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

Inspirational day for VMCA volunteers at Polzeath

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

Nice grey snakelocks anemone amongst Bifucaria bifurcata

Stalked jellyfish Halyclystus octoradiatus found on Sargassum muticum - three were found in the same pool! 

Deep gullies like this one provide cover for species you would not normally expect to find on such an exposed shore.

Pink plates Mesophyllum lichenoides are common amongst Corrallina turf on the edges of the pools 

Cereus pedunculatus - Daisy Anemone
Photograph by Matt Slater 

Thought I'd share this photograph of a Daisy anemone taken using my olympus TG2 waterproof point and shoot camera this summer in the lagoon at Hannafore point Looe. Its such an amazing habitat - the shallow  low tide lagoon is home to an astonishing diversity of marine wildlife, eel grass and a huge diversity of seaweeds. Daisy anemones are often found in sandy filled gullys or pools from the low shore to as deep as 50m. This one was sheltered next to a rocky reef. the holdfast of the anemone is attached to bed rock or a large stone below the gravel, when disturbed they quickly retract into the sand and dissapear. This is the largest daisy anemone that I have ever seen and was 5 inches (12 cm approx) across and reminded me of the large tropical bubble tip anemones that clown fish live in.