Our naturalists are volunteers trained to explore the tidepools with visitors, but once upon a time being a naturalist was a profession…here’s a quote from a NOAA web site about how naturalists have studied the ocean for thousands of years:

A red octopus crawling between tidepools at FMR.

“The naturalists of yore esteemed the ocean to be a treasury of wonders, and sought therein for monstrosities and organisms contrary to the law of nature, such as they interpreted it. The naturalists of our own time hold equal faith in the wonders of the sea, but seek therein rather for the links of nature’s chain than for apparent exceptions.” In The Natural History of the European Seas (1859) by E. Forbes, posthumously. Published by John Van Voorst, London. p. 4-5.

More than 150 years later, naturalists are still finding links of nature’s chain at FMR and sharing them with our visitors.