Viña del Mar tide-pooling by Adel R.

 

Yesterday morning we went to Viña del Mar and did some tide pooling in the rocky inter-tidal zone looking for creatures that inhabit this area. We saw many echinoderms such as starfish, sea urchins, and sea cucumbers. From my personal observations, Compared to the tide pooling we did on Wednesday, this one had a lot more arthropods and echinoderms. These animals are better suited to inhabit this inter-tidal zone because it has substrate such as massive rocks that they can live and hide in. We also found a Sea Star that had up to 23 arms and many Brittle stars. Each of these animals can regrow their limbs if they lose them which is pretty neat.

 

This trip has been vastly different than the previous one's I've been on in Mexico. While I do come here for vacation and enjoy it, I never had the opportunity to see some of the marine life that was present here as well as see a Star Fish in-person. Overall, I'm glad that I was able to go on this trip as well as learn something about marine animals.

 




 

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