Ocean-aaahgraphy: Tide Pools Hold Class : Water Retreats to Give Glimpse of Hidden World

Dress was informal at the tide pool soiree Wednesday. It ranged from rolled-up jeans and a “Land of Enchantment” sweat shirt to pink hair bows with matching leotards.

One kid came topless in a sandy diaper, and his mother had on oversized galoshes with the yellow and black markings of a local fire department.

The typical posture was bottoms up as the participants peered into pools full of ocean wildlife--hermit crabs in borrowed seashells, tiger-striped minnows and miniature gardens of undersea flora. Nothing much there to interest an oceanographer but enough to bring yips of discovery from youngsters.

The event was the second part of a double-feature ocean phenomenon brought on by the rare alignment of sun, moon and Earth that is bringing unusually high and low tides worldwide. The low, low tide arrived--or rather, ebbed--in San Diego about 4 p.m. Wednesday, and a mostly barefoot delegation was there to see it out. The tide pools exposed along the coast are normally beneath four to six feet of water, the realm of surfers and not the sandpile set.

Despite the New Year’s Eve low tide of minus 2.2 feet that bared a quarter-mile of the ocean bottom along most of the coast, few marine prizes were plucked. Abalone, which are in season, apparently had already been pried from their undersea perches by divers. Starfish, popular for their bright colors, wisely found deeper habitats. Remaining were only a few unwary sea creatures caught napping in the rocks when the tide went out.

Several hundred visitors, probably 350 give or take a dozen, visited La Jolla’s tidal pools--the San Diego region’s most renowned complex--and ignored lifeguards’ requests to leave the sea creatures in their saltwater habitat.

Most went home with a wriggling souvenir that quickly turned to smelly cadaver. Seashell hunters had more luck, though the high waves of Wednesday morning had washed many of those prizes back into the deep.

Tides and weather are expected to cooperate for the remainder of the holiday week to provide prime beachcombing, shell-gathering and tide-pool-peeking conditions.