Channel Islands National Park includes the five northern islands off the coast of southern California and the surrounding waters out one nautical mile. There is approximately 176 miles of coastline around the islands and most of it is rocky.

Channel Islands National Park includes the five northern islands off the coast of southern California and the surrounding waters out one nautical mile. Approximately 80% of the 176 miles of coastline around the islands is rocky. The diversity and undisturbed nature of the tidepools of this rocky coastline was recognized as a special feature of the islands in the enabling legislation. In order to gain information to conserve these communities unimpaired for future generations, the NPS has been monitoring the rocky intertidal at the islands since 1982. This report summarizes the 2005 sampling year efforts (from March 2005 to January 2006) and findings of the Channel Islands National Park (CINP) Rocky Intertidal Monitoring Program.

Several coastal parks, including Cabrillo National Monument (CNM) and Channel Islands National Park (CINP), have begun intertidal monitoring programs to establish baseline datasets of their marine resources and to report changes in these resources (Davis and Halvorson 1996, Davis 2005). Monitoring intertidal assemblages allows changes to be tracked within and between communities over seasonal and yearly time scales. Such monitoring is critical for making informed management decisions.