Exploring the tidal pools in Ghana at low tide

Around Christmas time the tides around the beach resort that I manage in Ghana were very low. Occasionally they still go very low. I got a little time with @dzigbordi, grandpa and Bjorn to explore the tide pools left by the outgoing tide. This brought back fond memories of when I was a kid and go to explore the tidal pools along the Oregon Coast at low tied. Those were just teaming with life from the cold nutritionally rich water of the Pacific though.

This was a little before Christmas and as the water went way out it left some sand banks behind and pools of water in the sand.

To the east the shore line becomes a little bit more rocky and has some rocky reefs that are usually covered by the crashing waves. ON this day everything was showing so we went out to explore.

Above you can see Grandpa carrying Bjorn and exploring the tidal pools. Unlike my child hood explorations the pools were not as teaming with life. Most of the rocks were covered in barnacles and seaweed.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TWy4ZyuzfCI

If you took your time and looked carefully though there was some interesting sea life to be found. This was one of the first interesting ones that I came across in the video above. This pink little undulatating fish was putting on an interesting show. If you watched for a while you could also make out schools of little fish darting between and under the rocks.

A little further to the east just beyond a large rock outcropping on the beach is another rocky reef that curls out from the beach and makes a large pool that on this low tide day was protected from the waves but still open to the sea at one end.

I walked to where the sea meets the rocks and started walking out on them. I was careful with my footing though because I did not want to slip on the rocks or even worse step on a spinney sea urchin. I have pulled those spines out of my feed and toe nails before after stepping on some surfing. It is not fun let me tell you. The first fascinating sight I cam across was this series of holes in the rocks, and nested deep in each hole was a sea urchin. It was like a sea urchin hotel each with its own little room.

There were a series of little pools in the rocks. This one had a collection of smaller stones and shells inside along with a few urchins.

I found this interesting creature that looked a lot like a sea urchin but the spines were much more calcified, not as share, not as plentiful and not black. This is the same as the creature in the photo at the head of this post. In that one you can see almost like a mouth structure surrounded in beaks and the spines come out of what looks to be hairy ridges going around the ball like center. This must be some sort of cousin to the sea urchin or a male or female variety.

Here is a picture of the tidal pool looking back towards the shore and the large outcropping on the beach. You can see how clear the water as but still not a whole lot of visible fish and sea life.

After I got my feet back on firm sand I met a guy who had a full rice bag full of the sea urchins. He would collect them and burn them on top of drift wood removing the spines he could then cell the center for a pretty penny.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Po2bWRnzVrM
In the above video you can see how these creatures move and respond to touch. Slowly but surely it was interesting to look at and much better than pulling the spines out of your foot.

Above shows the orange meat inside that is very much a delicacy to people around the world. I have not tried it myself but people who like it say it is delicious.

Our adventure eventually needed to come to an end and we walked back to the resort and I had to get back to work. Thanks for joining us on this nature photo walk in our back yard.