouth in the shallow water nearby a crab moves with its usual sidewise gate just as the rock crab does Out of Water this hungry green crab is prowling about the rocky recesses of the pool looking for food crabs are scavengers and scavengers eat dead [Music] animals a dead sea urchin makes a good meal [Music] the search for food goes on endlessly in the water seaweeds grow up from the shallow Shore bottom drawing nourishment from plant food in the water and energy from sunlight the little bulbs growing on the stems are filled with air these bulbs help float the plant and keep it spread out in the water here underwater among the seaweeds grow flowerlike sea anemones each has a crown of tentacles around its mouth in these tentacles are stings that help kill small animals on the shore Bottom Live the sea cucumbers actually they are animals each of these two has a mass of tentacles that help draw food particles and mud containing food into its [Music] mouth in deeper pools live fishes like this trim looking butterfish and these young Pollock some fish feed on seaweed and other plants but most are meat eaters the squids relatives of the octopus are meat eaters squids can change from brown to a much lighter color and back again this may offer some protection amid the light and Shadows of the waters squids move themselves by using their fins and by a kind of water jet propulsion they have tentacles around their [Music] mouths squids can eat fish almost as large as themselves even now this school of squids is hunting and here come some fish the squids may have a meal there a herring came too near struggling is in vain in the competition for food and the Very struggle for life itself at the seashore Every Creature must beware of more powerful animals that may feed upon [Music] it here's an oddl looking sea Raven them like all of the other animals it too is hunting for food its sudden appearance frightens the school of squids although the Raven may have no design on the squids they take no chances they squirt out a kind of Inky fluid as if to hide themselves then they quickly Dart away [Music] another strange dweller of the shallow water near the beach is the skate one of the oddest animals of the seaf Flor near the shore one of its breathing openings can be seen near its eye its Gill openings are underneath interesting and unusual as it is the skate is only one example of the wealth of Seashore life life it goes on amidst the seaweed in the Rocky pools on the sand and in the waters of the seashore [Music]