Why Tide Pools?
I enjoy reading because it transports me to a different place and time. I feel that I get the same experience from studying tide pools as I do from reading a well executed novel. Each tide pool is so unique that when I look into one and observe the biotic factors within them I feel like I am transported to another world.
When I see the mollusks' species in the pools I see characters interacting with each other. The Mollusks' characters compete for space, and nutrients while in a novel; homo sapiens fight over countries and resources. Epic disasters occur in tide pools on a daily basis; droughts, floods, and chemical warfare (acid rain), are but a few. There are only a few well-written books that can have that many chessy disasters and still be interesting, which enforces my orginal assertion. Tide pools are amazing.
On a daily basis the citizens within a tide pool must constantly be on alert for vicious 8-legged monsters that roam through their worlds looking to make a meal out of them. (Godzilla only has two legs!)(Truseell) If citizens begin to sense (theres something in the air...) the monsters coming they flee their territory (Trussell) and visit new worlds that are only a meter or so away. (How many science fiction novels do you know of,that can boast of worlds being a meter away from each other?)
Like people, most mollusks' do not like to live in areas without life. Mollusks' tend to shy away from pools that are barren wastelands. (See tide pool 2, in results section.) After all they have so many other stunning worlds to explore why should they waste time going to a place that boring? There are many other nearby worlds that instead contain, beautiful and diverse jungles of green, pink and brown algae, populated with lots of women(men) and fine cusine. Any mollusks knows to live in this areas you have to be kind of rich, so many choose a quiter life in the suburbs. (rocks scattered throughout intertidal zone;underneath Fucus/Ascophyllum).
So I must depart with this advice, the next time you are bored at the beach; leave your NYT bestseller at home. Instead plop yourself next to a tide pool, and observe the stories, within its seemingly innocent waters. (Please don't forget to watch out for the 8 legged monsters!)
