Mega Shoresearch Weekend 2014 longrock Marine day

The first event of our Mega Shoresearch weekend was a survey and public event at Long Rock near Penzance.

Here an extensive reef of Mylor slate lies just outside the current boundary of the Mounts Bay Proposed Marine Conservation Zone. We were joined by Local marine expert David Fewick and Rob Seabold of Natural England as well as a host of keen volunteers and the slippery rocks of this impressive reef were surveyed! 

Holes bored in Mylor slate by Piddocks - photo by Margaret Gardener

The slate is bored in many places by burrowing bivalves called Pidocks, themselves a rare speices to find on our coasts which have very particular geological requirements! Just to the West of the reef lies a fantastic eel grass bed which although taking a beating by our winter gales is still hanging on in there! 

the tide rapidly came in and sadly I didnt make it out to the piddock holes so will definately need to visit again soon! 

Cat worm Nephtys hombergi  found in mud

Cat worm Nephtys hombergi  Proboscis extended - Fearsome! 

Thin Tellins were common in the mud

Despite a windy and wet afternoon we werent deterred and thanks to a fantastic new waterproof heavy duty gazebo, and the loan of Lawrence Smiths fantastic luxury gas bbq we were able to feed and water all the shoresearch volunteers and our PANACHE seasearch divers who carried out an evening shoredive near the causeway. 

Sarah and the food!!  - thanks to Loz  from Ocean high Paddleboarding for lending us his EPIC GAS Barbecue! 

PANACHE Shoresearch and Seasearchers at Mounts bay

Fantastic Marazion yeilds strange surprises!

The weather stayed fine for our Marazion Marine day yesterday and a large group of shoresearchers turned out for what proved to be another epic day on the shore!
We had a great turnout of families for the public rockpool ramble and, who could fail to be impressed by the beautiful eel grass beds and colorful seaweeds and anemones we found?
People were amazed at the variety of crabs found on the shore - edible crabs, velvet crabs, shore crabs, Montagu's crabs, long horned porcelain crabs, broad clawed porcelain crabs, hermit crabs and squat lobsters were all in abundance!

The water clarity was amazing at the edge of the eel grass beds (which we were careful not to walk on!)
And living among seaweeds were found yet more stalked jellyfish Lecernaryopsis cruxmelitensis.
David Fenwick found an incredibly rare double headed stalked jellyfish.A Siamese twin version of the Maltese cross species.

Thanks to all the volunteers who came along - most got the chance to see a stalked jellyfish and all enjoyed exploring a fantastic shore.

Rare to see a s legged cushion starfish! 

A beautiful gem anemone found by Tim Caulfield

Water clarity in the shallows around the edge of the eel grass bed was astoundingly good 

A five bearded rockling with a very unusual forked barbel

A beautiful day on the Shore

Zoe at the shorelab

Red sponge found in an upper shore pool

Stalked Jellyfish Bonanza at Mounts Bay

Despite the terrible weather that Cornwall suffered this winter the shore at Marazion was extremely biodiverse for our Shoresearch survey day last Saturday!

A total of 15 volunteers turned out and all were treated to sightings of the nationally rare Stalked jellyfish that are a Feature of conservation interest for this site!  Local naturalists David Fenwick and Dr Paul Gainey joined us in exploring the lower shore shallow eel grass lagoon to the East of the Causeway to St Michaels Mount and straight away we were recording rare stalked jellies.



In total we made:
9 records of Haliclistus octoradiatus -  (5 in the lower shore lagoon and 4 in upper shore pools).
1 record of Leucernariopsis campanulata
1 record of Craterlophus convolvulus 
and 15 records of Leucernariopsis cruxmelitensis

In the past week David has recorded many more Stalked jellies so we now have definite proof that this area is important for these rare protected species. In fact numbers have been so large that it has been described as a bloom! Why this has occurred is not clear and more research needs to be carried out to investigate such rare population explosions.

Maltese Cross Stalked Jellyfish Leucernariopsis cruxmelitensis photo by Matt Slater

Using a hand held GPS Jason Birt was able to record the shore-ward boundary of two large eel grass beds - again a feature of Conservation interest to the site. We discussed with Laurence Smith who runs a stand up paddle board school at Marazion the possibility of returning when the weather is good to map the outer extent of the beds by snorkelling and from paddle boards. It sounds like a great idea - please get in touch if you would be interested in helping out with that!

Long horned porcelain crab magnified! 

Shoresearchers surveying an eel grass filled lagoon

Portrait of a worm pipefish

Generally the level of biodiversity in the site was very high, we recorded lots of Sea hares among the eel grass, and every boulder you looked beneath was home to porcelain crabs, both long horned and broad clawed, Montagues crabs and worm pipefish!

H. octoradiatus by Matt Slater - note the spherical primary tentacles
and the more randomly placed spherical nematocysts

After surveying the lower shore eel grass beds we moved up to a high shore site near the village of Marazion and again found lots of stalked jellys living in pools often attached to wire weed Sargassum muticum. A total of 4 more Haliclistus octoradiatus were found there!

A fantastic day out - and thanks to all of you for turning up!

Looking forward to seeing you over Easter at our next survey on 16th April again at Marazion!

Cheers


Matt

St Agnes Shoresearch 18th September 2013