A recent tour of La Jolla’s tide pools revealed a whole new world to explore.

The professional, family-friendly intertidal guided nature tour was led by marine biologist Cypress Hansen, who has created her own eco-tourism business named North Star Naturalist. Hansen conducts public and private excursions for people of all ages and skill levels. She takes clients tide pooling, hiking, wildflower walks, and a host of other outdoor excursions.

Finding lab work alone not entirely fulfilling, Hansen switched to being self-employed and working in the field. Now she can hone her interpersonal skills communicating science and educating people about the natural world.

Hansen demonstrated her scientific knowledge and expertise as a guide on a recent tide pooling tour in La Jolla showcasing the four distinct sections of the intertidal zone where the ocean meets the land.

“We do four stops and each stop is for each of the zones that we’re in,” Hansen said during a late Sunday afternoon tour with plenty of others checking out the plants and animals to be found in this harsh intertidal environment subject to the forces of both sea and land. “I tell people what characterizes that area, that zone,” Hansen said. “Then I give people free time to explore what they’re seeing.”

Hansen’s clients are a mix of locals and visitors. “I have a ton of repeat customers taking different tours,” she said. “I do a lot of seasonal stuff. I’m always coming up with new ideas.”

The naturalist has a core group of eight to 10 themed tours she guides, as well as having other seasonal offerings, like wildflower tours in spring and “fungi forays” following winter rains.

While conducting her guided tour of La Jolla’s high intertidal zone, Hansen produced numerous handheld “cue cards” with photos and descriptions of the various flora and fauna to be found in that particular zone. “This is the hardest place to live if you’re a marine creature,” she pointed out. “The animals here do not want to be here. They are living here because they have to because if they go any lower, they’re outcompeted by bigger, stronger, tougher creatures. You see a lot of barnacles and little periwinkles and other snails.”

Added Hansen: “This place is so photogenic. There are so many cool textures and colors.”

Hansen noted that creatures in the high intertidal zone “don’t have a lot of time to do the things they need to do. They can only do those things when they’re underwater. And they’re only submerged for a couple of hours every day, or a week even. So, the barnacles and snails are small. They can only grow when they’re eating. And they can only eat when they’re underwater.”

There are other factors as well making the high intertidal zone a fight for survival for wildlife inhabiting this twilight danger zone between land and ocean. “These animals are dealing with day and night, summer and winter, super salty, super fresh on an order of hours all of the time,” said Hansen noting this means wildlife has “to be super resilient, and flexible. It’s pretty fascinating that they’re able to survive here.”

“Join me on a tour to learn about California’s world-class wildlife, gain confidence exploring the outdoors, and change how you experience nature forever,” Hansen writes on her website, northstarnaturalist.com, which has a calendar of future guided nature tours.

THE INTERTIDAL ZONE

The area where the ocean meets land between high and low tides is known as the intertidal zone. Such zones exist anywhere the ocean meets the land, from steep, rocky ledges to long, sloping sandy beaches and mudflats that can extend for hundreds of meters. Four physical divisions, each with distinct characteristics and ecological differences, divide the intertidal zone. They are:

• Spray zone: dampened by ocean spray and high waves and submerged only during high tides or severe storms.
• High intertidal zone: floods during the peaks of daily high tides but remains dry for long stretches between high tides. It is inhabited by hardy sea life that can withstand pounding waves, such as barnacles, marine snails, mussels, limpets, shore crabs, and hermit crabs.
• Middle intertidal zone: over which the tides ebb and flow twice a day, and which is inhabited by a greater variety of both plants and animals, including sea stars and anemones.
• Low intertidal zone: virtually always underwater except during the lowest of spring tides. Life is more abundant there because of the protection provided by the water.

North Star Naturalist Tours:

• Night Tidepooling (last one of the season, three spots left) – Feb. 1 at 5:30 p.m.
• Tidepooling Tours – Feb. 9, 10, 28, March 1, 2, 9, 10 at various times in the afternoon.
• Daily Tours: Hike Through California’s Heart and Soul/Experience SoCal’s Rarest Ecosystem/Time Travel Through San Diego’s Wild Past – these hikes run every morning and afternoon as people book them.
• Wildfire 101 Walks – Feb. 8-9 from 10 a.m. to noon.

For more information, visit northstarnaturalist.com.