Low tide can be dramatic, especially in areas such as ours where the tides rise and fall more than a few feet. Our daily tides this week will rise and fall an average of a little more than 12 feet, according to the tide tables; individual tides may be significantly higher, depending on a host of variables.
Here we see the mouth of Patten Stream at near-low tide, rushing down boulders and past green macroalgae that were well under water hours ago. During high tides, there is no steep fall of the Stream: its sweet waters flow out almost directly into the salty tidal waters of Patten Bay. The difference probably is most perceptible to the thousands of Alewives (fish) and Elvers (young eels) that swim up this stream during their migration seasons. (Surry, Maine)