I had a similar experience near San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico the day of the huge Japanese tsunami. Considering the Gulf of California only opens into the Pacific Ocean at its south end, I wondered if the tsunami had much to do with the unusually low tides we had. Like you, we had great shelling. At the time we were out, the news of the tsunami was just hitting the news. When we got back to the house, we wondered if the event influenced our tide.

Dale Snyder

---- Steve Rosenthal <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

=============
I had to stay home today so took advantage of the first semi-warm day in
awhile to head to my local shelling spot (bayside of Jones Beach State Park
by the fishing piers). That was despite  the tide tables saying  it would
only be a not very helpful +0.6 low tide.

Tides for Jones Inlet (Point Lookout) starting with February 19, 2013.
Tu    19     High   1:59 AM     3.2
       19   Low   8:47 AM     0.6

I know that winds/currents/weather etc can influence the tide level
substantially in either direction (eg, I've seen quite a few low
tides "cancelled" due to inclement weather), but nothing like i saw this
morning.  Maybe the moderate WSW winds -about 20mph according to weather
channel-  were the culprit, but the tide was the lowest i think I have ever
seen at this spot, or at least definitely as low or  lower than the
occasional  -1.0  or more low tides we get in the winter months. There was
more shell-bearing grit and grunge too than i had ever seen as well:  up
here, when you see grit with lots of  the sand-grain worm tubes you have a
chance at good drift and micro material,  and the collecting was ok for mid-
February. lots of small bivalves. And the usual big ones...and a live
beached sea cucumber, which was a first for here.  I certainly do wonder
what was going on to lower the tide so much.

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