A while ago I played around with taking pics of the underside of a buoy, which was fun, and so i wanted to practice this some more. My mistake the first time (see here) was to use a fast shutterspeed (the buoy was bobbing about after all) which made the water look unnaturally dark. I tried again this weekend and it went a bit better, although I already know I can improve things. This time I thought it would be nice to put some names to the amazing fouling biodiversity (I did this before for some seaweed images, see here). Crustaceans (tube-dwelling Jassa), Sponges, Bryozoans, Seaweeds but especially a lot of Tunicates (seasquirts; both solitary and colonial species). David Fenwick (of AphotoMarine fame) had a quick look to help with some IDs; there is a more there but this was not meant to be exhaustive. I have underlined species that are invasive. Anyway, I am sure I will post more of these types of images: the buoys are always there and these organisms do not swim off when you try to take a photo!
Some pics from last week when the weather was good. The pools are golden brown at the moment (especially in the sun) with wire weed, thong weed and kelp dominating and mainly pinkish harpoon weed on the bottom. There are many schools of pollack along with the occasional school of young mullet and sand smelt. (One sand smelt was not in very good shape so I could get very close to take a good look.) These pics are taken using natural light. Nothing too special but I just wanted to post a bit more this year!
The sun is shining (most days) and the water has warmed up, so ideal conditions for a bit of snorkeling. I have been out at my usual spot in Falmouth (rockpools and kelp forest) and my local beach in Flushing (seagrass) (and yes, I really count myself lucky every time that l live here!). The last couple of times I have brought my son along, as he is now old enough (nine). He is a nature freak just like his dad, actually probably more so! I need to get him fins and a weight belt soon, but he has been doing fine in the water already.
The photos above and below illustrate the state of the rock pools at the moment: quite brownish with the Sargassum and Himanthalia growing everywhere. The red, pink and purple species have largely disappeared (apart from Harpoon weed) and there is quite a bit of green Ulva growing. The water teems with juvenile pollack in the rock pools and schools of sand eels a bit further out. Diving over sandy patches, you can see the latter species shooting out of the sand en masse. It is crazy how such a silvery pelagic fish can also burrow in the sand. I guess it does take its toll, as there are quite some dead ones to be seen too.
The Flushing snorkel site is very different, no (deep) rockpools, only a little bit of kelp but with a very healthy patch of seagrass. No catsharks or thornback rays when we went in, just the odd small sea bass. There are many small Snakelocks anemones on the seagrass. I used to think that it was mostly the purple form that did this but I now noticed that most were the green variety, so the morphs do not seem to differ in this respect after all. One anemone had ‘caught’ a crystal jellyfish (an Aequorea medusa). Not sure if it was in the process of being digested or just ‘stuck’.
I have played around with my new INON strobe, which works a lot better than my old strobe. I have ordered a second one for Wide Angle photos too….(as you can see there is quite some backscatter in the pic of the Shore Crab above). I will need to get back to some shore diving to make optimal use of two strobes, as I am too lousy a freediver to get the lighting and exposure right in one breath!
Matt Slater of the Cornwall Wildlife Trust wrote a very nice piece on seaweeds for the magazine ‘bloom‘ and I supplied some photos. I had not read the magazine before, but I was impressed, lots of interesting articles for anyone interested in plants.
A quick posts of some wide angle photos I took at the start of this month. The seaweeds were just past their prime but still looked nice and the viz was really good. It was great to slowly swim through the water in my usual spot between the rockpools ‘proper’ and the kelp forest. Just like swimming in a giant aquarium! Not too many fish or other animals to be seen. I always manage to suprise one big resident Ballan Wrasse. Other than that there were tiny Pollack and some Two-Spot Gobies. I have not been in the water since because the weather (wind) has not been great; maybe next week! Btw, I am also on instagram: @an_bollenessor.
Last week we visited St. Martin, one of the Isles of Scilly again, the first week we were allowed to do so. As a result, the islands were very quiet (and the pub was still closed, aargh!). It was sunny, but the easterlies were still cold and there was even a bit of frost some nights. However, I managed to get a snorkel in almost every day, which was great. I brought all my gear (again stepping on the boat wearing my weight belt…) but only used the strobes the first day; these are still an ongoing frustration of mine! I tried out most beaches, especially enjoying Porth Morran, where the kelp met the seagrass. (The pics in the Gallery are click-able btw.)
Wrack Siphon Weed Vertebrata lanosa
Bladder Wrack Fucus vesiculosus
After the wracks, the rocks were dominated by Brown Tuning Fork Weed Bifurcaria bifurcata (with Osmundea, Chondrus, Ceramium and other species mixed in).
Very common on top of the Bifurcaria was either Colpomenia or Leathesia; I should know the difference but I cannot figure it out (even after squeezing between fingers)!
After the Bifurcaria zone dense Himanthalia elongata stands.
Very tall Sargassum muticum.
Very tall Gongolaria baccata.
The tall Brown seaweeds, Himanthalia, Sargassum and Gongolaria, were interspersed with seagrass beds, with Ulva, Saccharina and some Asparagopsis inbetween.
Seagrass
Huge masses of Sugar Kelp Saccharina latissima.
Some sites were dominated by kelp Laminaria digitata with Common Sea Urchins Echinus esculentus munching away. Fish life was very limited; I saw Ballan- and Corkwing Wrasse and Thicklipped Mullet but not much else.
Common Sea Urchin Echinus esculentus
Other sites were more ‘beachy’ with white sand, small rocks covered in Snakelocks Anemones and Seaweeds and Seagrass. The visibility looked very promising but was quite bad some days unfortunately (especially compared to our visit last September, see here). All in all a great time was had and we hope to visit again next year!
Seagrass, showing the extensive root- and rhizome systems that are so good at storing carbon (in addition, the seagrass beds store carbon by trapping floating particles).
A Spiny Starfish Marthasterias glacialis.
A tiny Macropdia crab covered in seaweed, not done justice without a strobe!
I have been trying to make the most of the seaweed season the past few weeks. This mainly entails lying motionless in two feet of 9C water, taking 100s of pics until my finger refuses to press the shutter lever. It is a lot of fun! Yesterday was a no go unfortunately: the easterlies picked up (there were even surfers in the water which is very rare at Gylly Beach) and the water was very milky. I managed to go a few times last week though and here are some photos of seaweed assemblages with names (there are a few species hidden that I did not bother with, so these do not fully do justice to the biodiversity).
Just a very quick post: went for a snorkel today as the sun was shining; there was some wind so the viz was not the best. Snapped a lot of ‘6’s but I liked the green Ulva lactuca (sea lettuce) and the red Sphaerococcus coronopifolius (berry wart cress). Both are plants (‘Plantae’) and not related to the brown kelp in the background (which is more closely related to potato blight!).
It has been a wile since I last posted. This winter was long and dreary, the sea choppy and grey. I managed to do some rock pooling, and took a bunch of pictures, which I probably should have posted… The good news is that a mishap with my camera housing last year resulted in Olympus giving me a new model housing + a new model camera to fit (OMD EM1 mark 2) AND a new dome, lucky me! Regular readers of this blog know I get very excited in March, as this is when the seaweeds look at their best. This week the tides were low and the wind conditions favourable (the sun was not always out unfortunately), so I made sure to go in the water every day. The water is cold (9C), especially after being in for 2 hours, but it is all worth it. The seaweed growth was lush, with species literally growing on top of each other. I tried to shoot with strobes, but this proved too difficult and switched to natural light. Keeping ISO at 200, I aimed to lower shutter speed to 1/30, managing an F stop of between 5 and 8, depending on cloud cover. I now get the hang of that, but it is difficult to keep photos well-exposed, with enough depth of field and maintain sharpness. Below some examples. I am lazy and will not add seaweed names (but see the Seaweed Gallery page at the top if you are interested). When the tides are low again at the end of next week I hope to go out again!
An Bollenessor 