Incredible marine life hides, just a stones throw from the Hidden Hut at Porthcurnick!

Fantastic day for a survey - this is the reef we explored for our shoresearch survey. Porthcurnick is on the Roseland near Porthscatho. This is the view from the Hidden Hut- a fantastic beach cafe with incredible food and what a view!

First time Shoresearcher Tallana had the find of the day! Here it is....

Asterina phylactica  (sounds a bit like battlestar galactica)- a very rare tiny cushion starfish - what a beauty!! This is a climate change indicator species that we may well start seeing more of in Cornwall it is about one centimeter across and is an adult! more info here

Tallanas young eyes helped her also spot this tiny and beautiful chiton on a small pebble

I found this tiny crab which I think is Pirimela denticulata judging by the shape of the carapace (shell)

Another personal favourite crab - the Hairy crab! dont grow very large - about (3cm max) but are pretty common on the south coast under boulders! 

I have never seen a baby spiny starfish ( Marthsterias glacias )as small as this one!! Great find by Tallana and her mum Anthea! it was about one centimetre!

In a mid shore pool that was full of Corallina algae we found this beautful cowrie, Trivia monacha, roaming about - note the soft mantle wraps around its pale shell making it look dark in colour when roaming about underwater. 

We were really excited to see this - it is hard to believe that this isn't a different species but apparently its a juvenile cowrie- about the same size with a very thin and delicate shell with a clear spire on the end and a very open aperture compared with that of an adult cowrie.

Rob found a beauty Cornish suckerfish Lepadogaster lepadogaster

While we are on fish.. check out this beautiful juvenile dragonet - only about one inch in length! swimming in a shallow pool!

SPOT THE STALKED JELLYFISH - many of the pools were full of wireweed - a non native species that has been around for many years now- we increasingly notice that native species are living in it such as stalked jellyfish. 

 here is a larger pair of  beautiful and under recorded stalked jellyfish Haliclystus octoradiatus which were found living in the wire weed  approx 12mm tall.

here are some Obelia hydroids living in the wire weed

Algolaphenia hydroid in rainbow wrack which was home to a huge diversity of species!

We found an amazing pool with a host of small Montagu's blennies - some of which were really dark in colour - presumably a natural colour morph. here is a silhouette of one showing its beautiful tentacle crest which is diagnostic of this species.

Lots of  harpoon weed on this site - note the harpoons!

It was a great training day - really nice to see some new volunteers, Pat Farrell, Anthea and Tallana, Simon the work experience guy and Miranda Moore and her dad! Plus old hands, Sarah Stevens, Sue Scott and local seaweed enthusiast Christine Townsend.

We finished off with a lovely piece of cake and a cup of tea at the Hidden Hut - thanks to Simon and Jemma for making us so welcome! 

Next date for Shoresearch volunteer training is 16th August at the amazing Trevone... but between then and now there are lots of rockpool rambles you can take part in to practice your skills see the events listing in a previous post!

Cheers 

Matt

Stalked Jellies are here!

The first Shoresearch training day of the year was held on Bank holiday Monday, May the fourth with a classroom session at Falmouth Watersports Centre followed by a survey at nearby castle beach.

Castle beach 

The shore there had recently been battered by easterly storms and we saw evidence of that in that much of the sand on the top of the beach has been removed. 3 beautiful clams called banded Venus were found

Banded Venus shell

The biggest surprise though was seeing so many stalked jellyfish. the lower shore pools were teeming with small Haliclystus octoradiatus stalked jellies, a protected and rare species. there has clearly just been a spring bloom of these strange creatures and as David Fenwick had often described we found that the fine branches of red seaweed Ceramium were particularly thick with tiny 2 or 3 mm high juveniles. They were also on other species of seaweed, in fact it was hard to find a bit of seaweed without stalked jellies on! Sea lettuce, Red grape weed, bunnies ears, all had stalked jellies and we even found them living in Sargassum weed - evidence that this invasive species is providing habitat now to our local rare species.

Stalked Jellyfish in Ceramium

tiny stalked jellies on Ulva

Stalked jellies in wireweed Sargassum muticum

Harpoon weed

Orange colonial ascidian Applidium nordmanii and above it Verruca stroemia barnacles

there was lots of this Cystosiera seaweed - probably Cystoceira nodicaulis

It was a really great day and It was particularly nice to see lots of new volunteers keen to get involved in shoresearch. I hope you all enjoyed it and I am looking forward to the next survey which will be at Talland Bay near Looe on the 16th of June 2015.

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

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 Jellies finally found at Newquay!

First Stalked jelly to be found at Newquay! Photo Matt Slater 

This afternoon I joined Marine Conservation students and lecturers from Cornwall College Newquay for a Shoresearch at Newquay's Fistral beach! For a change we were greeted with calm seas, light winds and sunshine. The students were using baited go pro cameras to attempt to film giant gobies in the pools! The habitat there certainly looks good and we all saw large fish darting for cover as we walked past pools. I'm looking forward to hearing if any were caught on camera!
Whilst the students deployed their cameras I had a scout around looking for stalked jellies and YES finally I have found some! This is really significant for Newquay as as far as I know this rare species has not been recorded before here.  As always its just when you feel like giving up and going home that you find one - they are tiny 2 cm maximum height and approx 1 cm wide, and they live on marine seaweed. A few minutes later I saw another one, this one much smaller. Both are Haliclistus octoradiatus - a Biodiversity action plan species, because of its rarity that is only found in very specific habitats!  It will be fantastic to get more records for these rare species within the Newquay rMCZ!

SJ 2 

 both were found living in bushy Cystociera seaweed  (looks very similar to Sargassum but more bushy and paler in colour).

bushy Cystociera seaweed 

It was great to visit a patch of shore that is so often battered by huge surf but is so rich in life! In a cave a few metres from the pool with the stalked jellies we found a really surprising find - a large colony of bright orange solitary corals living in a pool sheltered from the surf by a cave that faces back toward s the shore!
This is a really rare find and although not a protected species there are only a handful of sited in the UK where you can see this species - the Scarlet and Gold Cup coral Ballanophyllia regia

Angus and students at the coral cave

Close up of Scarlet and Gold Cup corals Balanophyllia regia

Stalked jelly with fingertips as scale

Red grape weed Gastroclonium ovatum - Photo Matt Slater

South Fistral - a fantastically biodiverse and underrated shore

Himenthalia elongata - Thong weed, young growth

Beadlet anemone