The sea level rises and falls with the tides, making the shore sometimes wet and sometimes dry. Winds drive unfettered across the open ocean and hit the coast with great force. As they blow, they whip up waves that endlessly crash into the land. No two stretches of shore are the same. Each is shaped by many variable factors – the tides, winds, waves, water currents, temperature and climate, and the types of rock from which the land is made. Along each shore a group of highly adapted plants and animals – many of them strange to our land-orientated eyes – make their homes.
Shaping the shoreline
For millions of years, every few seconds of every day, waves have hit the seashore. Generated and driven by wind, in calm weather…