An Incredibly Easy Method That Works For All
10 Apr 2021
A beginner's guide to rockpooling on rocky shores
Britain has a staggering amount of rocky shore. From the granite edges of Cornwall and the limestone slabs of Pembrokeshire to the basalt of the Inner Hebrides and the chalk-adjacent ledges of Yorkshire and Northumberland, there is almost always a decent pool within reach of a car park and a short walk. Rockpooling needs no boat, no licence and no expensive kit. It rewards patience rather than gear, and a child with a plastic tub and a reasonable adult will often find more than someone with a camera rig and a checklist.
It is also one of the few outdoor activities that works well in drizzle, wind and the shoulder months. Pools are at their most alive in spring and early summer, and a bright, still day after a calm night gives you the clearest water of the year.
Everything depends on the tide. Look up a tide table for your chosen beach before you leave the house, and note the time of low water. The best window is roughly two hours either side of low tide, when the lower shore is exposed and pools are at their most accessible. Spring tides, which fall around the new and full moon, pull the water back furthest and reveal the richest ground; neap tides leave much of it covered.
Two safety habits are non-negotiable. First, never let the sea get behind you — pick a shore where you can see the water and check it often, because a flooding tide on a flat rocky platform moves faster than most people expect. Second, avoid exposed headlands and ledges when there is a big swell or a strong onshore wind, however appealing the pools look on a map. Tell someone where you are going and roughly when you will be back, and keep a phone in a waterproof pouch.
Rocky shores are slippery, sharp and wet. Dress for that, not for the beach.
Rocky shores are arranged in bands, and learning them saves a lot of aimless staring. At the top, the splash zone is home to periwinkles, barnacles and the tiny grey sea slater. Lower down, bladder wrack and serrated wrack give way to kelp, and the pools become deeper, cooler and far more crowded with life.
The best pools usually have something to hide under or beside — a lip of overhanging weed, a crack in the rock, a boulder resting in a corner. Look for shade and cover, not the biggest pool on the shore. Cushioned starfish, beadlet anemones, snakelocks anemones, prawns, blennies, hermit crabs, shore crabs and the occasional velvet swimming crab all favour nooks and crevices. Chitons and limpets cling to bare rock, dog whelks and mussels cluster in the mid-shore, and brittle stars often sit under stones on the lower shore.
The single most useful technique is to slow down. Move your hand flat under a frond of weed rather than pulling it up, turn stones over towards you and rest them back on the same patch of rock. Keep your hands wet and cool, and use a brush or spoon to move a creature rather than your fingers.
Never prise a limpet from its rock. Limpets grind a home scar into the stone and return to it after every feeding trip; pulled off, they rarely survive. Never poke a closed anemone with a dry finger, and never pull crabs out by a claw. If you want a closer look, transfer a creature into your tub of seawater, out of direct sun, and keep it there for a few minutes at most — a bucket in warm sunshine becomes a lethal hot bath surprisingly quickly.
Put everything back exactly where it came from: same pool, same depth, same stone, the right way up. Do not move animals between pools, and do not take anything home alive. If a shell has a creature inside, it stays.
The shore you are visiting is somebody's home, and a heavily visited pool can be stripped of its larger animals in a single summer. Turn every stone back, squeeze water out gently rather than tipping creatures onto dry rock, and leave weed attached where it grows. Take your litter home, including anything the tide brought in that was not there last week, and keep dogs on a lead around resting birds and seals.
Then step back, sit still for five minutes and watch. Half the pleasure of rockpooling is that the pool carries on perfectly well without you — a prawn drifting out of a crevice, an anemone opening again, a blenny returning to its chosen hole. Leave it as you found it, and it will be just as good next time.
The Jollyjetty We spend our time finding what works so you don't have to, and sharing exactly what made the difference.
April 25, 2019 at 10:46 am
Take in the iconic skyline and visit the neighbourhood hangouts that you've only ever seen on TV. Take in the iconic skyline and visit the neighbourhood.
Want to be notified when we launch a new template or an udpate. Just sign up and we'll send you a notification by email.
Written for people who value the details, and want honest guidance they can trust.
Soldman Kell
April 25, 2019 at 10:46 am
Take in the iconic skyline and visit the neighbourhood hangouts that you've only ever seen on TV. Take in the iconic skyline and visit the neighbourhood.