The lighthouse at San Diego’s Point Loma is fairly familiar to me from visits back in the 1970s and early 1980s, but during those outings I never even realized there were tidepools nearby. Tidepools have always fascinated me. As a child I was always eager to explore the ones exposed at low tide around Fort Bragg in Mendocino County and Salt Point in Sonoma County. Even now, I occasionally try — and usually fail — to shoot photos of the animals living in the intertidal zones along the Northern California coast. So I especially enjoyed this episode of California’s Gold, originally aired on May 1, 2005. Somehow it never occurred to me that marine biologists spend so much time and energy studying tide pools!

Huell learns about tidepools on a trip to San Diego. He is joined by biologists and other experts who introduce him to the marine animals and plants that find a home in the harsh conditions of the intertidal zone.

(Click on the linked image below to see the video.)