Tide Pool Etiquette, Part 2

For many of our visitors, one of the most memorable experiences they can have at Pacific Science Center is at our Puget Sound Saltwater Tide Pool. But it’s not just about playing in water and touching weird things. Our goal in having a Tide Pool is to provide visitors with an opportunity to see and touch some of the many organisms that make Puget Sound unique and to learn how to interact with them in the wild. So whether you’re visiting our touch tank or headed out to the beach, we ask that you keep the following protocol in mind.



One sea animal that is common both in Puget Sound and in our Tide Pool is the sea anemone. A kid might say it resembles a toothbrush with a suction cup at the bottom. Sea anemones are also often mistaken for plants. In reality, they are animals. Although it is tempting to try to peel them off of rocks, this can hurt them. It is best to leave an anemone where it is. If you are curious, touch the anemone with two gentle fingers. Watch out for little ones because they may use something else, like their tongues!

Sea stars look rough and sturdy but they are fragile like most other tide pool animals! Like sea anemones, sea stars also stick to rocks, clams, and the sea floor. Do you think it would be a good idea to pull a sea star away from a rock? Of course not! This tears off the tiny tube feet that they use to hold onto things and to move around. You can touch a sea star with two fingers and feel its rough endoskeleton, but please never pull one off of any surface!


In our tide pool, we have a Plexiglas box of hermit crabs that visitors can hold. In the wild, it may be more difficult to find hermit crabs. They usually hide out under big rocks. No matter where you find them, treat them with care! Don’t forget - they can pinch you. At the seashore, stay close to the ground when you hold a hermit crab, in case you drop it. In our tide pool we tell our visitors that if they want to pick up a hermit crab, they must keep their hands over or in the water. We also tell our visitors to put the hermit crabs back in their box so they won’t get eaten by anemones or sea stars. In the wild there isn’t a box to protect hermit crabs but still, you should put a hermit crab back where you found it. Please don’t take it away from its home.

Finally, there are some animals you just shouldn’t touch whether you are visiting our tide pool or visiting a beach, including all species of fish. In Pacific Science Center’s tide pool, we have a very special fish: “Grunty,” the Grunt sculpin, our tide pool mascot. He is very cute and tempting to touch because he tends to swim in the shallow areas within easy reach of visitors. Grunty, like all fish, has a special mucus membrane over his scales that protects him from disease. If you touch a fish, you might take off that protective coating. Remember, without touching fish you can still learn a great deal about them. Observe how they use their fins to swim or compare how a small fish swims as opposed to a bigger fish.

If you keep in mind these few guidelines, you and all of the animals you find should have a great time the next time you visit the seashore or Pacific Science Center!

This is the follow up to Nancy’s November 10, 2009 article on Tide Pool Etiquette . Our guest author/ photographer is a Volunteer and a Discovery Corps Internship Graduate.