Low Tide and Rock Pools

I haven't been snoozing in front of the computer for six weeks. It's been school holidays, and we did things. These are some of the pictures from our trip to Phillip Island. Most of them are a bit blurry, and I haven't much to say about them, because in many cases I don't know what it was that I took a picture of. Great to be sixty-four and still find mysteries in the world!

You know the drill: click a thumbnail and the bigger picture will pop up, click away and it'll disappear.

These show how Ventnor beach looks at low tide. Lots of rock pools.

The form of the rocks is interesting. Lots of bubbles left over from when they first came foaming out of a volcano--how many millions of years ago? The resultant holes make lovely pools at low tide.

Jen said that her day would not be quite perfect if she couldn't find a starfish. Well, she found lots. Very tiny ones, but that didn't matter. I turned one upside down so that she could see the tube-feet and watch how easily the animal righted itself. Jen thought that was a bit mean.

The sea-anemones gave us a surprise. While some looked the way you'd expect, some were covered with sand and shells. Just the odd tentacle showed to give the game away. Of course, if you put your finger into the centre of one of those circles of broken shell there was no doubt. There was the familiar soft sucking sensation and the shell-circle narrowed to a blob.

I wonder how many designs and patterns seaweed comes in. Maybe as many as for land plants. Everything about them is fascinating—the colours, the shapes, the different textures when you touch them. I know that some people drag seaweed home and put it on their gardens. I've seen the results and they're impressive—but how do they get rid of the smell? I've never noticed it in a seaweed mulched garden, but on the beach it was pretty awful!

After I'd taken this picture I touched the crab, only to discover that it was dead. Oh well!

Everyone wanted me to “come and see the invisible fish”. I saw what they meant. There were plenty of these, but you could only detect them by disturbing the water and watching the movement of shadows. Can you make it out?

I'd love to know what these green things are. Must be a plant, I suppose, because of the green colour—but do marine creatures have the same rules?

This grassy stuff grows in the sand at the bottom of some rock pools and in the open sand just below low tide mark. Twenty years ago you'd find dozens of sea urchins living amongst it, but we saw none at all. Trin did find one long-empty shell, and that was it.

There are pictures of the landscape and us enjoying the sand on the Seaside page.