Tide Turns for Tide Pools : Marine Institute Uses Tour to Show Off Sea Life and Explain New Law Protecting It

When ecologists at the Orange County Marine Institute began a few years ago to chart all the things beach-goers took home from the prized tide pool zone here, they were amazed at the findings: Shells, snails, mussels and myriad other species of marine life were all disappearing from the area--often, it turned out, by the bucket-full.

“Almost everyone leaves the marine refuge with something in their hands--in spite of what the signs say,” said Harry Helling, the Marine Institute’s associate executive director.

But a new law that went into effect Jan. 1 is designed to deter scavengers at the Dana Point tide pools, barring people from taking anything from the refuge. And if the first ecological walk of the season through the area was any sign, local marine experts think the newly revamped marine-protection efforts might just work.

Nearly 100 people turned out Sunday for the Marine Institute’s tour of the tide pools, a two-hour event that will generally run every other week through April. Many of Sunday’s would-be marine biologists were young children, armed with magnifying glasses and note pads as they hopped from rock to rock on the shoreline with exhausted parents in tow.

They spied crabs and snails and urchins and starfish, all nestled calmly in the shallow pools of sea water between the shoreline rocks. Past expeditions have even found 18-inch-long, two-spotted octopuses on the shore. None showed up Sunday, but there were a few surprises.

“That’s gross! It’s sick!” Amber Kilmer, 8, of Garden Grove cried out as a purple fluid oozed onto her hand from a California brown sea hare that she held in her palm.

Amber looked to her mother for sympathy as she washed off the mess, but Robin Kilmer was somewhat amused by the whole scene. “It matches her purple outfit,” she said.

Marine Institute instructor Rick Baker explained to a group that the sea hare secretes the sticky purple stuff as a defense mechanism when it is frightened. The liquid can numb predators, he said, but it is harmless to animals as big as human beings--even ones the size of Amber. Native Americans even used the liquid as dye for clothing, he said.

Amber’s great-grandmother, Anne Ryder of Salt Lake City, said she saw a listing for the tour in the newspaper and wanted to bring the whole family out. (Tickets are $3 for adults and $2 for children; make reservations by calling (714) 496-2274.)

“I always wanted to see a tide pool,” Ryder said. “It’s wonderful. I’m 76, and it was quite a trip to get over these rocks, but I made it.”

A few yards away, 6-year-old Shivaram Lingamneni fumbled with a hardened, nook-filled piece of calcium that measured a few inches. An instructor explained that it was home to the tube worm, but Shivaram had other ideas.

“It looks like an apartment building,” the youngster declared as he took his mother over to another pool.

While Marine Institute instructors wanted to show the kids a good time, they also had a serious point to make: that people should leave the coast the way they found it.

Helling stressed that lesson as he finished telling a group of children about a sea hare that he held in his hand, showing them how it breathes and protects itself and survives. Once he was done, he asked the children what he should do with the hare now.

“Put it down!” came the resounding chorus from the children. He had made his point.

Until Jan. 1, Helling said, Dana Point’s tide pool refuge--considered one of the best of its kind in Southern California--was run under the same restrictions as those statewide.

Beach-goers were allowed to take certain marine items home with them, as dictated by signs on the beach. But confusion was common, and the rules were often broken as people took beach items home as souvenirs, food or bait, he said.

Marine Institute officials, working with state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), began a push four years ago to impose tighter restrictions in the tide pool area. That effort ended in success last summer, when the Legislature approved a bill specifically designed for Dana Point that banned the removal of any marine items from the 3,500-foot-long area, Helling said.

People are also prohibited from even bringing certain “collection devices,” such as picks, buckets and fishing rods, into the tide pool’s “no-take zone,” he said.

The new regulations went into effect Jan. 1, and Helling said the institute is starting to educate the public about the new policy.

Helling said he fears that if not for the change in policy, Sunday’s young explorers wouldn’t have much of a tide pool left to explore by the time they grew up, as only the toughest marine species would be able to withstand the constant human trampling.

“If left unprotected,” he said, “you would find a slow destruction in the diversity of the animals here. I don’t know what would be left here.”