But he has tidepooling in his blood: his mom, Debbie Boege-Tobin, is the marine biology professor at the college in Homer. Tobin’s studying computers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “I’ve just been helping look around, see if I can find anything interesting to show the people, answering any questions they may have and giving some fun information about the critters,” he said. He tagged along with the visitors, pointing out various sea critters and listing off facts about them. Payton Tobin, a Youth Conservation Corps member, is interning with the Wildlife Refuge for the summer. It’s so much fun.” Payton Tobin talks to the Santiago Family about various sea critters. “To actually be walking out here and seeing it firsthand and exploring this whole area is just amazing. “I’ve only seen them in aquariums,” Pam said. But its neighbor was less resistant, gently releasing from the seafloor when Pam bent to pick it up. Pam, on the other hand, snapped photos of starfish and picked one up, using what Shedden called the “three-finger technique.” With her thumb, pointer and middle finger, Pam gently grabbed a star and tried to lift it from the sand. The couple was sloshing through the tide pools in tennis shoes - feet wet, but faces sporting big grins.Ĭhad said he liked the starfish, but didn’t want to touch any of them. “There’s no tide in Kansas,” Chad said, chuckling. (Photo by Hope McKenney/KBBI)Ĭhad and Pam Landes were visiting from Topeka, Kansas. Katey Shedden shows a crab to tidepoolers on Friday. One member of the group said they even spotted an octopus. The colorful starfish and anemones were the biggest hits Friday. So it’s really important to pay attention to where your feet are going.” “There are lots of critters like anemones and even nudibranchs and sea cucumbers that have really soft bodies that would not be able to survive if you step on them. “Our main thing we want to pay attention to is where our feet are,” Shedden told the group. The first lesson: Be aware of where you’re going and respect the fragile ecosystem. On Friday, she led a group of bundled up kids and adults along the long, sandy beach to the intertidal zone - where the sand meets the sea - to look for critters. Shedden is an environmental educator at the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, which put on last week’s tidepooling events. Dozens of tourists and locals headed to the tide pools on Bishop’s Beach.īiologists like Katey Shedden say it’s a great time to see critters who live at the bottom of the ocean, where they might normally be hidden under 25 feet of water. Homer only sees tides this low a few times a year. “I looked at tide charts months in advance to be able to book Airbnb make sure we got here on the lowest tide possible of the season,” she said.įriday’s tide was especially low, at –5.3 feet, only topped by a low of -5.6 in June. Her mom, Kyra Santiago, said she started planning the trip nine months ago. Isa and her family made the four-and-a-half-hour drive from their home in Eagle River to tidepool during one of the lowest tides of the year in Homer. She shrieked excitedly when she spotted a dark pink sea star glued to the rocks, surrounded by dark gray and green stars. Soon-to-be seven-year-old Isa Santiago splashed through a tide pool at Bishop’s Beach Friday morning.
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