Seal Rocks State Park is located about 10 miles south of Newport, Oregon.  It contains some tidepools which we have explored several times.  These photos are from two visits in 1997 and 1998.

»»»» Click on the small images to see larger ones !

Walking down to the tide pools...

... and here they are (plus Norm Edelen and Shawn Van Doren)

  Layn Leudtke, Joe Middleton, Norm Edelen, Shawn Van Doren and Lisa Hayashi.  The rocks are covered with mussels and barnacles.

  No, not a floating body, but Steve Bobko, snorkeling for juvenile rockfish for a research project

Jay DeLong and Joe Middleton

The pools were full of invertebrates, like:

Green sea anemones Anthopleura xanthogrammica

Seastar Pisaster    

Purple sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus

Shrimp, LOTS of shellfish and crabs...

...and nudibranchs.  We saw 6 species of nudibranchs (also called sea slugs), of which Joe Middleton was able to identify all 6!  These are all about 1-2 inches in length. Here are 3 of them:

Archidoris montereyensis (lemon slug?)  

Discodoris sandiegensis (leopard slug?)          

The orange cilia-like projections identify this one as the common Phidiana crassicornis

We saw a variety of fish whch we collected with small dipnets.  We saw many small sculpins, which were difficult for us to identify.  Common sculpins in the area are the tidepool sculpin and the fluffy sculpin, but many more are found in nearby waters.

Tidepool sculpin Oligocottus maculosus (perhaps) 

Unidentified sculpin ventral view      and lateral view

  Penpoint gunnel Apodichthys flavidus

   Tidepool snailfish Liparis florae dorsal view.  In the water, this looks like a tadpole.       

Tidepool snailfish ventral view.  The pelvic fins are modified into a suction-like device for holding to rocks in the rushing wave action.

Striped surfperch Embiotoca lateralis         

 Shiner surfperch Cymatogaster aggregata

These may be juvenile striped surfperch

We also collected walleye surfperch Hyperprosopon argenteum.