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Cornwall (and the South West UK): my go-to identification site is Aphoto Marine which has many species occuring in SW England covered (see also Aphotofauna, Aphotoflora and Aphotofungi and the excellent stauromedusae.co.uk with all there is to know about stalked jellyfish in Britain). Other local rock pooling blogs are Cornwall Wildlife Trust Shoresearch, Cornish Rock Pools and the Marine Enthusiast. The Salty Scavenger is another great British rock pooling blog. See HydroMotionMedia for underwater film and photography in Cornwall. Check Atlantic Scuba and Dive Falmouth for indepth information on Cornish dive sites. The Cornwall Beach Guide has all the info on (you guessed it) Cornish beaches and coves. Subseatv has great footage of marine underwater habitats in the UK. For short-term tide times check tidetimes.org or for longer term tide times tides4fishing.

Identification Websites: The Marine Life Information Network, British Marine Life Study Society, British Marine Life Pictures, Encyclopedia of Marine Life of Britain and Ireland and Sealord photography contain many species photo galleries. The Marine Flora & Fauna of Norway blog has beautiful photos of many organisms also found in Cornwall. For Molluscs, see The Conchological Society of Britain and Ireland, Marine Bivalve Shells of the British Isles, and see here for the excellent Nudibranchs of the British Isles book. For sponges, see the Habitas Sponge Guide. A great collection of beautiful macro photographs of British molluscs and barnacles can be found on Morddyn’s flickr account. The Shark Trust’s ‘The Great Eggcase Hunt‘ page contains a key to mermaid’s purses. See here for for a UK (shallow) waters cephalopod guide. For seaweed information see The Seaweed Site.

Facebook: Facebook is an amazing resource when it comes to help ID-ing (photographed) organisms. General groups: Seasearch Identifications (and Seasearch Cornwall), British Marine Life Study Society, Porcupine Marine Natural History Society and Shorewatch. For beachcombing in the UK see Beachcombing (British Coastline) and The Essential Guide to Beachcombing and the Strandline, see also Rockpooling & Shrimping UK and British Shorelife. Specialist groups: Seaweeds of the NE Atlantic, Seaweeds and Algae of Britain and Ireland, NE Atlantic Cnidaria, NE Atlantic Bryozoa, NE Atlantic Tunicata, Crustacea of the NE Atlantic & NW Europe, Echinoderms of the NE Atlantic, NE Atlantic Porifera, British Marine Mollusca, NE Atlantic Nudibranchs and Mollusca of the NE Atlantic & NW Europe. Shoresearch Cornwall is a volunteer programme of the Cornwall Wildlife Trust. For Seagrass conservation activities see Project Seagrass and Community Seagrass Initiative. HydroMotionMedia specializes in Cornish underwater video and photo. The Essential Guide to Rockpooling has many rock pool photo’s and In the Company of Seahorses has info on British seahorses; both pages are coupled to a highly recommended books by the same names. For aquarists, the British Marine Aquarists Association group and the Coldwater Marine Aquarium Owners group are highly recommended, see also the smaller page Wet Thumb. Aerial Cornwall has beautiful videos and photos of the Cornish coast.

Identification Books: my favoute guide is Collins Complete Guide to British Marine Wildlife: great photographs and a lot of the more common species covered. For more species and information check out the range of Seasearch guides: my Seaweed guide is most used, my Bryozoans and Hydroids guide most needed and my Sea Anemones and Corals is most beautiful. A Student’s Guide to the Seashore does not have very nice illustrations but has good background information. A Field Guide to Marine Fishes of Wales and Adjacent Waters is great but has recently been surpassed by Inshore Fishes of Britain and Ireland. Identification Guide tot the Inshore Fish of the British Isles is a bit more expensive and not all the photographs are of good quality.  Beneath Cornish Seas is a small (cheap) paperback with beautiful underwater pictures. The Essential Guide to Beachcombing and the Strandline is a must-have and In the Company of Seahorses and The Essential Guide to Rockpooling by the same authors is too. Exploring Britain’s Hidden World – A natural history of seabed habitats by Keith Hiscock is also great.

Underwater Photography: Underwater Photography Guide is an excellent resource (see for instance this article on the benefits of mirrorless cameras). Dive Photo Guide is also a very informative site. Digital Photography Guide has many excellent product reviews and an underwater photography forum. WetPixel has great articles and a very useful forum and a super youtube channel. This is a guide to underwater photography with the Canon G16 (my old camera) and this is one for the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II. Many useful tips on the blog Alphamarine. British Marine Life Pictures has many useful links too. See here for great Cornish underwater photos by Mark Webster and here for great UK underwater photos by Paul Kaye. My instagram account is here.

Temperate Marine Aquaria: few sites are available (although forums are a good source of tank diaries, e.g. this thread). This is a great youtube channel on Norwegian coldwater tanks. Irish rockpool aquarium is a great (now defunct) blog; Jon  Olavs Akvarium was the first blog on European coldwater aquariums and is a great source of inspiration. Other sites (not all updated): British Seashore & Rock Pool Life, rockpooling UK, Keeping British Marine Life and Bicycles and the Sea. See here for an awesome Russian anemone tank. Reef Hobbyist Magazine has a very good article by North American coldwater tank guru Stu Wobbe. The Coldwater Marine Aquarium: Biogeography, Ecology & Husbandry book by Kenneth Wingerter features pics of my own aquarium and I need to buy it myself very soon! The Advanced Aquarists has an article on temperate tanks by the same author. If you speak Dutch, check the Noordzee en Koud Zeewater Forum. If you want to go really oldschool, check out ‘The Aquarium: an Unveiling of the Wonders of the Deep Sea’ by Philip Henry Gosse, published in 1854!  Practical Fishkeeping is a good general aquarium site (and magazine), and editor Nathan Hill also produces a yearly magazine focused on all things fishy, called (yes) FISH. Reefbuilders has many product reviews and nano-reef has many active forums, focusing on small tanks with some threads on coldwater tanks. See Aquariumdigest for a lot of useful info on LED lighting.

Other: The Outer Shores is a great blog exploring the intertidal of the American Pacific Northwest coast (or is it really the Pacific North East coast?). See Pwll y Môr for really nifty photostitches of rockpools in Wales. See Sophie Lavoie’s website for great seaweed artwork and Of Microscopes and Monsters… for posts on British algae. Not cold water but a very cool project straddling the boundaries between art, science, outreach and conservation is Coral Morphologic in Miami. See for Cornish nature and culture the Cornish Birdblog. This is a fun blog straddling the boundaries between marine and neurobiology, diving and ‘musings’.