As the kelp continues to decompose, animals such as mole crabs filter out the tiny particles. Along the sandy bottom, worms, clams, snails, sand stars, sea pansies, sand dollars, crabs, and heart urchins search for food and work to prevent themselves from becoming food. The major adaptation for these bottom inhabitants is the ability to burrow. Because the sand is swept clean by waves and currents, detritus and deposit feeders are rare. Sand crabs can thrive in the zone of wave wash by rapid backward burrowing and migrating up and down with the tides as they filter plankton with featherlike antennae.
Sand dollars live on their sides, catching particles to eat with their tube feet and fine spines.
Snails secrete a slimy mucus allowing them to glide along the sand. When those snails die, hermit crabs move into their empty shells for protection. Visitors to the sandy shore include rays and sharks that come in to feed at night on small invertebrates. While they are still juveniles, one eye migrates to the upper side in order to stay out of the abrasive sand. Some flatfish find food in the bottom sediment while others feed above the sand surface.