Tunicates sit on the bottom of the ocean, sticking to rocks. They filter food through their siphon, like a fat lady on the couch eating fatty foods. Tunicates are the closest relative in the intertidal to humans. Humans and tunicates are both chordates. Tunicates are slimy blobs, opposites of humans, but tunicates are our closest relatives in the intertidal.

-Chelsey Kakalia

The tunicate sticks to the undersides of rocks filtering plankton through its siphon like a fat person sitting on the couch eating junk food all day. Tunicates filter plankton out of the water for food through their siphon. Tunicates keep the plankton population in check. Plankton is made up of zooplankton and phytoplankton. The zooplankton consist of larvae from crabs, shrimp, and other marine invertebrates.

-Paul Tukumato

Like a rotten lemon dipped in reddish paint, it basks in the Hawaiian sun on a rock, as waves pummel onto shore. The native tunicate’s siphons pump water in and through its body to breathe and to gather food like detritus and plankton. As it does this it keeps the intertidal organism alive, gathering its food and breathing. If they do not do this, crabs and other intertidal predators that rely on them will die, affecting many other animals.

-Chad Higa

Like spilled ice cream dried on the rock, the tunicate clings on for the rest of its life. The tunicates of the Hawaii intertidal live on rocks. They have two siphons, one used for sucking up water that contains plankton, filtering it for the body, the other for releasing excess water. The tunicate preys on crabs.

-Jessica Ghazali