Fitzgerald Marine Reserve Tide Information

The Friends of Fitzgerald volunteers work with San Mateo County to operate a reservation system for groups of 10 or more people. Volunteer naturalists will be available on certain days for group tours or on the reef answering questions and showing visitors animals they might not otherwise have seen. The dates available for tours are listed on the Low Tides page. Please note that the dates and times listed are the official dates and times for tours. There are other days with low tides that you may find on one of the online guides below but the county cannot make reservations for those dates.

You may find additional tide information on the following websites:

www.mobilegeographics.com:81/locations/2365.html
tbone.biol.sc.edu/tide/tideshow.cgi?site=Half+Moon+Bay%2C+California
www.tidelines.com
www.tides.info
www.tidelog.com
www.saltwatertides.com
www.noaa.gov

Reading the Charts

The charts are in Military time. Since the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve is open from Sunset to Sundown, as a general rule avoid times earlier than 6am and later than 6pm.

Tides are measured in feet; therefore, a 2.0 tide means the water is 2 feet high.

It is best to visit the tide pools when the tide is 1.5 or below. A minus tide will have a larger window for sight seeing than a positive tide. You have more flexibility in the summer than in the winter. Winter weather and storms greatly affect the tides. In the summer, people can visit the tide pools even on a 2.0 ft. day. Spring/Summer tides tend to have a larger window than winter tides.

May and June generally have the best tides (lowest). To view marine life, a visitor has about 2 hours before the tide is at its lowest, and about 1.5 hours afterwards.