Tidepooling with Friends!

My First Tide Pooling Experience

When I tell people I worked for NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuaries, they often respond with their extensive backgrounds in marine biology, ocean studies, or fish and wildlife.

And I’ve learned to quickly add: “I’m not a scientist — I’m a marketing and communications professional.”I create beautiful and compelling stories from the (sometimes scientific) information provided to me.

That said, working at NOAA did spark a deep love of the ocean and its creatures. They’re fascinating!

So when a couple of my fellow probies (probationary staff who were recently DOGE’d from NOAA for being non-tenured) said they were going tide pooling during an upcoming spring tide, I was in.

This is a record of my first-ever tide pooling experience — and I highly recommend it to anyone lucky enough to live here or visit the region.

Where We Went

We didn’t have to go far. We visited:

• Freshwater Bay one day

• Salt Creek the next

Both locations are west of Port Angeles, both were outstanding, and both were slippery.

A few safety notes:

• Wear good rain boots

• Keep three points of contact to avoid falling

Resources

Here are some helpful resources you may want if you’re planning your own tide pooling adventure:

NOAA's tide predictions

Seek app (to ID plants and sea creatures)