Do not turn your back on  the ocean and never play on the driftwood logs. These logs become buoyant and can be moved around in as little as just one inch of water which can float and roll a log over an unaware person causing injury or death.  While beachcombing, avoid approaching large rocks, islands or reefs which could contain wildlife. Please remember to leave all living animals and plants as you found them, as you are visiting THEIR home. To avoid accidents or disturbing wildlife, use binoculars to bring them closer to you! 

Watch the tides: every 24 hours and 50 minutes the tide rises and falls twice. The incoming tides are the most dangerous to unwary explorers. Therefore beachcombing requires a knowledge of tidal ebb and flow.  Variations to predicted tides can be caused by changing weather patterns, currents, wind, and wave size. Therefore, it is prudent to use caution around the ocean.

For complete tidal predictions and exact times, check the Hatfield Mariene  Science Center tide chart.
The mild winters of the coast with its clean invigorating air all in such a beautiful setting allow one to hunt at all times of the year with comfort. However, Oregon coast weather is just as unpredictable as the tides. That goes for all seasons.

If you are lucky enough to be present for one of our spectacular storms, bundle up after the storm and go in search of treasures left on the beach.

Making your visit more enjoyable... Dress in layers, taking along a warm all weather jacket, preferably one with a hood to protect your head and ears from the cold winds or rain which we often experience here on the coast and remember to wear old shoes with non-slip soles or rubber boots for additional comfort!

The "Discovery Season" from October through April is the very best time to hunt during a walk at dawn, for elusive and increasingly rare Japanese glass floats from old fishing nets as well as other artifacts left at sea so many years ago.
For years beachcombers have been finding glass floats to decorate their mantle or home.  Some were crafted in the late 1800's and early 1900's as floats for the fishermen's nets, they were usually hand blown aboard the ships. Many of the glass floats we find, broke loose over the years and  have traversed the seas for decades, they are cast upon our storm swept beaches by the currents driven by westerly or south-westerly winds. The most common shape is spherical found generally in 2 ½" - 6" in diameter ranging all shades of green to blue green. The rarer finds being 1 ½" - 20" and colors of purple, deep red and wine. The next common may be shaped like a rolling pin (approximately 2" x 6" ).

2009 glass floats will be distributed along Oregon's Central Coast for the millennium.   Find glass floats and celebrate the beginning of a new era.  They will be hidden along the beaches of Lincoln County, Oregon, from Yachats to Lincoln City, to be found by a lucky 2009 individuals.  Each one aproximately the size of a grapefruit and radiating the colors of the rainbow will be unique and numbered. The brilliantly colored and patterned  glass floats will begin showing up on the beaches beginning the last week of 1999, and continuing thru the New Year!  The glass floats are fashioned after the glass fishing floats used by the Japanese fishing fleet of past years. They will be found along the many miles of  pristine beaches of Lincoln County has,

all of which are accessible to the public. If you walk the beach, you will have a chance to find a work of art.

The floats will be placed above the high tide line so that they shouldn't be washed out to sea. Please remember, the North Pacific Ocean can be unpredictable in the winter. If during the time the floats are released, storms and/or unusually high tides are predicted, the release of floats will be temporarily stopped to insure the safety of all. The ocean is full of surprises. Please don't turn your back on the ocean and watch for sneaker waves (waves that are much larger than average). That, and a little common sense, will assure you a safe, unique, and exhilarating experience. One to be cherished forever.

Project created by Waldport artist, Bryan Duncan.

Sea Shells of the area would include olive shells, wentle traps, limpets, small clams, mussels and rock snails. Chances of finding  sand dollars intact are rare due to the presence of rocks at the tide line.

Oregon Coast Agate

The Pacific Ocean, generously renews the agate supply every year during the winter when the storms are the hardiest and the tides uncover great beds of gravel at this time of year. This brings the lighter weight stones characteristic of gem material to the top. Remember these agate-bearing beaches often change their surface features, depending on storms and high tides, possibly within just one tides cycle of 6 hours.

Agates can be collected in many areas along the coast, but the areas around Newport are some of the finest agate hunting areas in the world. Each year the supply of stone is uncovered by the tides. However 2008 was the best collecting years of probably the last 10 years, and the best thing about beachcombing, it requires no special tools and it's free!

The agate hunter should look for loose gravel on top of the sand. Much of the agate and jasper found on Oregon Beaches will have been worn down until it is rounded into smooth beach pebbles or cobbles. If you look closely at a dry piece of this rock, you may see that it is covered with little crescent-shaped indications as though someone had pressed their fingernail into it. Most agates are translucent and when held to the sun or other strong light, the formations inside can be seen. It is best to hunt on an out-going tide for it is then that the gravel has been freshly agitated and the stones are most plentiful. Walk into the sun so that you can better see the agates sparkle. It is always easier to see the agate or jasper when the stones are wet, so start hunting from where the water has recently receded. Keep in mind that because agate is very hard, agate will remain wet and shinier longer than the porous rock, basalt or sandstone pebbles have dried.

Rare finds are agates with water and a moveable bubble of air inside called an enhydro and agates that appear to have fine hair-like needles inside called sagenite. Jasper is an opaque quartz containing oxide of iron, clay, and many other impurities and is found in various colors, such as red, butterscotch, brown, green or any combination there of. Bloodstone is a dark-green jasper with small, blood-red blotches. These treasures of agate, jasper, and petrified wood are especially beautiful when polished. A rock tumbler will polish them into beautiful gems that can be made into lovely jewelry.

Also, be on the lookout for petrified wood, fossil clam, and snail shells plus fossilized whale and dolphin bone. They may be seen embedded in a cliff face, (however, do not attempt to remove them from the headlands, as wind and water will erode away the soil). Look among the cobbles washed against the base of the cliffs by the tides. Seldom do you ever see the complete fossil visible. Therefore look for interesting contours and shapes. A permit is required for any digging beyond a modest 3" x 6" deep hole. Any fragile vertebrate fossils are to be left untouched and reported to the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport at South Beach. Some fossils may not be easy to recognize, and they may be taken to the Hatfield Marine Science Center for identification.

A specific list of all the collecting beaches in Oregon would be too lengthy to include here. Visit FACETS Gem & Mineral Gallery for field guides or further information of agate and fossil collecting on Oregon's Central Coast.

Explorer The Oregon's coast prehistoric past... For guided Oregon Beach Fossil trips, I recommend contacting Oregon's Fossil Guy, our resident amateur fossil collector Guy Di Torrice. His field trip itinerary includes briefing on Oregon coastal geology, Miocene flora & fauna orientation, Oregon public beach rules & regulations, beach safety & land conservation, fossil collecting tips, and collected fossil identification.

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Like windows to the sea where the ocean meets the land maintaining a delicate balance of nature which allow visitors to peer into the lives of the little critters and sea plants that call the tide pool home. Sitting just off the coastline these underwater rocks (tide pools) built by nature, are intriguing forms and shapes of the basalt lava pillows (rocks) left by centuries of geologic, wave, wind, and plant action.  Covered with green algae these areas can be very slippery and the barnacles which are volcano shaped small sharp shell like creatures.  When the tides drop, a kaleidoscopic display of our ocean neighbors unveils itself in Newport's tide pools.

To learn more about tide pools expand your sea knowledge before or after a tide-pooling session, visit the The Hatfield Marine Science Center. There's a tide pool display within the exhibit hall of the public wing where you can see and touch the creatures, no matter what weather or  the tide is doing down the road at Beverly Beach. And the indoor exhibits will tune you into the oceanic wonders lying in and beyond Newport's tide pools. 

Yaquina Head accessible to all However be aware that Yaquina Head is a protected area and has a strictly enforced "no collecting" policy from this reserve area.  Only your respect for the marine life will help the resident species endure for the future.

What's tide?
When it's low tide, the water drains away from our shores and mounds up somewhere else.  When the sun and moon line up (known as a new and full moon) the gravitational pull is extra strong, which means the tidal differences are unusually great.  These super low and super high tides are called spring tides — not because they happen in the spring, but because the oceans "well up" like water from a spring. Because extreme low tides unveil so much territory that's normally covered with
water, spring tide times are best for tide-pooling. For complete tidal predictions and exact times, check the Hatfield Marine Science Center tide chart.