In Retrospect: Between Pacific Tides
Aaron Hirsh celebrates the 75th anniversary of the marine-biology classic by Ed Ricketts, the bohemian scientist who inspired John Steinbeck. A number of writers have observed that what made Between Pacific Tides revolutionary was that its organization is ecological. The book begins at the uppermost zone where a flood tide’s waves barely splash our shoes. And so it goes in each zone, leading us deeper into the intertidal: common to rare; familiar to exotic; obvious to hidden…