Tidepooling with Friends!

When I tell people that I worked for NOAA's National Marine Sanctuaries, they generally begin to tell me their extensive backgrounds in fish and wildlife, ocean studies, and marine biology. I've learned to quickly add, ' but I am not a scientist.' I am a marketing and communications professional. I create beautiful and compelling stories from the (sometimes scientific) information provided to me. That said, during my time at NOAA, I developed a love of the ocean and its creatures. They are fascinating! When a couple of my fellow 'probies' (probationary termination staff recently DOGE'd from NOAA for being un-tenured) told me that they were going tide pooling with the upcoming low tide, aka 'spring tide', I was 'in'. This is a record of my first ever time tide pooling. I highly recommend this activity for anyone lucky enough to live here or to visit our region.

We did not have to go far. We visited nearby Freshwater Bay one day and Salt Creek the next: both lay west of Port Angeles; both locations were outstanding; and both were also quite slippery. I highly recommend wearing good rain boots and maintaining three points of contact to avoid falling. Additionally, here are some resources that you may find useful:

NOAA's tide predictions

Seek app (to ID plants and sea creatures)