Sunday, 6 October 2024

#379: Rock Pools

Tidal pools on wave cut platforms are a wonderful location for young people to encounter a variety of wildlife which is waiting... waiting for the tide to return usually.

They are windows into a marine world, where creatures are surviving or thriving, feeding, hunting and occupying their niche.


Adam Nicolson's book 'The Sea is not made of water' describes the time when British people became fascinated with such places, during the Victorian period in the 1850s. Philip Henry Gosse, who helped raise public interest in such places described them as 'unruffled wells' and reflected earlier calmer times. We still go to the seaside for peace and reflection.

The intertidal zone is an area which will hopefully receive some attention in the specification when it finally emerges.

Tidal pools would also make an excellent location for fieldwork for those near the sea, and to also practise identification using an appropriate key, and to consider the impact of daily inundations at high tide on these little ecosystems.

There's also a Rush song which references these locations called 'Natural Science', which is of course nicely connected with the theme of Natural History.


Image: Robin Hood's Bay - shared by Alan Parkinson on Flickr under CC license

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