LAGUNA BEACH : Students to Mount Patrol of Tide Pools

Students will patrol two local tide pools during coming low tides in order to protect the fragile marine environment from people tempted to take starfish, rocks or other items found there.

“People need to realize how fragile the tide pools are,” said Lee Waian, head of Saddleback College’s environmental studies department and adviser to a group of students from his campus and Dana Hills High School.

“Most people are not acting out of maliciousness when they pick something up and throw it in a bucket,” Waian said.

“But they must realize that that shell they pick up might be somebody’s home or that rock they move might be somebody’s hiding place.”

Waian said about 20 students from the two schools will be at the Aliso Beach and Heisler Park tide pools on the afternoons of Dec. 1 and 2, passing out brochures and asking visitors not to disturb the pools’ marine life. Those days were selected because the tides will be particularly low, exposing much of the pools, he said.

“We will not be going around arresting people,” he said. “We are going to try to educate them.

“But, obviously, if we witness somebody doing something illegal and it is apparent they know it is illegal, we will notify the lifeguards.”

Tide pools are shallow bodies of water along the beach that can become almost waterless during severe low tides. The pools are home to numerous marine animals, including octopus, mussels and crabs.

Waian said it is illegal to take any living creature from these two tide pools because they are within marine life refuge areas.

Steve Taylor, a lifeguard with Laguna Beach, which has jurisdiction over the tide pools, said his department appreciates the students’ support.

“We can’t have patrols there 24 hours a day,” he said. “A lot of people come to the tide pools those days (of low tides), which is fine.

“But they need to remember that if everybody takes a crab or a shell or something, there won’t be anything left.”