We offer TWO different Mendocino Coast tide pool identification guides!
"A Photographic Identification Guide
for the Area’s Most Common Intertidal Life"
Features 84 real high-quality color photographs taken at local state parks and regional preserves
Printed on two back-to-back glossy photo paper sheets (each measuring 8.5" x 11")
Laminated with a heavy duty 5mil waterproof laminating sheet
Lists both common and scientific names
Includes tide pooling tips for user and wildlife safety
Based on observations and data taken by experienced local tide pool explorers
Reviewed by the esteemed Noyo Marine Science Center for accuracy
Provides a link to our extended online tide pool identification catalog of uncommon intertidal life (featuring over 105 organisms, and growing)!
Total product dimensions: 9" x 11.5"
Price: $15.00
Breakdown of Included Organisms:
Anemones: 9, Barnacles: 5, Bivalves: 1, Chitons: 4, Corals: 2, Crabs: 8, Fish: 1, Jellyfish/Hydroids: 2, Limpets: 4, Miscellaneous: 1, Nudibranchs: 7, Octopus: 1, Sea Cucumbers: 2, Sea Squirts: 1, Sea Stars: 5, Sea Urchins: 2, Seaweeds/Sea Grasses/Algae: 21, Snails: 4, Sponges: 2, Worms: 2.
Purchase here: www.thefriendlyfungus.com/product-page/tide-pools-of-the-mendocino-coast-common-guide
"Tide Pools of the Mendocino Coast:
A Photographic Identification Field Guide Featuring 132 of the Area's Intertidal Life Forms"
Features 132 real high-quality color photographs taken at local state parks and regional preserves
Printed on 10 back-to-back glossy photo paper sheets (each measuring 4" x 10")
Total of 5 pages bound by a nickel-plated silver ring
Laminated with heavy duty 5mil waterproof laminating sheets
Created to be pocket/backpack-shaped for easy use in the field
Lists both common and scientific names
Includes tide pooling tips for user and wildlife safety, along with a ruler (in inches) on the back cover
Based on observations and data taken by experienced local tide pool explorers
Reviewed by the esteemed Noyo Marine Science Center for accuracy
Provides a link to our extended online tide pool identification catalog of uncommon intertidal life (featuring over 105 organisms, and growing)!
Total product dimensions: 4.5" x 10.5"
Price: $30.00
Breakdown of Included Organisms:
Anemones: 10, Barnacles: 6, Bivalves: 3, Chitons: 5, Corals: 2, Crabs: 9, Fish: 1, Jellyfish/Hydroids: 4, Limpets: 7, Miscellaneous: 4, Nudibranchs: 16, Octopus: 1, Sea Cucumbers: 2, Sea Squirts: 2, Sea Stars: 8, Sea Urchins: 2, Seaweeds/Sea Grasses/Algae: 30, Snails: 8, Sponges: 6, Tunicates: 2, Worms: 4.
Are you a shop owner interested in carrying this product at your store? We'd love to hear from you! Please send us an email (friendlyfungusphotography@gmail.com) and ask us about wholesale pricing!
Why Choose Our Guides?
After exploring the Mendocino Coast’s treasure-laden tide pools for many years, we felt strongly that existing tide pool identification guides on the market had blind spots when it came to local use:
— a tendency to include a too-large geographic footprint means guides lack adequate specificity (California has 840 total miles of coastline; the Mendocino Coast covers only 90 miles, but is home to over 300 intertidal species)
— illustrations are typically chosen over real photographs, lending increased difficulty in accurate field identifications due to creative liberties and look-alike species
— these guides are often part of a larger collection, and/or are published elsewhere, suggesting a lack of “real world” experience on our coast and a questionable conceptualization of our actual intertidal environment
Reasons why these characteristics can be problematic for Mendocino Coast explorers can be spotted in "Tide Pools of the California Coast". (We are not claiming that any of the information included in the TPCC guide is factually incorrect.)
One prime example is the "California Spiny Chiton" listing. TPCC only includes two chitons. The first is a reasonable choice: the "Gumboot Chiton" (Cryptochiton stelleri); but the second, the "California Spiny Chiton" (Nuttallina californica), presents several problems:
As of August 2024, the "California Spiny Chiton" had only two confirmed local sightings—making it extraordinarily rare to the area and highly uncommon to see.
However, there are over 10 different species of chiton can be found on the Mendocino Coast(!)—including at least five species whose extreme commonality would have given them priority, had this guide been more regionally appropriate.
The "California Spiny Chiton" samples that have been spotted locally look very similar to two extremely common local species, the "Mossy Chiton" (Mopalia muscosa) and "Leatherback Chiton" (Katharina tunicata)—which the TPCC illustration looks nothing like.
The TPCC illustration, instead, appears more like the very locally common "Flame-Lined Chiton" (Tonicella lokii), which, naturally, is a different species entirely.
Our “Tide Pools of the Mendocino Coast” photographic identification guides solve all of these problems!
Our products feature real photographs (all taken locally by us—experienced naturalists and tide poolers!) and only include creatures found in the area, with an emphasis on the most common. In addition to the organisms included on the guides, each product also includes a typewritten link to our actively expanding online catalog that features up to over 105 additional organisms!
We are so proud of our guides, which represent the final two designs of several different prototypes we created and tested in an attempt to deliver the best identification resources possible to our community!
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