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

Talland Bay

Beautiful Nudibranch Okenia elegans

Wow what a fantastic day rockpooling yesturday at Talland bay near Looe!
An enthusiastic band of volunteers joined me on the shore and we were all really impressed with the biodiversity within the deep seaweed filled gullies that run across the main reef between Talland Sand and neighboring Rotterdam beach. apart from wireweed which was present in mid shore pools there were no other non native species found during the survey which is great news! Harpoon weed is common at nearby Hannafore but not currently present at Talland!
Find of the day was this beautiful sea slug Okenia elegans which was approximately 4cm long (can grow up to 8cm) found on red seaweeds in a deep over hang. They feed on sea squirts - would love to dive there and try to find more!!

Sea spider Endeis carybdaea

 This beautiful tiny sea spider was found by Steve Webb - It is different to the usual ones we have been finding as it has a proboscis but no palps and I think it is a more scarce species Endeis carybdaea. If anyone else took a good photo I would love to have a closer look!

Talland bay reef 

 The geology here is really interesting with bands of purple and green sedimenary rock.

Stalked Jellyfish Leucerniopsis campanulata

 We were thrilled to record two species of stalked jellies in one lower shore seaweed filled gully. Haliclystus octoradiatus (six were found) and a bright red Leucernariopsis campanulata.

Haliclystus octoradiatus stalked jellyfish 

unidentified Chiton

Harry from the Marine Biological Association ShoreThing project led our timed species search 

Higher up the shore at the head of a rocky/sandy gully we found a patch of soft muddy stone with many deep holes bored into it. On closer examination I got squirted by something and realised that they were the homes of boring (ie digging) piddocks!! Pholas dactylus

Steve,  Mary and Harry looking at Piddocks

Common Piddock shells 

It was a great day and definitely a place I would love to survey again.
Thanks to all the volunteers - it was really great to meet new shoresearchers Steve and Mary Webb (who travelled all the way from Bristol!), Vicky Palmer and Julie Dalford! And great to see Jane and Chloe who are now experienced Shoresearchers!!

See you at the next survey! The next volunteer training day for new (and old!) volunteers is 17th July at Porscatho on the Roseland, for more info please email matt.slater@cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk

The boulders of St Ives New Pier are teeming with life

Our joint Fox Club and Shoresearch event at Bammaluz beach near St Ives was a fantastic day out
We walked down the slip way that runs alongside the rubble from the so called New peir or wood pier which was constructed 1n 1860 and many years ago as an outer breakwater to extend the harbour. wooden piles can still be seen but the pier itself didn't last long and now all that remains are the piles and a huge area of rounded blue elvan stone boulders. These create a fabulous habitat for marine life in a part of St Ives bay that has a little protection from storms but is still very high in energy. The stones themselves have been smoothed over the years but their shape provides large gaps between the stones with resulting good water flow and lots of filter feeding organisms such as bryozoans, both encrusting and tufted, barnacles, sea squirts and sponges teeming on these underboulder communities.
We had a great day with bright sunshine and a nice warm breeze and a good turnout! The shore is busy with montagues crabs and large edible crabs were found in between the stones

Fox Club days out are great fun!! 

Osurkovia littoralis a common encrusting bryozoan, lots of barnacles, a gem anemone and can you spot a sea spider?

very large and craggy montagus Crab - possibly harbouring a parasitic barnacle which has prevented it from moulting and will eventually kill it,

Hairy Crab about 1 inch wide

unusual colour morph of common beadlet anemone

This shanny has its breeding colours - dark edges to the fins and a swollen head crest - felt soft, filled with fluid?

Aolida papillosa - sheep sea slug 

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.

2015 Shoresearch dates announced!

Dear all
I am pleased to announce the dates for Shoresearch Cornwall 2015 organised by Cornwall Wildlife Trust and the Your Shore Network of Cornwall's Marine Conservation Groups. All are welcome to get involved! New volunteers or prospective volunteers please email me on; mattslater@cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk

Please submit completed Shoresearch survey forms to

Matt.slater@cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk

Or use our fabulous new online recording system www.orks.org.uk

Don’t forget to photograph anything rare, or suspected non native species and get GPS coordinates if possible (use a GPS enabled camera, phone or use a website such as  wheres the path   http://wtp2.appspot.com/wheresthepath.htm to generate a GPS digital reference point. 

Cheers

Matt

Farewell PANACHE!

Last week saw the final conference of the PANACHE project held at the Imperial Hotel, Torquay.
This 2 year interred project has enabled the development of our  Shoresearch project and Seasearch projects. It has been fantastic and has resulted in us gathering loads of exciting records, really supporting the MCZ process and has resulted in us recruiting and training 168 fabulous shoresearch volunteers
Please visit the Cornwall Wildlife Trust website  for more info and our annual report.

The final event for PANACHE was a rockpool ramble on the shore for all the panache and VALMER project partners where we got to show off the Shoresearch method
here are some highlights!

Ruth Williams gives a talk at the PANACHE conference

A pontoon at the mouth of Torquay inner harbour was festooned with feather stars looking awesome!
 A rare sight! Antedon bifida

Closeup of feather stars on a mussel 

The pontoons and subtidal in the harbour is teeming with japanese kelp Wakame (Undaria pinatifida) Keep a look out for this invasive species in Cornish waters! 

On the shore at Corbin head we found a new intertidal biotope- Wakame forest! 

Lots of Orange tipped seasquirts (Corella eumota), another invasive species under rocks at Corbin head

We found a common goby which kept Patrick Louisy of french organisation Fish watch forum happy!