Starfish Tide Pool

Clear water runs through a rocky tide pool where orange starfish rest between mussels, barnacles and waving brown seaweed. Sunlight catches the ripples and draws bright lines over pebbles beneath the surface. Green anemones sit in the middle shallows, with darker rocks closing in from both sides.

Water changes how the rocks look. Submerged pebbles are smoother and lighter than the dark, rough surfaces above them, and ripples carry bright lines across both. Orange sea stars sit at several angles around the pool, with different amounts of rock and water beside each arm. Mussels add long dark shapes in tight clusters. Their outlines are quite different from the rounder anemones in the shallows.