Stand up Paddle Board reccie of Marazion eel grass beds with Ocean High

I was privileged to have the opportunity yesterday to try out a totally new method of marine surveying. Laurence Smith of Ocean High, Marazion took me on a Stand Up Paddle board (SUP) exploration of the shallow lagoon to the East of the St Michael's Mount Causeway. This is a terrific method of exploring the shallow waters  and we are hoping to go back to accurately map the eel grass beds found there.
From the high vantage point of a SUP board you can see down into the water and on a clear day like this one it meant we had a fantastic view as we glided over the surface. A video camera mounted beneath Loz'z board allowed us to capture video as we traveled. A GPS was used to record the position of the outer edges of the eel grass beds in this site.

It was a fantastic survey and we now know that a SUP is a good platform for this kind of work. As the wind started to pick up and ruffle the surface of the water I got in and snorkeled and was able to ground truth our survey area. Interestingly we found what appears to be evidence of storm damage sustained by the eel grass this winter. In many areas you can see exposed rhizomes from the eel grass and a clear step is evident where sand has been removed probably taking with it eel grass plants themselves.

Damage where the sand has been removed by storms - root like rhizomes are now exposed at the edge of the remaining eel grass rhizome matt. 

Healthy eel grass Zostera marina.

Loz and the Mount 

Hairy sand weed looking like coral - Cladostephus spongiosus

Leucernaryopsis cruxmelitensis Stalked jelly fish found on Ulva lactuca sea lettuce

A SUPs eye view of the lagoon - note large rainbow wrack plants, Sargassum muticum and Bifurcaria bifurcata in foreground. 

Juvenile ballan wrasse - bright green to help them camoflague against the eel grass and sea lettuce

Newquay Shoresearch

 Once again Newquay's shoreline revealed some fantastic secrets on Tuesdays shore search survey
We started out exploring the boulder zone down at the Gazzle a cove on the North side of Towan headland. this more sheltered but still relatively exposed site is rich in biodiversity and the cliff and large boulders are covered in a thick layer of purple coraline algae and supports a diverse underboulder community of sponges, hydroids, bryozoans, tube worms of many species, and loads of crabs, cushion stars, cowries, brittlestars and broad clawed squat lobsters.

Painted topshell Calliosotma zizyphinum

The Boulder zone at extreme low water - the Gazzle - a truly rich habitat

Closeup of a Gem anemone,  Aluactinia verrucosa taken at Towan beach, Newquay by Matt Slater

Green Sea urchin  Psamechinus millaris

A tube worm possibly Sabellaria spinosa? and a crevice sea cucumber Aslia lefevrei

Found in gulley  a Beautiful Dahlia anemone 

Closeup of a very unusual red colour morph of a Daisy Anemone, Cereus pedunculatus.

Sunlight through the Sargassum - Towan beach pools

Banded pincer weed Ceramium, in the sunlight 

Moving on along the rugged coast there we found several pools that would be great to come to on a low tide but sadly the water had covered them - you need to be very careful rockpooling at Newquay because of the potential for large swells! Today wasn't too bad but make sure you don't get swept off the rocks if you go there yourselves! After surveying I took a quick trip down to Towan beach and enjoyed exploring some of the familiar pools in front of the harbour wall, home to gem anemones, green urchins and beautiful sea weeds - I hope you enjoyed the arty photos taken with my underwater camera!

Thanks to my volunteers Cheryl and Rachel it was a great survey with lots more photos saved into the Shoresearch Dropbox!

Sadly we didn't find any stalked jelly fish but I am still sure they must be there somewhere- It would be good to snorkel this site and see if they are there in the shallow sub tidal! Newquay marine group volunteers please get out and look for them!

Cheers

Matt

Shoresearch Prisk Cove Helford VMCA 21st September 2013