Tide pools harmed

On a typical weekday at low tide, Marine Life Refuge Supervisor Amy Stine is busy conducting noisy groups of school children through the fragile ecosystem that is the tide pools at Little Corona Beach

“We’ve had problems with school groups just randomly showing up,” Stine said. “We could have 500 kids showing up at once. We get a lot of kids tripping over themselves and falling in the water.”

Stine oversees a staff of 12 part-time city tide pool rangers who try to educate beachcombers and school kids about the tide pools and protect the organisms in there.

Little Corona is one of numerous Marine Protected Areas slated for a state evaluation over the next year. State officials will look at how Little Corona’s tide pools are doing as part of a massive overhaul of how the California Dept. of Fish and Game manages marine areas.

“A lot of the parks are considered not as effective as they could be,” said Stine, who will work with the state during the process. “Some aren’t large enough, others are maybe too big or have too many restrictions — it’s all going under scrutiny.”

Stine hopes the state will give the tide pools at Little Corona more protection under the state initiative, which is part of the Marine Life Protection Act, passed in 1999. The state’s overhaul could improve the situation for many species that inhabit the Little Corona tide pools, according to a recently released Dept. of Fish and Game report.

The program will create a statewide network of Marine Protected Areas. Animals like limpets, a relative of the snail with a pointy round shell, and the sea hare, a large type of sea slug, could grow in number and size under the program, the report states.

The tide pools at Little Corona Marine Life Refuge are a Marine Protected Area, and people who take plants and animals out of the pools can be subject to a $1,000 fine — but that does little to shield the hermit crabs and snails from curious third-graders, Stine said.

Too many well-meaning class field trips at Little Corona Marine Life Refuge at one time can have a devastating effect on the tide pools, she said.

As many as 150 to 200 students can visit the tide pools in a day. In the past, up to eight college classes have visited the tide pools within the span of a few hours. Students can trample tiny plants and animals when the tide pools get too crowded with students, Stine said.

“It seems so many people have a total disregard for the uniqueness of the plants and animals that live there,” said Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau. Although the park is regulated by the state, the city oversees the work of Stine and the tide pool rangers.

The city tries to keep the protected area staffed with rangers and has posted signage to keep people from taking things from the park, but only so much can be done, Bludau said.

“It’s a constant problem — after a while it just disrupts the whole tide pool community, changes it and kind of sterilizes it,” he said.

Dennis Kelly, professor of marine science at OCC said he has little faith in any state efforts to give more protection to the tide pools, because state officials don’t always enforce the law.

Kelly and his students studied the tide pools at Little Corona about five years ago and found that many species of plants and animals that used to inhabit the little pools were long gone. Kelly revisited Little Corona again a few weeks ago and said the situation hasn’t changed much, although city officials have purchased new signs to mark the protected area and staff the refuge with tide pool rangers since Kelly and his students petitioned the city to do more in the area several years ago.

“The area has the biodiversity of a parking lot,” he said.

Tide pool visitors don’t realize they can kill plants and animals by just lifting up a rock or picking up a hermit crab and moving it to another spot on the beach, Kelly said.

“When people turn rocks over it’s like tearing the roof off your apartment, when they forget to turn the rocks back over, it’s like leaving the roof off,” Kelly said.

State protection or not, Kelly said he has seen fishermen pry animals off the rocks at Little Corona with screwdrivers. City tide pool rangers don’t carry guns and don’t have the authority to issue tickets, he said.

“It is the equivalent of a rain forest — the same as a corral reef you can park and walk to,” Kelly said. “People say ‘Oh my God, how beautiful it is,’ but the trouble it is that it’s only about one-tenth as beautiful as it used to be.”

TIPS FOR TIDE POOLERS

 Typical inhabitants of tide pools include sea anemones, barnacles, chitons, crabs, isopods, limpets, mussels, starfish, snails, sea cucumbers, sea urchins and whelks.

 Shells, rocks and animals should stay in the tide pools so as not to disturb the fragile tide pool ecosystem.

 Observe animals where they are instead of picking them up.

 Touching many of the delicate organisms that live in the tide pools can seriously injure or even kill them.

 Take care not to step on plants or animals in the tide pools.

 Never lift up rocks in the tide pools. This could expose plants and animals to predators and the hot sun.

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at [email protected].