We spoke with Dr. Ladd Johnson, a benthic scientist living in the area, who reminded us: “Every snail is important, which is why I work in the intertidal and subtidal. Everything below the tide: rocky shores, kelp forests, seaweeds, bottom ecology; remember benthos means bottom, the depth of the sea.” Johnson explained that he was drawn to Gaspésie because it is a simplified version of an intertidal zone, a reduced description by comparison to a coral reef, for instance: “I can do great things in this region with only a couple of rocks. No one else is doing it.” While he told us all about three kinds of snail, urchin bearing grounds, and subtidal kelp we exchanged thoughts on ocean poisoning, mercury, and microplastics. Johnson dives every morning in the region around Sainte Flavie, he says he’s a field person, not a lab person. I explained our fieldwork and in return, he offered one of the most profound observations of our shared interest: “The landscape of retreat is the future intertidal.”