High tide, low tide

The sea at Xiamen has substantial tidal movement, with high tide normally about 5 meters above low tide, but sometimes the tide surges to well over 6 meters, like during this week. I always check the tidal chart before going for a swim, because it's much better with high tide, when clean water is coming in from the open sea. The low tide carries a lot of dirty water from the the river delta and ports to the area where I swim. Better to avoid that.
Today's high tide was more than a meter higher than usual, flooding the boardwalk which is normally high and dry above the waterline. The preceding low tide last night was also lower than usual, giving good opportunities for clam diggers and other entrepreneurial types to find something valuable in the mud. The rocks which are completely submerged at high tide, were now fully exposed, the perfect time to harvest oysters clinging to their surface. Some locals even bring ladders to reach the upper parts of the large boulders, walking away with buckets full of seafood.
The low tide coincided with sunset, which made it a nice photo opportunity. One guy brought an elaborate analog camera rig fitted with an ultra-wide Schneider-Kreuznach lens, to take some razor sharp landscape shots, no doubt.

While I was looking out over the sea at high tide today, I spotted a small sea turtle. I was very surprised to see it, because I never saw one here before, and from the distance it looked more like a pet turtle lost at sea than a proper sea turtle. I have seen some large species in the wild in Malaysia while snorkeling there several years ago. This time the small (about 15 cm) creature was trying to navigate itself towards the boardwalk on which I was standing, while bouncing up and down on the waves, and I managed to capture a short movie of it.