It had been over two months since I last went snorkeling at my spot in Castle Beach. Although I did go on two boatdives (with no photos to show for), let’s say the work-life balance was tipped in the wrong direction. However I had time for a low-tide snorkel this Saturday and it was great to be back in the water, with a Curlew as my only companion. It was the plan to practise strobe photography but unfortunately I did not manage to get my settings right and I was going nowhere. As this is an activity that is supposed to be fun, I decided to ditch the strobe and stick with natural light. Fish I spotted were Ballan- and Corkwing wrasse, two-spot gobies, tompot blennies, a fifteenspined stickleback, a dragonet and sand eels: 
It is pretty much the worst time in the year for seaweeds but the pools are still quite pretty. The first three photos give a general impression of the seaweeds, including Thong weed, Harpoon weed and Irish moss. After that: Codium spp, Juicy whorl weed Chylocladia verticillata, a big plant of healthy-looking Hairy sand weed Cladostephus spongiosus, withered Red rags Dilsea carnosa and Dulse Palmaria palmata growing on a kelp stipe. I called it quits after two hours. On my way back I noticed an abundant green algae species I had not seen before. David Fenwick identified it as actually being a cyanobacterium rather than a seaweed: Rivularia bullata, interesting! Hope to do a lot more snorkeling before it gets too cold…
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An Bollenessor 
Ah!! I’ve just stumbled on this beautiful blog.. and, although I live at the opposite end of the earth (Melbourne, Australia), it so mirrors my passions here.. for local diving, snorkelling, underwater photography and…. marine algae. According to the text books we live in marine algal heaven…but seems Cornwall is magnificent too.
Thanks Sandy! Hope to one day visit Australia. I can recommend starting a blog, good way to sort through your photos and also to look back on them! cheers Mick
Do come! Lots to share!
I too am struggling with strobes and revert often to natural light (in the shallows)…At present our water is warming from a low of 9 degrees ..for what may be a horribly hot, dry summer it seems. By summer we head up to the low 20 degrees usually.
I attach a link to some photos I posted for a FB ‘challenge’ to post photos from nature for 7 days.. and I chose to post a ‘rainbow’ of local algal photos. Oh…and I had for years a ‘bottom of the river’ (Swan River in Perth) cold salt water aquarium of local ‘stuff’. Tried to repeat here in Melbourne, but only have outside to keep the tank and over the course of a year it goes from too hot to too cold, so at the moment it is ‘resting’…
I will be reading all your blogs with interest…
Not sure I’m up to a blog…
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lfd32fwy7p7ah00/AABu39En2yfY_dhTnBvFMjpEa?dl=0
Hi Sandy,
beautiful photos! The species in the third and last photos are real fluorescent stunners. Pics 1 and 4 are relatively similar to the underwaterlandscape (seascape?) here. I can highly recommend a blog though: wordpress is free and easy to use. It is a great way of (having to) sort throught the best photos, ID species and also to interact with other enthusiasts, give it a try! All the best, Mick