Tidepool Tidepool Window into the Sea Tidepools form where pools of water collect in rocky hollows at low tide. There are easier places in the ocean to survive. Only hardy animals can survive in the tidepool. A crab, for example, can grow back a lost claw. Bright green sea lettuce grows well in the saltiest puddles of the tidepool.
Barnacles can stay wet inside their volcano-shaped shells for days at a time.
When the water returns, they open up their shells to kick food into their mouth with their feathery feet. Brown periwinkles graze on algae, while white dog whelks use acid and a sharp tongue to drill through the shells of other snails. Brown rockweeds drape the middle zone of the tidepool. Air bladders let them float on the surface of the water at high tide where they can get the best light. Beneath the seaweed starfishes and sea urchins cling to the rocks with sticky tube feet.