There is a Lot Happening on Those Rocks!
That's what I thought to myself as we approached the beach yesterday evening on a day that the ocean's edge was particularly receded.
We go on this walk every evening, but usually you can only go out for a short distance on the rocks as they are completely submerged in water. Today, however, there were more rocks exposed than I have ever seen at this particular beach.
As you can see, this uncovered a massive colony of varied shellfish attached to the rocks. There were many different varieties, but they didn't seem to mind setting up camp right next to each other. I guess in the ocean they don't have much of a concept of personal space.
If you look closely, you can see lots of giant sea snails in that image. Which brings me to this next video.
Hermit Crab Thug
We captured this little hermit crab beating the crap out of another hermit crab packed inside of its shell:
I didn't capture it in the video, but eventually the crab relented and gave up its shell. Which was funny because the bully crab got inside of it, then said nevermind and went back into its old shell. We sat there for a few minutes and watched this particular crab go around and bully several other crabs.
I guess every species has them!
The rocks are pretty well covered with one type of creature or another so we were trying to be very careful not to step on any of them. This was actually quite a challenge. As soon as you lift your foot, you realize that there was some kind of shelled critter under there.
Fortunately, these things have really hard shells. Particularly the ones that we didn't notice when we stepped on them. There are a lot of them that are really flat on the rocks and seem to be glued down. Almost as if they are part of the stone itself. I am pretty confident that we didn't harm a single creature.
On the rocks further out there was mostly just a bunch of seaweed. We didn't really risk going out there in case we slipped. I was already being extra careful because these rock formations are extremely jagged. I was envisioning the gnarly gash I'd get on my leg if I were to slip.
Also, there are a lot of these little pools in the holes of the rocks creating temporary homes for some tiny animals. Sometimes I see fish in these little pools and think about how they are at the whim of the tide coming in to save their lives.
The sea anemones are pretty numerous as well. I don't know much about them, but they seem to cover themselves in rocks. Perhaps it's for camouflage? Some of them just had a few pebbles on them, others were completely covered.
This photo is messing with my head. I remember taking it, but in some places I can't tell what is real, and what is a reflection from the water. It still looks cool! I am sometimes quite impressed with the image quality that my phone's camera is able to produce.
Actually, after looking at it for a few minutes, I realized that the entire right side (yellowish orange color) is a reflection of the cliffs on the water surface.
Often when looking at the diversity of life on Earth I am reminded that we are all descended from the same one celled organisms. It's kind of hard to believe that these shelled blobs are our distant cousins! It makes you wonder what other amazing creatures exist deep in the ocean that we've yet to discover. Only time will tell!