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).