Join a ranger-guided shoreline walk to learn more about this unique environment.Sudden waves can wash the shore and sweep you to your death. Do not remove creatures from their habitats doing so could harm them.Go at low tide-there are two low tides daily, 12 hours apart.The best way to learn about the fascinating world that exists between the tides is to look for creatures in their own habitats, with a good field guide as a reference. When it comes to tides, you just have to go with the flow. Unless you’ve carefully plotted tide times and heights, don’t park a car, bike, or boat trailer on a beach make sure your sea kayak is lashed securely to a tree or bollard don’t take a long nap on shoreline granite and don’t cross a low tide land spit without an eye on your watch.Ī perhaps apocryphal but almost believable story goes that one flatlander stormed up to a ranger at a Maine state park one bright summer morning and demanded indignantly to know why they had had the nerve to drain the water from her shorefront campsite during the night. Rubber boots or waterproof treaded shoes are essential on the wet, slippery terrain.Ĭaution is also essential in tidal areas. The best time for shoreline exploration is on a new-moon or full-moon day, when low tide exposes mussels, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, sea stars, periwinkles, hermit crabs, rockweed, and assorted nonbiodegradable trash. Other lunar and solar phenomena, such as the equinoxes and solstices, can also affect tidal ranges. These are neap tides ( neap comes from an Old English word meaning “scanty”). And tides are smallest during the moon’s first and third quarters-when the sun, earth, and moon have a right-angle configuration. These are spring tides, supposedly because the water springs upward (the term has nothing to do with the season). Tides are most extreme at new and full moons-when the sun, moon, and earth are all aligned. Tides, as we all learned in elementary school, are lunar phenomena, created by the gravitational pull of the moon the tidal range depends on the lunar phase. In tidal regions, boats tie up with extra-long lines, clammers and worm-diggers schedule their days by the tides, hikers have to plan ahead for shoreline exploring, and kayakers need to plan their routes to avoid getting stuck in the muck.Īverage tidal ranges (between low tide and high tide) in the area around Acadia National Park are 10-11 feet, and extremes are 12-13 feet. Each issue of the free Acadia Weekly, available widely on the island, also contains tide info (as well as times of sunrise and sunset), as does the Ranger-led Program Schedule issued by the park. Tides govern coastal life, and everyone is a slave to the tide calendar or chart, which coastal-community newspapers diligently publish in every issue. Every six hours or so, the tide begins either ebbing or flowing, so you’ll have countless opportunities for observing tidal phenomena. The nation’s most extreme tidal ranges occur in Maine, and they become even more dramatic as you head “Down East,” toward the Canadian Maritime provinces. Nowhere is the adage “time and tide wait for no one” more true than along the Maine coastline. Wait for the tide to recede before exploring tide pools left behind. Here are some tips on how to work around the tides for the best chance of discovering some usually-submerged beauties. To find some of the rarest treasures of the Maine coastline, try going tidepooling at the beautiful Acadia National Park. The magnificent beauty of Maine’s shoreline comes thanks in part to the large tides that wash against it every day.
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