During a -3 ft low tide at Brackett’s Landing in Edmonds, we spotted more sea life than we expected. Here is a quick visual guide to what we found and how to identify each one on your own trip.

All of these creatures live in Puget Sound and are common finds on a good low tide day.

Sea Lemon

The highlight of the day. A bright yellow nudibranch (sea slug) that looks exactly like its name.

Size: 3 to 4 inches. Food: sponges. Fun fact: they reportedly smell faintly lemony. Usually tucked into shallow pools or under rocks. First time we have seen one in the wild.

Dungeness Crab

Washington’s famous eating crab, and very much alive in the tide pools. We watched several digging sideways into the wet sand to stay hidden as the tide pulled back.

Identification: cream and purple coloring, large front claws, wide flat shell. These are not the ones you eat at restaurants (those are adults from deeper water). These are juveniles using the beach as a nursery.

Ochre Sea Star (Purple, Orange, Brick Red)

The classic Puget Sound sea star. We saw them in all three color variants, clinging to rocks and wooden pilings near the water line.

Size: up to 10 inches across. Five arms, rough bumpy surface. Puget Sound’s sea star population was hit hard by sea star wasting disease starting in 2013, so seeing this many healthy ones in one visit is a good sign.

Hermit Crab

Tiny and fast. They occupied almost every small snail shell in the shallow pools.

Identification: a “rock” suddenly grows legs and runs. They use empty snail shells for protection and upgrade to a bigger shell as they grow. Great for kids to watch.

Sea Anemone

Green and olive anemones covered the rocks near the water. The ones left above the waterline had pulled their tentacles in and looked like squishy blobs. The ones in pools were fully open.

Fun fact: the tentacles have stinging cells called nematocysts that paralyze small prey. The sting is too weak to hurt humans, but you can feel a light sticky grip if you touch one gently with a wet fingertip.

Barnacles

Covering almost every rock and wooden piling above the low tide line. Easy to miss because they just look like rough white bumps on the rock, but each one is a living creature.

Fun fact: barnacles are actually crustaceans (related to crabs and shrimp), not shellfish. When underwater they extend feathery legs to catch food particles from the water.

Snails and Conch

The tide pools were full of small snails. We also found a few larger conch shells with occupants still inside. Leave them in place, they are protected.

Seagulls

Not in the tide pools, but busy doing their own beach combing along the waterline. They crack open shells, squabble over crab scraps and make a loud feathered show of the whole thing.

A Note on What We Called “Sea Monkeys”

Tiny crustaceans were darting around in some of the pools. Our toddler called them “sea monkeys” and the name stuck. These are likely amphipods or mysid shrimp, common in Puget Sound tide pools. Very small, very fast, and fun for kids to watch.

Want to Spot These Yourself?

The best place we found for all of these in one visit was Brackett’s Landing in Edmonds, on a -3 ft low tide. Read our full Brackett’s Landing guide for parking, directions and what to bring.

If you want to plan your own tide pooling trip elsewhere in Puget Sound, start with our low tide planning guide.

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Travel Tips

• Take nothing home. Most Puget Sound tide pool beaches are protected.
• Touch gently and with wet hands only. Dry hands damage the protective coating on sea creatures.
• Put rocks back the way you found them.
• Bring a phone or camera with a good close up mode. Tide pool photos are a fun keepsake.
• Go at a -2 ft tide or lower for the best chance of seeing everything on this list.