Shoresearch Week 2015 Day 2, Hannafore point, Looe in Pictures

Fantastically low tide - you could easily have walked to Looe Island! 

..,.,.and how excited was I?! My first Conger eel - I've spent my life rockpooling but never found one of these before!! 40 must be my lucky year! 

what a beauty!! note the lower jaw is the same lenght as the upper jaw, much more blue /grey than a common eel and two large nostril tubes

Beautiful star ascidians Botryllus shlosseri - photo by Jenny Lord! Thanks Jenny this is definitely going in my collection!

Montagus crabs - now very common all around the Cornish Coast - rare when I was a kid. Note they vary in colour alot, this one lacks the typical black tips on its claws but it is definately a Montagu's! Xantho hydrophilus

It was nice to get into the eel grass beds although they seemed to have reduced in size since last year - lots of brown leaves suggesting the autumn die back has started relatively early. Here is a nice Stalked Jellyfish Leucernariopsis campanulata found on a sea grass frond by eagle eyed Jake Meyers.

Lots of Creephorn was found - Chondracanthus acicularis

beautiful conditions for shoresearching - Photo Jenny Lord

Chondrus crispus, Irish moss grows very fleshy and long at Hannafore - photo Jenny Lord

The Shoresearch team!! Thanks guys it was a great survey! 

Find out more about Looes incredible marine life at the Looe Marine Conservation Groups website

Looe Shoresearch - the ultimate rock

On this years survey of Hannafore point, Looe. Shoresearch volunteers were amazed, on lifting a large flat rock, to find nearly all of the lower shore animals you would expect to find on the shore under one rock!
the total number of animal species found was 21.
here is the list;

Shore rockling x4
Velvet crabs x 4
Shanny x1 (large)
Broad clawed porcelain crabs x8
Athanas nitescence (boy racer shrimps) x 8
Bootlace worm (Britains longest animal species) x1m (juvenile)
Scale worm x1
Worm pipefish x 4
Montagu's crab x 4
Longhorned porcelain crab x4
Squat lobster (Galathea squamifera)x 3
Star ascidian 1x colony
Strawberry ascidian (Aplidium proliferum)
Sea lemon x2
Hermit crab x1
pale beige breadcrumb sponge Halichondria panicea x1
Keel worms *30
Cthalamus and Semibalanus barnacles x 400 (ish)
Volcano barnacles x 30 (ish)
Spirorbis worms x 300 (ish)
Risso's Crab x 1

Grand total  21 species

Rob lifts the rock of Dreams

Individual animals 797!!

Squat Lobster Galathea squamifera

Shore Rockling (note 3 barbels around mouth)

Shanny - photo Matt Slater

Broad Clawed porcelain Crab Porcellana platycheles

Long horned porcelain crab Pisidia longicornis

Breadcrumb sponge Halichondria panicea

Montagu's Crab

The rest of the survey went very well too! We decided to carry out a transect survey along a long gully  so that it can easily be repeated in future.  Heather (www.cornishrockpools.com)  did a walkover survey in the lagoon and found stalked jellies among the eel grass! On the extreme lower shore we also found a really cool chameleon prawn. Thanks to Amelia, Micky, Cheryl, Rob, Heather and Louis, John and Jasmina who all turned out to help! It was a great day.  

Chameleon prawn Hippolyte varians - by Matt Slater

Stalked Jellyfish Lecernariopsis campanlata -Heather Buttinvant

The tide flooded in incredibly rapidly! 

Shorecrabs Carcinus maenas - its a crab eats crab world out there! 

Looe Island, a magical place

Go on.... you know you want to make a visit!! 

This years annual Looe Island survey and campover for Looe VMCA volunteers and CWT marine staff was once again a magical couple of days. Thanks to John and Claire for welcoming us all and thanks to Abby for her fantastic organisation skills! 

Unfortunately due to the mega shoresearch weekend I was too knackered to make the sleep over but got there in time for a huge low tide and to take part in the annual transect survey! Having 2 teams of low water surveyors really made it a pleasure as the onerous quadrats can otherwise make it extremely difficult to fit in an entire survey into one tide! 

Thanks for your help to Cheryl Wiseman, Martin gregory, Sue Pybus and Cat Wilding for your fantastic company and skills! 

The shore on the sheltered side of Looe island is incredibly rich in seaweed and a myriad of incredible creatures can be found among them. There are deep cracks in the rock full of sea squirts and pink plates and the pink encrusted slates on the lower shore hide a myriad of creatures. 

Sue and Cat  on the lower shore - note the fantastic weather!! 

Juvenile squat lobster - this is the second one we found this summer with this unusual white stripe down the back- the other was found on the night rockpooling at Marazion a few days before! Note the massive eyes!! Galatea squamifera

this tiny pheasant shell can be identified by its shape and its white calcified operculum 

Toothed crab - Pirimela denticulata - note the large spine 'tooth' on front of shell. Only the second one I have ever seen! 

Closeup of a worm pipefish

Snorkelling on the Hannafore side of the island the channel is full of non native seaweeds - large stands of Sargassum muticum and big clumps of harpoon weed Asparagpsis armata.

Shoresearch Hannafore point Looe 22nd September 2013