(ethereal piano music) (birds cawing) - So right now, it's low tide, which means the water has retreated back and it has left all of this habitat for us to explore.

(person exclaiming in surprise) - So these... Oh, they're all over the ground.

- [Alison] Oh, yeah, what are these things?

- [Savannah] So these are anemones.

- [Alison] Oh, anemone, okay.

- Yeah, you might know of anemones from, like, "Nemo" or some other pop culture reference, but they have all their, like, tentacles out and look all flowy and magical usually.

Right now, they have all those tentacles sucked in, they have them, but they pull them in because it helps them reduce their surface area and prevent from drying out while they're exposed to the elements and the water is pulled back, so they just look like these squishy blobs, but if you get your fingers wet, you can touch 'em if you would like, and you can kinda feel... (indistinct) (Alison laughing) But yeah, they're...

The tentacles have those... (indistinct) The stinging cells that kinda capture their prey and bring 'em in, so we're not getting that effect of feeling, like, stuck like you usually do if you touch one.

- But that is so yucky, ew!

(people laughing) (upbeat percussive music) (upbeat percussive music continues) (ethereal orchestral music) (ethereal orchestral music continues) (ethereal orchestral music continues) (ethereal orchestral music continues) "If you could do anything in the world, what would you do?"

That's the question Ebony and Savannah were asked in 2019 during their time at EarthCorps.

They were both pleasantly surprised to learn that they shared an interest in working with BIPOC youth, introducing them to the maritime industry.

Both under 30 years old, they co-founded SEA Potential.

Today, I'm here at Seahurst Park to go tide-pooling with them and learn a little bit more about their organization.

(ethereal orchestral music) - Growing up, did I expect this to be what I would do of my life?

Absolutely not.

I grew up in the country, in South Carolina, not a lot of water really, as far as just a little creek that was by my house and I spent a lot of time at, but always outdoors with my family, with my dogs, my rabbits, we picked up little snapping turtles along the way.

- I grew up with a lot of animals in my family, animals ranging from hermit crabs to peacocks is what I was growing up a long time- - Peacocks, where did you grow up?

(laughs) - Well, I grew up in California.

(gentle guitar music) There was always animals running around, it made me really curious about life in general and just realized that each animal had its own unique soul and characteristics, and that made me wanna learn more about nature and about life, but it wasn't really a topic of conversation between me and my peers, so I just thought it was my special interest until the point of going to a predominantly white institution for college and noticing, "Wow, a lot of my peers have different experiences around nature that happen with their family and with their friends," and they nonchalantly talk about things like snowboarding, mountaineering, and all these crazy things that, to me, were huge adventures, it was just...

They're normal, and so, I started feeling a little bit of imposter syndrome of, "Maybe I'm behind in this career path, I don't know, is it right for me?

I don't have all these experiences that they're talking about."

(gentle piano music) - For me, I thought I would be a marine biologist and that was really when I got into middle school that I heard about it, but I knew just from growing up outside that I want to do something in the environment, but then, after meeting Savannah at our last job and having that shared experience, that's when I realized, "Oh, this is definitely diverging from the path that I thought I was gonna be on."

- What is the mission...?

Or what is SEA Potential?

- It's about helping BIPOC folks foster heart-based connections to water, and so, that looks like addressing some of the individual and generational trauma that exists around water, but also talking about the culture of thriving, and resiliency, and joy around water, and incorporating healing tools for those relationships with water and also doing some maritime career exploration.

(upbeat percussive music) (upbeat percussive music continues) (upbeat percussive music continues) - [Alison] Oh, wow.

(people exclaiming in excitement) Oh, shoot!

What is that?

(Ebony exclaiming in excitement) - So this is... We can wait 'til the water settle down, but it is a plainfin midshipman, it's a type of fish that's usually deep-sea-dwelling.

- Usually at, like, 1,000 feet down is where they usually live, yeah.

- [Alison] So what is it doing here?

- Yeah, so it comes up to have the babies, and then, usually, who's protecting the nest...

I don't know if nest is the right term, but the nest is the male plainfin midshipman.

- So the male and female will meet up here and basically, you know, lay these eggs, and when they hatch, the male will leave and go back down to the deep sea, but they come up to the intertidal to lay 'em, and they're really cool fish, they make, like, a buzzing sound, they have small teeth, so you don't wanna just grab 'em, usually, we have a clear bucket, We could pick it up and show people, but yeah, you don't want grab 'em 'cause they could bite, and they have bioluminescence on their body too, which is really neat.

Wish we had a clear bucket.

- [Ebony] So Vannah is the one who will put her hand in there and have her feel that.

They just go in there, you know, fast.

(upbeat percussive music) - I wanna feel where it is, so that's...

It's something, yeah, it's part of it, I think it's its tail but I just don't want to get bit.

(upbeat percussive music) (water splashing) It's so hard to tell when you can't see!

Oh, it's...

Without our bucket or my gloves.

(Alison exclaiming in shock) - There it is!

- [Alison] Oh, my gosh, that thing is huge.

What?

(Ebony laughing) Uh-uh.

(Alison exclaiming in shock) - [Savannah] There it is.

- [Alison] Oh, my gosh.

- Yeah, there you go.

- [Alison] That is bananas.

- [Savannah] Yeah, you see it's teeth?

- [Alison] Yes, that...

I've definitely seen this before.

Oh, my gosh, you are so nasty.

- [Savannah] So they have these bioluminescent dots along their body.

- And he's like, "Can you put my rock back?

Thank you," and we absolutely will.

- [Alison] Wow.

- Lower it so slowly so we don't crush it, it will adjust and move where it needs to go, we just have to do our job of putting it slow.

Okay.

- [Ebony] And that... - [Savannah] There we go.

- Is the plainfin midshipman.

- Oh, wow.

Wow, wow, wow, wow.

I wasn't ready.

I... (Alison laughing) (ethereal percussive music) - You wanna stand...

This is a big...

Wait, is this a hermit crab?

That's a chunky little hermit crab, hold on.

- [Savannah] What'd you find?

Hermit crabs?

- [Ebony] It looks like they're fighting over this shell.

- Oh, they're like, "That's my house!"

(people laughing) This is so entertaining though, there's so many hermit crabs, and this is like a hermit-crab shell... Like, housewarming party.

- [Alison] More are coming.

- [Ebony] And this is tide-pooling.

(people laughing) This is tide-pooling.

We're experiencing a whole different person's life.

(relaxed electronic music) - Water is our first home, in the womb, we were in water, and I find that when I get in the water, I just kinda float around and I just feel so at peace.

(relaxed electronic music) - [Ebony] I feel like I have a personal relationship with it, and any emotions that you can connect to a human-to-human relationship, I feel the same way with all parts of our ecosystem, and especially water.

Life is always happening.

(relaxed electronic music) (birds cawing)