This video has received a 1999 Award of Distinction by the national Communicator Awards in the education category. The second half of the video zeroes in on the individual plants and animals most commonly encountered along the rocky shore at low tide, highlighting their special adaptations to the harsh conditions in the intertidal zone. And twice daily, marine creatures living along the northwest coast are briefly exposed, sometimes for several minutes, or perhaps for several hours at a time. People who think of seaweed as green and slimy would be amazed at the variety of colors, shapes, sizes and textures displayed by northwest algae. Marine plants thrive in the shallows because, like land plants, they need sunlight for photosynthesis.
Some plants are thin and stringy.
Others, like the kelps, have broad blades. A few, like dead man's fingers, are spongy to the touch. And some, like the rockweeds, have air-filled bladders. Most anemones have stalks exposed to water and fastened to the rocks, while other species bury their stalks in the sand. This flower look-alike can fold its tentacles inward and shrink to almost half its normal size, to help retain moisture and resist the force of moving water.