Author

Alan Smith

I am the Co-founder and Education Director of The Rock Pool Project, having previously worked in education & travel writing following my degree in marine biology. The joy of discovering wildlife is one which never fades and I love nothing more than sharing that mystery and magic with others. Favourite species – a curious child, exploring rock pools

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I spend a great deal of my time in rock pools. As a PhD candidate at the University of Plymouth, it’s kind of my job. It is often back-aching, knee-busting, solitary work. Scrambling over barnacle-speckled rocks, slipping on splayed kelp, I stop to stoop over glassy pools of water, bits of ocean left behind by the tide’s retreat. Professionally, I study these places and the animals that live here. Personally, these spaces, the ever-shifting boundary zones where sea and land collide, are my favourite places to visit and explore.
United by the retreat of the tide

I spend a great deal of my time in rock pools. As a PhD candidate at the University of Plymouth, it’s kind of my job. It is often back-aching, knee-busting, solitary work. Scrambling over barnacle-speckled rocks, slipping on splayed kelp, I stop to stoop over glassy pools of water, bits of ocean left behind by the tide’s retreat. Professionally, I study these places and the animals that live here. Personally, these spaces, the ever-shifting boundary zones where sea and land collide, are my favourite places to visit and explore.

 On Saturday the 8th October our Plymouth Blue Recovery Rangers, Rock Pooling Families and a healthy dose of Rock Pool Project volunteers & team members, grabbed their passports and set off aboard the wonderful Edgcumbe Belle. The course was set for Cremyll, Cornwall on reportedly the oldest passenger ferry route in the UK. Luckily, the waters were calm as we approached Kernow, with not a pirate in sight!
Barn Pool AKA Barn Rock Pool

On Saturday the 8th October our Plymouth Blue Recovery Rangers, Rock Pooling Families and a healthy dose of Rock Pool Project volunteers & team members, grabbed their passports and set off aboard the wonderful Edgcumbe Belle. The course was set for Cremyll, Cornwall on reportedly the oldest passenger ferry route in the UK. Luckily, the waters were calm as we approached Kernow, with not a pirate in sight!