An oval shaped shell the size of a hand with multi colors. Five holes in a line are on the right side.

What’s in the Tidepools? – April 2022

A pile of rocks that broke off from a cliff. A metal pipe sticks out from the cliff on the right side.

What’s In the Tidepools? – April 2022

(NPS Photo/P. Raetzman)

Our dedicated volunteers at Cabrillo National Monument take photos of the exciting flora and fauna down in the tidepools! We want to try and capture the wonderful photos that volunteers are taking in the tidepool area. This blog post is published on a monthly basis, but we need your help. We encourage you to keep contributing by submitting your memorable photos and/or short videos to cnmvipvoice@gmail.com. These can be of tidepool critters, fauna, bluff collapses, sunsets or anything you consider special. Make sure you include who took the photo and the location, if possible. Will you help?

You can find videos on the Tidepool Videos page.

Here are some highlights from this month!

Brittle stars are normally spotted underneath rocks or in dark places where they like to hide. They are generally numerous in population, and large amounts can be found in deeper waters off the La Jolla coast.

A baby octopus has been living in the “bathtub” near the entrance for quite some time now. It’s been interesting to watch it grow over the months.

A gray baby octopus on top of rocks in shallow water.
NPS Photo/P. Geisler

Black sea hares are normally larger and less common than their California relatives. Unlike other related species, it cannot produce ink.

A black slug with two rabbit shaped ears
NPS Photo/D. Wieder

A major bluff collapse occurred this month at Zone 2. This is still a dangerous area especially with the corrugated pipe more exposed. Please try to keep visitors away from this area.

A pile of rocks that broke off from a cliff. A metal pipe sticks out from the cliff on the right side.
NPS Photo/P. Raetzman

A smaller bluff collapse occurred at the bottom of the Spur trail. Just a reminder that all the bluffs are fragile and sections can collapse at any time. Be watchful.

A pile of rocks that broke off from a cliff.
NPS Photo/D. Wieder

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.