diving in the Helford Passage

Posted on October 8, 2014 by An Bollenessor under Canon Powershot D30, cnidarians, crustaceans, diving, fish, Helford, molluscs, worms

A new location for the second dive: Helford Passage between Falmouth and the Lizard Peninsula. This is a shallow, sheltered creek with a sandy bottom and eelgrass beds and can only be dived (well) at high tide. A good site to spot Thornback rays Raja clavata we heard and we were indeed lucky to find several of them. We entered the water at Grebe Beach next to Durgan:

Again, we spotted some cuttlefish, which are not very shy at all. What was very cool were Great scallops Pecten maximus lying around and swimming away for a bit by opening and closing the shell, I will try to film that next time. Many Turban top shells and some large heremit crabs with one or more Parasitic anemones Calliactic parasitica on top. The shells of smaller hermit crabs were covered in the hydroid Hydractinia echinata:

We got to about nine meters depth (near the buoy) and found a large concrete block. Scattered among it lay the remains of crabs and in a hole dug underneath the snout of a Conger eel poked out. As I had to get close for a better look, I stirred up too much sediment and so I do not have a good picture but I will definitely like to go back and have a better look! Interesting was an old crab pot covered in sea squirts (mainly Morchellium) which was swarming with Leach’s spider crabs Inachus phalangium. Normally they sit under a Snakelocks anemone but there were none attached to the pot, strange. Very common were large Peacock Worms Sabella pavonina and Fan worms Myxicola infundibulum:

diving at Silver Steps

Posted on October 6, 2014 by An Bollenessor under Canon Powershot D30, crustaceans, diving, echinoderms, molluscs, worms

I am really getting back into this diving thing! Last week, I made another trip to Seaways Dive Centre in Penryn to rent some gear (£25 for 24 hrs) and go out with dive buddy Chris. First a dive at the end of the day at low tide at Silver Steps in Falmouth. A great encounter a minute after we got in with a cuttlefish:

We then set out over the gravel beds towards the open sea. A pretty barren affair, with lots of decaying seaweed. Mainly Spiny and Common starfish and Pulled carpet shell Tapes corrugata, Warty venus Venus verrucosa and Rayed Artemis Dosinia exolata. A picture of the latter being eaten by a common starfish:

Turban top shells Gibbula magus were on my list to get for the aquarium and I noticed that this species is extremely common (several per square meter) so I took a bunch home. The shells look pretty beaten up with lots of stuff growing on ’em but I think they are pretty cool; truly subtidal so no risk of them creeping out of the tank:We then made it back to the rocky coast and found a nice gully with overhanging rocks with lots of interesting critters. One little cove was home to ten or so shy Leopard-spotted gobies (I plan to go back with my GoPro and leave it there filming for half an hour to pick it up later). We found a big lobster Homarus vulgaris, a beautiful Bispira volutacornis worm (I have already posted pics of these species recently and I will try to show more self-restrainst from now on and not keep posting similar photos). Also for the first time some large Edible sea urchins Echinus esculentus. Probably a really common species when you dive a little deeper but the very first time I saw it. Have to practice a bit more with the new Canon Powershot D30 as I am not completely convinced about its qualities yet (I did not bother to post-process any of the pics btw).

more netting from the quay

Posted on September 6, 2014 by An Bollenessor under crustaceans, fish, nets

In a recent post I showed some pictures of fish I caught off the quay in Flushing. I have since quite regularly scraped the sides of the quay with my net and netted a bunch more species. No good pictures of the Shanny, Rock Goby and Two-spotted goby yet, but here are some OK pictures of other species (I do not like to keep the fish too long out of the water so it is a bit rushed). Besides many juvenile individuals, occasionally I catch an adult Corkwing wrasse Symphodus melops. I have only once I managed to cath a bright green juvenile Ballan wrasse Labrus bergylta:

Twice I have caught a Sea scorpion Taurulus bubalis, they look a bit like gremlins. Once I caught a Greater pipefish Syngnathus acus, very cool:

My friend Thor is a very good photographer with a very good camera and he made some great pictures of fish in the cuvet this week. Two Corkwings, a Fifteen-spined stickleback Spinachia spinachia, some Thick-lipped (probably) grey mullet Chelon labrosus. The latter are more difficult to catch as they are in open water and the net has a small mesh size. As a bonus the most common catch, a Common prawn Palaemon serratus:

Snorkelling at Silver Steps Part I

Posted on July 16, 2014 by An Bollenessor under anemones, cnidarians, crustaceans, fish, snorkeling, worms

High time for a snorkel, and few better places in the area than ‘Silver Steps’, between Castle Beach and Pendennis Point in Falmouth. I took my little Lumix camera (goes up to 10 meters deep, no optical zoom) with me to take some sub-standard pics (all other photos on the blog are taken with my iPhone). This site is a mix of rocks covered in kelp and gravel and even the remains of two U-Boats (they are no longer recognisable as such though, see here for more specifics on these and other wrecks off Falmouth). There is always something to see: schools of Smelt chased by Sand eels, hovering Two-spotted gobies, Corkwing and Ballan wrasse, Spiny starfish and loads of seaweeds. In fact, there was so much to see that I have divided the pictures over two posts. First a photo of the site and some of the U-Boat wreckage:

We were in for a nice surprise: a good-sized John Dory Zeus faber at around seven meters depth. I have posted a very nice picture from my first and only dive in Cornwall courtesy of Charlotte Sams, but here a short, jittery video as well:

Anyway, a perhaps even nicer find were Leopard-spotted gobies Thorogobius ephippiatus. Some sources make it seem like this is a rare species only ever encountered by divers, but it is actually not uncommon and we saw them at two meters down (the tide was low though). It is a shy species that lives under ledges, burying between the rock and the gravel. The picture is crap but also proof I am not lying. The next picture is of a Tompot blenny Parablennius gattorugine peeking from a crack in the rocks. Large snakelocks anemones are everywhere on the kelp, and although a month ago I saw none, many of them again housed commensal Leach’s spider crabs Inachus phalangium. (These anemones and crabs do well in the aquarium btw, see here.) It would be interesting to know if these crabs arrive from deeper waters or just grow up really fast.

More Scummy Pools

Posted on June 20, 2014 by An Bollenessor under bryozoans, crustaceans, fish, rock pooling, seaweeds, tunicates

As in Falmouth, the rock pools in Flushing are not looking that great at the moment. Lots of the Corallina has turned white/died (although the clumps in my tank are still their normal purple!). Of course, many species were still thriving, Grape pip weed Mastocarpus stellatus (top), Bunny ears Lomentaria articulata (bottom), new Thong weed Himanthalia elongata ‘buttons’ and a young blade of kelp along with some green Ulva:Among the seaweeds that were thriving was Slimy whip weed Chordaria flagelliformis (I am by no means a seaweed expert and I might be wrong about this, please comment if I am!) and also the beautiful Harpoon weed Asparagospis armata growing as an epiphyte on some darker coloured False eyelash weed. Harpoon weed is invasive and so a good candidate to do well int he aquarium (as most invasive species are quite opportunistic and not too finnicky). It died off in the tank before, but I decided to bring some home to try again now I have a chiller.

Another tangling invasive species: Bonnemaison’s hook weed Bonnemaisonia hamifera (a characteristic curved hook can be seen in the top-middle):Loads more seaweeds to be found but I will save those for another time. All kinds of tunicates pop up in spring, some of them pretty (see for instance here), some of them less so. For instance the invasive species, the Leathery sea squirt Styela clava and an out-of-focus photo of a second, large (>10 cm) species that did not get a lot of response on the NE Atlantic Tunicata FaceBook group. Aplidium nordmanni was offered, see here for a much smaller version of that species. Not a looker either in any case!

I brought my little aquarium net and found many juvenile (<1 cm) fish as well as Mysis shrimp. The fish look like gobies but it is hard to see. They were completely translucent and so you can see what this one just ate. I should take some bits of seaweed home to see what comes crawling and swimming out under a little USB microscope (quite easy to make little videos). It is hard to come up with decent images squatting and squinting on a slippery rock with a salt-encrusted mobile phone!

low tide finds at Flushing

Posted on February 9, 2014 by An Bollenessor under cnidarians, crustaceans, fish, molluscs, rock pooling, sponges

The day after the very low tide excursion in Falmouth, I had a look in Flushing as well. This site is less pretty, more silty and estuarine, and has a slightly different fauna as well, especially on the muddier areas below the rockpools. (I have written a post about ‘mud pooling’ before.) Lots of sponges, Variegated scallops, European cowries, Hooded prawns and Common squat lobsters. This time I noticed that Hairy crabs Pilumnus hirtellus are common here too. Two diffently coloured Long-clawed porcelain crabs Pisidia longicornis:

A pretty sponge Aplysilla rosea (determined using the Aphotomarine page as it was not featured in my otherwise excellent Collins guide):

I had seen one before, but with this low tide I found several Sea lemons Archidorus pseudoargus, large sponge-eating nudibranchs. A large one and a small one together (on the right side of each you can see the ‘naked gills’ which are not extended above water):

Another, bigger individual (European cowries and Thick-lipped dog whelks for scale) again with a smaller individual half under it:

You can see some tiny juvenile Variegated scallops Chlamys varia too. I found my biggest one to date:

They can be much prettier than that though!

I could not resist taking some stuff home to my aquarium, even though I was still waiting for the chiller and new lights (they both have since arrived, that’ll be my next post). There were loads of Painted top shells Calliostoma zizyphinum, which are very pretty and moreover do not often emerge above water so they might be better behaved in the aquarium, and I took some of those home. I also took a pair of Butterfish Pholish gunnellus and some Sea lemons, mainly to observe them for a week or so and then release them again before starting fiddling with the tank. This was not a great succes unfortunately: both Butterfish died within a couple of days. I had acclimatized them to room temperature and I don’t know what the reason could have been. Clingfish, mullet, a rockling, gobies and blennies have never died in my aquarium. I felt really bad about it; definitely no more Butterfish in my tank!

One of the Sea lemons managed to get caught by a Snakelocks anemone….however, it produced copious amounts of slime and it was eventually spat out!

a very low tide at Castle beach

Posted on February 2, 2014 by An Bollenessor under crustaceans, echinoderms, fish, molluscs, rock pooling, worms

There were exceptionally low tides this weekend so I was quite stoked to get out and find some new species in what is normally the subtidal. It was raining and even hailing quite a bit but we were on a mission! Fortunately, the sun came out later and my jeans could dry up. Sea urchins are not common in the rock pools that are usually accessible at low tide, but they are quite common a little deeper. The same goes for Sea cucumbers. These are hardly ever pretty but the following species is ugly even in holothurian terms. According to David Fenwick it is a Pawsonia saxicola (I have seen a prettier incarnation before):

I noticed a little gastropod which looked vaguely familiar on a Pawsonia when checking my pictures. I could identify it as a Eulimida species in my old Poppe and Goto ‘European Seashells’ book, which also mentioned that many species in this family parasitize echinoderms so that fitted. David Fenwick’s excellent site Aphotomarine has great pictures of pretty much all species occurring here in the Southwest, including a much better one of this ~~Vitreolina philippi~~ Melanella sp (identified through David’s correspondence with Jakov Prkic). David has also just launched a website dedicated to Stalked jellyfish: stauromedusa which looks amazing.

At the end of the ‘session’ I glanced something red, white and blue; a colour combination that I had seen only on photographs before. It was a single, juvenile Spiny squat lobster Galathea strigosa:

A lot of usual suspects were found as well of course, here a Cornish sucker Lepadogaster lepadogaster and a Shore rockling Gaidropsarus mediterraneus:

The rockling has a groove in front of its dorsal fin filled with hairlike fin rays that are continuously beating. Finally, not a very good picture but I’ve posted it because this is the longest animal in Britain: the Bootlace worm Lineus longissimus can grow up to 10 meters!

beachcombing

Posted on January 12, 2014 by An Bollenessor under cnidarians, crustaceans, stranded

The first weekend after the recent storms and a bright blue sky meant that it was time for some beach combing. The beach at Praa Sands looked glorious in the sun, but we were probably a little late for the serious stuff (if there was any to begin with). So no dead Triggerfish, Columbus crabs or suitcases filled with cocaine. Instead, lots of bits of plastic and rope and some Velella remnants and empty Dogfish (or Small-spotted catshark Scyliorhinus canicula) egg cases. Of course also Common goose barnacles Lepas anatifer:

More interesting was a vat with (dead) Devonshire-cup-corals Caryophyllia smithii attached:

Damage to the coast was evident:

hairy crab

Posted on December 17, 2013 by An Bollenessor under crustaceans, rock pooling

This weekend I stopped by Castle Beach in Falmouth to release some of my Snakelocks anemones (more about the aquarium in a next post…). Although the weather was bad, of course that did not prevent me from turning over some rocks. My curiosity was rewarded with another new find: a Hairy crab Pilumnus hirtellus. A beautiful little crab which is not uncommon but here it definitely is not as ubiquitous as the Furrowed and Edible crabs:

I also found a Furrowed crab Xantho incisus with unusual coloration (perhaps because it had moulted but I did not check):

By-the-wind-sailor

Posted on November 7, 2013 by An Bollenessor under cnidarians, crustaceans, stranded

A short walk on a Tuesday afternoon on Holywell Beach west of Newquay: dark, bleak, with a bit of rain and a lot of wind. The upside was that we had the beach pretty much to ourselves. Holywell is named after a well in a cave (see here), and I was quite curious to see it. Unfortunately, although we had a look in some smaller crevices, we seemed to have missed the main cave…Ah well, a good excuse to go back some time.No rock pools here, but there was some good beach combing to do with this stormy sea. For the first time I found the By-the-wind-sailor Velella velella, a Siphonophoran: a colony of specialized polyps, with short tentacles underneath and a little sail on top. They are related to the Portuguese Man-of-War. These organisms live on the open ocean, but can be blown onto shores in storms (mass stranding are common on the West Coast of the USA):The pollution of our seas with plastics is a big problem and becomes very apparent when surveying the strandline. Depressing stuff:

Finally, some washed up crates with a Common goose barnacle Lepas anatifera attached:

An Bollenessor

marine life in Cornwall @an_bollenessor

Category Archives: crustaceans

diving in the Helford Passage

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diving at Silver Steps

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more netting from the quay

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Snorkelling at Silver Steps Part I

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More Scummy Pools

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low tide finds at Flushing

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a very low tide at Castle beach

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beachcombing

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hairy crab

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By-the-wind-sailor

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