The Intertidal Zone: Whatever the Tides Bring

As someone who spent her early years on the coast, the ocean, while a place of wonder in the child's mind, did little to capture my attention until I was older. What did catch my eye, was the rocky shore lines, mucky sand that would suction off your rain boots, barnacles lining the rocks like tiling on a house. A home to crabs, bugs, and other creatures that scurry away as your shadow peers over. Sea stars waiting patiently for the tide to come in, seaweed, slimy to the touch, and an array of shells and sea glass that would later disappear into the ocean's salty embrace.

With Stories from the Sound, the monthly interviews look at the whole. The interconnections that tie us all together. With our biweekly installment, the Intertidal Zone, we zoom in on a single organism, a single concept or aspect that facilitates curiosity. And while these posts are under the name, "the Intertidal Zone", it is not named that to restrict us to where the tide comes and goes, but rather, the spirit this ecosystem represents. An intertidal zone encourages us to have a childlike curiosity. To squat down into the sand and take a microscope to a small part of something bigger.

Rathtrevor Provincial Park: Playing on the beach with my dad and younger brother

For our first topic of exploration though, we will look at the intertidal zone itself, and its poetic existence between worlds. As a piece of land that resides between the high and low tides, marked by the ocean reaching and receding, it is a rich and ecologically diverse tapestry stitched together by challenge and strife.

It is change. Constantly in flux. When the high comes, it is disrupted. And each time it moves to the low, it is a completely different ecosystem that its residents must learn to navigate, only for the tide to come again and throw everything into disarray once more.

The creatures that call this place home face a rhythm of exposure and submersion. Subject to extreme fluctuations in temperature, the battering of waves, and the eyes of predators, survival is difficult. Yet, they are able adapt to both life underwater and on land.

An intertidal zone and the creatures that live there are a lesson in strength when facing larger than life agitators. They defend our shoreline from the brunt of the ocean who answers to the will of the sun and moon. Holding fast, it provides us stability and maintains the integrity of a shoreline that would otherwise disappear. It is a food source, a nursery ground, providing its gifts of abundance to all walks of life.

So while we look out to sea, in search of whales, dolphins, and other, more prevalent actors, closer to home, there is something equally marvelous to observe. I encourage you, the next time you find yourself on a shoreline, to look down just as much as you look out. To get to know the ecological niche that takes on the velocity and indifference of the sea, and comes out the other side teeming with life.

Hannah Brunn