The Secret Life of Rock Pools

this video is sponsored by endless yeah as the toyed recedes along the shores of le rock jersey it uncovers truly alien world at first look the landscape presents little more than barren lifeless stretch of thick mud and rotting seaweed strewn with boulders but these features come together to create unique habitat twice day miles of sand gullies reefs and rock pools are exposed bringing into view wealth of rarely seen marine life here the sparse isolated pools open window on the many conflicts that these creatures must contend with in order to survive each rock pool is tiny but complex ecosystem many of the inhabitants are confined here unable to even wander from their pool what makes these rockpool ecosystems so unique is the fact that when the tide is in they are connected to the greater open ocean ecosystem here the tide can go out for almost two miles creating this expansive vast habitat of rock pools that are strewn across the landscape boulders and rocks for animals to hide under now it might look like from the surface there is an abundance of opportunity but in reality it's harsh these animals in these pools are left stranded isolated to fight off the elements and the predators until the ocean tides come back in and provide their salvation as we made our way deeper into the oncoming fog lifting up rocks and peering into the eerily calm waters we began to realize just how well hidden the animals here were once isolated by the receding tide they enter fight for survival in dangerous world of sharp rocks pounding waves and an often scorching sun many have become incredibly proficient at surviving here by developing some remarkable adaptations to evade predators and apparently us too many denizens of rock pools have hard calcified exoskeletons or tough shells like the limpets at low tide they use sticky muscular foot to cling firmly to the rocks while their shell protects them from predators and the heat of the sun oysters survive by tightly closing their shells until the return of high tide and the starfish gain protection from their bony calcified skin in similar fashion shore crabs use their hard exoskeletons to protect them from the pounding waves while their impressive set of claws are used to ward off predators if you listen very carefully you can hear this faint crackling sound coming from all around you when you're out here among the rock pools and what that is is the sound of life of you know crabs scurrying over the seaweed shrimps and sandwiches hopping along it's just bustling with life and it's all so well hidden because this is the environment where these creatures are best adapted for survival now i've just spotted down here in this rock pool beautiful white crab here and you can see how well camouflaged it is against just these random pebbles strewn all over the place if he hadn't started to move there is no way would have spotted this guy and we have found our first big crab here hiding under the rocks from behind so they don't get you with those medicine claws here we go the hard exoskeletons of the crabs means they are not confined to any one pool when the tide recedes they can traverse the rocky landscape with ease using camouflage and changing their color with age to blend in with different surroundings for example there are both red and green varieties of seaweed along the coastline so the shore crabs reflect this in their camouflage found with either red or green undersides sometimes they could be found burrowing into the sand revealing nothing more than their dark carapace to mimic buried stone the textured landscape here is so varied in fact that camouflage is used by nearly all the rockpool inhabitants we encountered take the common gobi for example small fish perfectly adapted to life near the coast with mottled brown skin that mimics the pebbled beach and pelvic fins that have fused to form sucker for clinging onto rocks the nutrient cycle of life death and decay is incredibly apparent here with the carcasses and empty shells of creatures left covering the landscape any flesh left within these shells is quickly picked clean by voracious cleanup crew of isopods small invertebrates that resemble and are closely related to the woodlice you might find in your garden as well as the enormous deep sea isopod all of which are responsible for the same task in their respective ecosystems i've just lifted up this rock and found limpet shell full of those isopod looking things leading me to believe that they must really be the cleanup crew of these rock pools all the dead decaying organic matter these guys are the ones that recycle it back into the ecosystem to make those nutrients available for the other creatures sure enough i've just found another of these limpet shells and look at that it's dead one with some flesh left over and sure enough down in that crevice is one of those isopods dipping my feet into rock pool populated by brown shrimps it became even more apparent how these creatures play part in nutrient cycling almost immediately they began picking off and eating dead skin cleaning my feet in similar fashion to how they graze the algal mats of the rock pools preventing eutrophication was even able to catch one to show you how they look up close sand hoppers do similar job under the rocks and boulders devouring dead organic debris and recycling the nutrients but as well as death and decay rock pools also play an important part in the early stages of new life the shallow pools create nursery for young fish while the scattered rocks provide sanctuary for young crabs able to blend in incredibly well with the small pebbles larger boulders have excellent egg laying spots as shown by this one patch of dog whelk egg capsules after nearly six hours spent isolated far from the cool embrace of the open ocean the starved landscape begins to slowly fill with water the tide is returning replenishing the pools and revitalizing the seaweed beds the crabs shrimps gobies and limpets are free to rejoin the greater marine ecosystem enjoying brief taste of freedom before the cycle repeats itself once again today's video is sponsored by endl if you often find yourself stressed or anxious or you have trouble studying or sleeping then this is the app for you by taking everything they know about sound and combining that knowledge with cutting-edge technology endl creates real-time soundscapes in order to help you relax focus or sleep and the best part is that these audio experiences are unique and personalized for you accessible via really clean and welcoming interface often like to have music on in the background as work or write scripts for my videos but find it can be distracting particularly when there are lyrics playing endless focus mode really solves this problem for me with just how effortlessly the sounds slip into the background and allow me to really concentrate on what i'm doing for longer periods of time the first 100 people to visit the link in 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