Point Holmes low tide in early August

by Keith and Heather Nicol

   

      We have been visiting Point Holmes once a month for the past 4 associated with the full moon which brings extreme high and low tides. We like to head down to the Point Holmes shoreline of Comox when there is a very low tide since it is one of the few places we know of in the local area that has small tide pools and exposed bedrock which can hide sea stars and other organisms.      For those people not familiar with this area it is to the right of the boat launch and there is parking for a number of cars just off of Lazo Road. Because of the large tides in this area the tide pools are 200-300 meters from the parking area and footing can be tricky especially near the rocky outcrops. We wore waterproof sandals but some people we saw were wearing rubber boots. Flip flops are not recommended given the slippery, seed weed covered rocks. 

Midshipman fish guarding its egggs

In July under one rock we saw a midshipman fish guarding its eggs as well as various sea stars that likely were deposited in May.  That blog post can be seen at: https://keithnicol.blogspot.com/2020/07/exploring-point-holmes-tide-pools-in.html  . On this visit on August 3 we wanted to see if the midshipman was still there and if the eggs had hatched. It turns out that the fish was still there and low and behold many of the eggs had hatched and small midshipman were clinging to the bottom of the rock. We quickly returned the rock to its original position and felt lucky to have been able to see part of the life cycle of these fish. For more information on these unique fish see: https://theconversation.com/being-a-dad-is-hard-when-youre-a-plainfin-midshipman-fish-111214 

Some of the eggs have hatched and you can see several small midshipman clinging to the rock

On this visit we also saw some purple sea stars but not as many as in other low tide and we saw no leather or other sea stars. But we did see some Bonaparte gulls which we had not seen at Pt Holmes  this year. So check this place out if you like exploring nature in the Comox Valley. Bring your camera and binoculars since you don’t know what you might see.  Also a kneeling pad helps protect your knees if you want to see what is under clefts in rocks. The next full moon is September 2. See you there. 

A Bonaparte Gull on a shoreline rock