High tides what is it?

When the sea retreats: make way for the foreshore

When the sea recedes at low tide, it reveals a fascinating space: the foreshore. This is the area between high and low water, often made up of sand, mud or rocks.

This is where you hunt for prawns with a landing net, scrape the sand for cockles, or look for crabs under the rocks… Fishing on foot is fun and accessible to everyone, but it must be done with respect: the foreshore is a rich and fragile natural environment that must be preserved.

How do the tides work?

The tides are like a dance between the Earth, the Moon and the Sun. And here’s how it works:

🌕 The Moon, the main player

The Moon attracts the water in the oceans through its gravitational force. Where it attracts the most, the water rises: this is high tide (or open water). But as the Earth rotates, this area shifts, and other places also experience high tide.

Opposite this point of attraction, another high tide occurs, this time due to the centrifugal force generated by the movement of the Earth-Moon pair (like a bucket of water being spun around). As a result, there are two high tides and two low tides a day, every 6 hours or so.

☀️ And what about the Sun?

The Sun also has something to say. It acts with its own force of attraction. When the Moon and Sun are aligned, their effects are cumulative: these are the high tides (strong coefficient). When they are perpendicular, the tides are weaker: these are called neap tides.

Nature outings to understand everything

Want to find out more? Nature activities are offered during the spring tides to discover the fauna of the foreshore, learn how to fish on foot or simply observe the tides with a guide.

📍 Information and registration at the Fouesnant and La Forêt-Fouesnanttourist offices.