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Nova Scotia Museum

The Rocky Shore

Nova Scotia's rocky seashores are wonderfully varied. Some are steep cliffs exposed to the pounding ocean waves, like Cape Split. Others have a gentler slope, with a greater area of potential living space for seashore plants and animals. Some shores are solid bedrock, while others are "cobble beaches" of rounded stones which make rattling noises as the salt water washes over them. These sounds are made as rocks tumble against each other—a precarious habitat for soft-bodied creatures.

You will find some living things on all rocky shores, but plants and animals thrive best on shores of large solid rocks or bedrock, with lots of crevices and tidepools for shelter.

The seashore habitat is created by the tides. Twice each day, tides cause the ocean's edge to advance and retreat. The best time to explore rocky shores is within one hour of low tide. The times of high and low tide become about one hour later each day.

As you walk toward the water's edge at low tide, both the abundance and diversity of seashore life increase. There are both many more creatures and more kinds of them, the closer you go to the sea. Ecologists divide the rocky shore into three bands or zones, according to height above low tide and also the most common creatures: the Upper Shore, the Middle Shore (or Rockweed Zone) and the Lower Shore (or Kelp Zone).