Buoy

Posted on December 18, 2022 by An Bollenessor under bryozoans, Flushing, snorkeling, sponges, tunicates, wide angle

A rare sunny interval on Saturday meant I grabbed my gear for one last snorkel this year before returning to The Netherlands for Christmas. The visibility seemed good the last couple of days (judged by peering down the quay) and there was no wind, but I was quickly disappointed when sticking my head underwater at Flushing beach (also had major brain freeze!). I headed to the nearest buoy to practice some close focus wide able shots with my two strobes (one just arrive back from Japan for repairs). This proved difficult but fun. Lots of adjusting positions; outward when they created back scatter and inwards when the middle of the photo was not lit up. As the buoy was bobbing about I used a fast shutterspeed which resulted in dark water but that too has its charms. Lots of diversity, including the solitary seasquirt Cione intestinalis, colonial seasquirts Botryllus schlosseri, Diplosoma listerianum, Didemnum (maculosum?), bryozoans Watersipora subatra and Bugula and/or Bugulina species, the purse sponge Sycon ciliatum as well as tufts of red seaweeds and green Ulva. There are an enormous amount of tiny critters such as worms and snails hidden between all these species as well. It will be a nice project for next year to take a better wide able pic and complement these with macro pics of individual species.

Oaten Pipes Hydroid

Posted on May 31, 2015 by An Bollenessor under Canon Powershot D30, hydroids, pontooning

Another small post. I went out to the marina in Mylor Harbour to check what the pontoons looked like. It turned out OK-ish but no Peacock worms and only a few little Plumose anemones. However, the trip was worth it solely by the find of a hydroid colony, which my Seasearch guide told me was the Oaten pipes hydroid Tubularia indivisa. Very pretty! By taking 30 photos with my Canon Powershot, I ensured I had a couple in focus. Also in the frame some little Sycon ciliatum sponges (these are a lot more rounded than some of the others I have seen, see here).

Mud pooling off the Quay

Posted on April 27, 2015 by An Bollenessor under coral, crustaceans, eggs, fish, molluscs, nets, sponges

I have previously posted about exploring the more muddy sites in Flushing’s Penryn River and also about catching fish with a net from the quay (here and here). This weekend had a good tide and I decided to combine the two by climbing down from the quay with my net. No blue water and clear, colourful rock pools but black mud, waste from fishing boats and in general a lot of crap, not a pretty sight/site! Mussels and (native) oysters, rock gobies, fan worms and estuary sponge are common here. Lifting one piece of waste, i found a juvenile Eel Anguilla anguilla, which was impossible to grab and place into my cuvette for a proper photograph. One cool find were bundles of squid eggs (no idea about the species). I also found tangles of the sponge Sycon ciliatum, which before I had only seen as individuals hanging from seaweeds (see here). Also visible are some Leucosolenia botryoides sponges.There was a heap of discarded scallop shells; I noticed they were covered by large Balanus balanus barnacles as well as the soft coral Dead man’s fingers Alcyonium digitatum (I had never seen this before but this could only be one thing!). The lower parts of the quaysides were covered in estuary and breadcrumb sponges and especially in droopy Morchellium (or Aplidium?) sea squirts. Although generally an ‘ugly’ habitat with lots of waste to boot, still plenty of interesting finds.

Pontooning

Posted on October 19, 2014 by An Bollenessor under anemones, bryozoans, Canon Powershot D30, cnidarians, invasive species, pontooning, sponges, worms

Unfortunately, the weather turned before I had another opportunity to go diving (or snorkeling). The wind and rain have reduced visibility too much and so I’ll have to wait half a year or so before conditions improve….too bad! I missed the low tides recently as well. However, today there was time for a bit of ‘pontooning’, i.e. lying flat on a pontoon and staring at the creatures attached to it. It is quite convenient as it is not dependent on tides and the communities are very different from that of rock pools. There is a very large marina at nearby Mylor Bridge that I had visited before in summer. There was a bit more life then (schools of mysid shrimp, more seaweeds, more tunicates) but it is still looking nice now. I used my iPhone to take pictures before, but holding it above the water was tricky and did not produce good results so I brought my new Canon Powershot instead (still not easy to take pictures as at the same time I had to prevent my two-year old son falling in the water). The bulk of the biomass hanging from the pontoons consists of tunicates (mainly Ciona intestinalis). Small Plumose anemones Metridium senile are common (more about those in the next aquarium update), as well as the sponge Sycon ciliatum. I even found a small Elegant anemone Sagartia elegans (var. venusta). The invasive Bryozoan Bugula neritina is very common; it looks a bit like seaweed even though it is an animal (see here for a description). Finally, the Peacock worm Sabella pavonina is common (and very striking). Just two pictures below as the rest was subpar; I have to go back on my own sometime soon maybe.

scummy pools

Posted on June 3, 2014 by An Bollenessor under eggs, molluscs, rock pooling, seaweeds, sponges, tunicates

For the first time in a while I had time to nip over to Castle Beach to do a little rock pooling. The tide wasn’t the best and the pools did not look to great either actually; this seemed to be due to a mix of some seaweed species dying off, and some not so great-looking species ones blooming: Lots of Wireweed, Ulva and very fine weeds (the latter are often very pretty under magnified and in water, but not so much as a blob on the rocks). What might be Desmarestia viridis (but don’t take my word for it): Still, there was plenty to see: Orange-clubbed sea slugs for instance and one very weird-looking creature I had never noticed before was clinging on in little groups on red seaweeds under overhangs, the annual sponge Sycon ciliatum:

The Breadcrumb sponge Halicondria panicea can be very nicely coloured: There were a lot of tunicates about. Colony-forming Morchellium argum for instance and this beauty, probably Ascidia mentula (determined by helpful folks at the ‘NE Atlantic Tunicata‘ facebook group): One colony-forming tunicate looked superficially like Botryllus but was much bigger and less pretty, it might be Aplidium nordmanni: Quite a lot of Sting winkles Ocenebra erinacea were around as well:Finally, I spotted the orange/yellow egg masses of the Cornish sucker (or Shore clingfish) Lepadogaster lepadogaster (see here for an older post on them). However, I also found some that were greyish and had a speckled band, as well as a red dot between the eyes. Local expert David Fenwick told me these are from the Small-headed clingfish Apletodon dentatus, a species I have not yet seen the adults of (see his site for pictures):