8 different marine life found in tidal pools

Dorr Natural History Museum in this 2015 file photo. Sea stars A sea star is held in a touch tank at the College of the Atlantic George B. This ability can protect them from predation, being knocked around by waves and - if stuck out of water - it can protect them from desiccating in the sun. Limpets are often difficult to pick up because they can clamp down onto a surface using a wide, muscular foot and mucus. There’s almost no grazer that has a mouth strong enough to eat it. “It’s actually seaweed, and the way it protects itself from grazers is to have minerals embedded in the tissue that makes it really hard. “They love to graze on coralline red algae, which looks like pink paint ,” Hess said. (Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDN)Īnother type of snail, the limpet lives in a wide, conical-shaped shell and slowly cruises over rocks, feeding on algae. Limpets A limpet, which is a type of snail, is found in a tide pool in Lubec. Their shapes - like their diets - are distinctly different. Both periwinkles and dog whelks create round, coiled shells, but the dog whelk shell is longer and more pointed. (Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDN)Īnother snail found in Maine tide pools are dog whelks, which are carnivorous and commonly eat barnacles and baby mussels, Hess said. The top two shells are dog whelks and the bottom four shells are periwinkles. Typically found growing in clusters, mussels attach to rocks, the ground or other stable surfaces with strong threads of protein.ĭog whelks Here are the shells of two types of snails that live in Maine tide pools.

They’re also a delicious offering on any Maine seafood menu. (Credit: Kate Collins / BDN)Įncased in teardrop-shaped shells, blue mussels are mollusks that are abundant along the Maine coast in intertidal and shallow, subtidal zones. “You have to know what to look for and be a little patient.” Blue mussels Mussels are seen in this 2008 file photo. “If you see one feeding, you’re lucky,” Hess said. But when under the water - say in a tide pool - they will often open their shells and sweep their legs through the current, ushering plankton (tiny, floating organisms) into their mouth. They also close up to regulate their temperature, Hess explained. “Often you’ll find them high and dry, and they’re all closed up so they don’t dry out.” “Barnacles are masters at being able to tolerate those really challenging conditions up in the high intertidal zone,” Hess said. When tide pooling, you may find them in or out of water. Encased in a rough, circular, white shell, this small crustacean glues itself to rocks and other submerged objects, usually in the company of other barnacles.

One of the most common tidal pool animals in Maine, the barnacle is often overlooked because it’s tiny and immobile. Barnacles are tiny crustaceans that glue themselves to hard surfaces. Barnacles Hundreds of barnacles cover a rock in Blue Hill.

8 different marine life found in tidal pools