Rockpooling competition at Holywell Bay Surf Lifesaving Club

 Not strictly relevant to shore search but I wanted to tell you all about the awesome Holywell bay surf lifesaving club rockpooling competition last Saturday - this was the first time the club has run a rockpooling session and it was amazing how much the kids and adults enjoyed learning about their local rockpools. Holywell is an exposed North Coast bay near Newquay that gets battered by Atlantic swells and is not usually associated with good rockpooling but our teams of nippers and adults discovered a wealth of life in the pools and on the rocks. Prizes were awarded for biggest fish - won by my daughter Daisy who (with her mums help caught a monster shanny (and put it back afterwards!)  Prizes were also given for the largest crab well done Millie! and for the most numbers of species - well done Widge and family who found 15 species. The Nipper Juniors paddled out on their boards to Gull rock and found loads of spiney starfish and a  beautiful bloody henry starfish - a species that you rarely find on the shore (I think John the fish may have swam down for this one!). We also found loads of Celtic sea slugs Onchidella celtica on the rocks on the South side of the bay. I had the honour of being the judge and made sure that everyone stuck to the seashore code - no animals were harmed and every one had a great fun day!

Bloody Henry starfish  -photos by Cheryl Cooper

Smiles all round! 

The winning shanny and a runner up! 

Prize giving ceremony at the club hut

Rare to find one of these in a rockpool - two spot goby - 

Little beauty - well done to Widge for catching these
 thanks to Dave for photographing them.