MENDOCINO CO., 12/19/24 — Growing up in Hayward, nature photographer Anna Towers didn’t have much access to the natural world. Towers is a fifth-generation Bay Area native, with most of her family still living in Hayward. But Towers always felt drawn to the beaches and forests of the Northern California coastline.
“I fell in love with the Mendocino coastline when my husband and I would take trips up here to do photography,” Towers explained. They even had a wedding ceremony in Mendocino. “We drove all the way up here to Jackson Forest and went into the woods to do a handfasting ceremony. Just the two of us.”
Towers and her husband, Lee Gardner, moved to the Mendocino Coast just under two years ago. They have since put their photography skills to work. The couple has a photography and gifts website that showcases their adventures along the coastline, including their tide pool explorations and mushroom foraging. The duo, who document their escapades on Instagram and Facebook, recently released two waterproof photo identification guides for the Mendocino Coast’s intertidal zone, the first of its kind.
The identification guide, filled with photos taken by the couple, includes creatures found on the Mendocino Coast, with a focus on the most common species. The photos were taken at state parks and regional preserves and list both the common and scientific names of the tide pool creatures. The guide also shares tide pooling tips and wildlife safety advice and has been reviewed by the Noyo Marine Science Center for accuracy.
Towers added that the guide is not only helpful because of the identification photos and information, but because it’s the only tide pool book of its kind that focuses solely on the Mendocino County region.
“California has 840 miles of coastline, and the Mendocino coast covers only 90 of it. Most of the guides on the market cover all of California,” Towers said. “Part of the reason we made the guides is because the ones we found on the market didn’t have the things we can find here in the county.”
She emphasized that other guides often condense the entire California coast into a small manual, sometimes even including Oregon, which leaves little room for the unique organisms found along the Mendocino coast.
“The issue with that is Mendocino has over 300 intertidal species, and so the other guides have to eliminate a whole lot,” Towers said. “There’s also a priority for some things in Southern California that aren’t up here. There’s a lot of species that don’t live here that are on those guides, so you’re only finding a handful of things that can be of use.”
In other tide pool identification guides, the authors also tend to use illustrations instead of actual photo documentation, which can confuse readers new to tide pooling.
“The other thing is some guides are illustrations instead of pictures,” she said. “For example, there’s a chiton in Southern California that looks like the one up here, but it isn’t the same. If you get a guide with illustrations, you might think it’s the same thing. There’s room for error.”
Although Towers initially began her nature photography by exploring mushroom species, living on the coast and tide pooling has opened a new world of photography for her, and she is eager to explore more and share her discoveries.
“I first got into mushrooms initially, which sort of reminds me of tide pools of the forest,” Towers described. “What intrigues me about tide pools is there’s so much life going on, and everything does something different. It’s weird and curious, and it’s unlike anything you find on land. I love being able to share that with people.”
There are two versions of the tide pool identification guides: one is a common guide, featuring 84 photographs of organisms printed on two glossy sheets, and the second is a field guide, featuring 132 photographs printed on 10 glossy sheets. Both guides include a special link to the photographers’ online tide pool identification catalog, which showcases 105 diverse organisms (a list that Towers says will grow over time). The common guide can be purchased for $15 and the field guide for $30.
There are many options to purchase the tide pool identification guides, as well as explore other products on the photographers’ website. To purchase a guide online, click on this link. To see the couple’s nature photographs and products for sale, visit thefriendlyfungus.com/lovethemendocinocoast.
The guides are also available at 10 shops on the coast, including the MacKerricher State Park Visitor Center and Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens.