a superlow tide at Flushing

IMG_6840The tide this Sunday in Flushing was as low as it was the day before in Mount’s Bay and the weather was just as great too. We could walk among the Eelgrass and Golden kelp Laminaria ochroleuca. There were lots of Snakelocks anemones Anemonia viridis around; especially striking were patches of what must be clones. The tentacles are much shorter than the ones in my aquarium or those found deeper on kelp, must be due to being less exposed to the waves. Loads of fish as is usual here, a single overturned rock yielded five species alone! Again pictures of the Connemara clingfish Lepadogaster candollei, a Butterfish Pholis gunnellus (very wriggly, hard to get a good shot) and Tompot blenny Parablennius gattorugine eggs:IMG_6880

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IMG_6865This site is sheltered and silty and some species are more characteristic for this habitat and much less common in Castle Beach in Falmouth. Examples include the Keyhole limpet Diodora graeca, the Elephant hide sponge Pachymatisma johnstonia and the Yellow-plumed seaslug Berthella plumula:IMG_6869

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IMG_6885The diversity of seaweeds was very high and I think the pictures below give a good impression of that. Very low on the shore Bushy noduled wrack Cystoseira nodicaulis can be found; in this case almost as iridescent as is Bushy rainbow wrack Cystoseira tamariscifolia. We found some Beautiful kidney weed Kallymenia reniformis, here David Fenwick is taking a photo of it on his first visit to my local haunt. All in all one of the best rock pooling weekends so far!

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a very low tide at Flushing

I made some pics last weekend when low tide wasn’t very low, but since this weekend the tides hit record lows I will first post about these finds. First up, the sheltered estuarine conditions in Penryn river in Flushing, opposite Falmouth’s port. The conditions are silty, with lots of sponges, tunicates, variegated scallops, sea lemons, European cowries and enormous amounts of Squat lobsters (see also this old post). With the tide this low, we were able to see some other stuff as well. The water went as low as the Eelgrass:IMG_6170Shannys, Rock gobies, Rockling, Worm pipefish and (to a lesser extent) Butterfish are easy to find in Flushing. Today we saw for the first time two Connemara clingfish Lepadogaster candollei (first pic). Next a Rock goby Gobius paganellus. We also saw many large Tompot blennies Parablennius gattorugine which live subtidally and only now could be seen:

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IMG_6186The real surprise of the afternoon was a juvenile Common lobster Homarus vulgaris. All in all a very succesful trip!IMG_6138

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