Polzeath on Cornwalls north Coast is an incredible shore, it is exposed to huge Atlantic swells yet its gullies and caves provide habitats that are rich in marine life. Filter feeders thrive here thanks to nutrients coming from the camel estuary. The place is teeming with diversity!
The weather could not have been better - flat calm (very rare for this site) and no wind plus a huge low tide thanks to the Supermoon and high pressure further pushing the water down
A vast area of kelp dominated reef was exposed and explored for the first time by the Shoresearch team!
Heading to the North end of the Bay
Laminaria hperborea kelp and dulse covered a huge area - the rocks below were carpeted in Corallina and pink plates - Mesophylum lichenoides
Jake and Mango exploring some low tide crevices!
Leaches spider crab sheltering in a snakelocks anemone
Montagus sea snail - a small fish related to a lumpsucker was found in low shore pools
This beautiful tiny sea slug Polycera quadralineatus was found in a large mid shore pool on Cystoceira seaweed.
Non native seaweed Asparagopsis armata was found for the first time at this site. Its spear like branches act like velco allowing it to be spread accidentally around the coast.
This is the first record of Corella eumota the orange lipped seasquirt at this site too. This is another non-native that is rapidly spreading around the coastline. found by Jake Meyers
Hairy crab portrait
Closeup of an orange sponge Opthalitospongia papillae
Probably Sabellaria worm tubes! They can be found at many sites but for some reason rarely form colonies in Cornwall - except of course for along the coast of North Cornwall from Crakcington haven and past Bude
Long spined sea scorpion Taurulus bubalis
This is a favorite large pool higer up the shore where jake found the tiny Polycera nudibranch
The diversity of sponges on the overhangs and rock faces is incredible - Photo by Stella
Here is a cool crab - totally covered in camoflague! This is Pisa armata -or Gibb's spider crab still rarely recorded in Cornwall -we found two males and a female.
Green leaf worm (Eulalia viridis) Pink corraline encrusting algae, Corralina elongata , a pheasant shell and some saddle oysters.
Long horned porcelain crab - Porcellana longicornis
Unidentified small polychaete worm
Upper shore pools are teaming with Bifurcaria bifurcata, tuning fork week
Blue Rayed limpet Patella pellucida
An Isopod Ideotea baltica - these were everywhere and come in a huge variety of colours! Identified by the shape of the tail
Cliona cellata booring sponge - by Jake Meyers
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The biotope that they like - breadcrumb sponge, beadlet anemones, pink encrusitng algae
Onchidella celtica - the celtic sea slug - is a land gastropod that has become adapted to life on the shore- they only come out to feed when the tide drops out and then they are only able to feed for a limited time before becoming too dry after which they will dissapear as we found out!
It was an awesome Shoresearch!! Polzeath is great!
To find out more visit the website of Polzeath Marine Conservation Group a local independent volunteer group! Who run loads of fun events and activities, beach cleans, rockpooling and much more.
Well first we had the 'Cave of Dreams' (at Fistral), then we had the 'Rock of Dreams' (Looe), and now we have the 'Pool of Dreams' found on our Cornwall Wildlife Trust Shoresearch survey at Polzeath on one of the lowest tides I have ever witnessed on this amazing shore.
As you can see from this photo our transect went down onto rocky kelp covered reefs that would normally be well covered by the w
ater and dangerously close to the surf. However on the day of our survey, 9th September 2014, we were lucky to have bright sunshine, high air pressure holding the water down and absolutely zero surf!! In this seaweed smothered shallow but pebbly pool we found an incredible diversity of marine life! Once again highlighting how fascinating rockpools can be in Cornwall!
As our quadrat landed on the pool we began to move the seaweeds and straight away spotted small tadpole like fish swimming away. This is a species that is only rarely recorded and one that I got extra specially excited about!! Montagu's sea snail - this was named after Victorian naturalist George Montagu. You can see how it got its name as it can look more like a snail than a fish. When its not swimming it often curls up and using its pelvic fins as a sucker is able to hold tight. After a lot of frustrating fishing I finally caught one specimen from the pool! and here it is..
Also found in the pool of dreams -
One graceful sea spider
one Hairy crab
one large isopod Ideotea baltica
Lots of blue rayed limpets
Squat lobster x1
Hermit crabs x4
Saddle oysters
five bearded rockling x1
Velvet swimming crab x1
Shanny x1
Montagus sea snail x5
Sea scorpion x 1
Sea spider
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGakd0Nt2fY
It was great to see Rosie Ellis again back from her travels and volunteering again with the National Trust. Rosie's eagle eyes allowed her to find a very well camouflaged crustacean. A very rare Gibbs spider crab Pisa armata. This has only been recorded a handful of times in Cornwall with a few recent records found by fishermen off Newquay. You can tell by the knobbly surface of the carapace that it is this and not the similar Eurynome aspersa.
Gibb's spider crab Pisa armata photo by Matt Slater
This guy was covered in colonial seaquirts and bryozoans !
closeup of the Gibb's Spider crab Pisa armata. Photo by Matt Slater
Sadly no stalked jellyfish this time in the usual spot!
Laura was well chuffed with her find!
A beautiful decorator crab - Macropodia rostrata
Laura's dog lends a hand with the transect
In Polzeath the star ascidians are all this amazing orange/yellow colour!
We had a great day visiting Polzeath VMCA this Saturday - volunteers from all five of Cornwalls Voluntary Marine Conservation Areas took part in an informal get together at Polzeath to share experiences and to get inspired! The weather turned out much better than we hoped and we were rewarded with a really fantastic rockpooling session. A Seasearch timed species search survey and walkover survey was carried out and once again we found lots of exiting things!
Highlights included;
Cheryl wiseman was on fire and found loads of interesting small specimens including this tiny juvenile starfish
Tiny starfish - probably Luida cillaris the seven armed starfish
Really beautiful blue daisy anemone Cereus pedunculatus
Cushion starfish amongst Corralina sea weed
it is striking the way that bladderwrack growing on this shore have really tough stipes which hold the fronds up and help the plants to cling on despite heavy wave action. They really look like tiny trees!
Colonial seasquirt living attached to base of Sargassum muticum possibly Aplydium pallidum
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