A Year of Cornish Marine Life

Newly-hatched Greater spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus stellaris) - also known as 'bull huss' or 'nurse hound'.

Like everything else about 2020, this is a strange New Year’s Eve. Many have lost loved ones this year, and most of us have spent the festive season apart from friends and family. Whatever the year ahead brings, it will be made better by connecting with the natural world and doing the small (or large) things that we can to build a better society and environment.

On the eve of 2021, I am struggling personally to come to terms with losing EU citizenship and all of the opportunity, discovery and connections it has brought me. International cooperation is essential to tackling the global issues that face our wildlife and we will have to work harder than ever to build understanding and find solutions to problems that cannot wait.

Life will go on and I am super-excited about my new children’s book, Beach Explorer, due to be published in the spring. As ever, I will continue to bring you the very best of the Cornish rock pools straight to your computer through my blog.

To bring a little cheer to myself and to you, here are a few of my favourite rock pool wildlife photos from my encounters this year. I hope you will be inspired to get outside and meet your own local wildlife, and to join all of us who are working to protect and restore nature.

A Happy and Healthy New Year to All! Bonne Année 2021!

A painted top shell – January 2020

Xantho pilipes crab – February 2020.
Pagurus cuanensis, the hairy hermit crab. March 2020
Bright coloured sponge (Prob Oscarella sp.) April 2020.
“Cedric the spider crab”. Photo by Cornish Rock Pools Junior. May 2020.
Juvenile masked crab moult. June 2020.
Cladonema radiatum – an athecate hydroid medusa. July 2020.
Calma glaucoides sea slug with its spawn. August 2020.
Star ascidian growing on seaweed. September 2020.
Dahlia anemone. October 2020.
Facelina auriculata – October 2020.
My first ever Xaiva biguttata crab! October 2020.

Comments

13 responses to “A Year of Cornish Marine Life”

  1. Ian Lancaster Avatar
    Ian Lancaster

    Beautiful pictures Heather, please keep them coming. A link to the coast we can no longer visit!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Heather Buttivant Avatar

      Thank you Ian! I’ve been out taking photos today and will post again very soon 🙂

      Like

  2. SherWoei Avatar

    Were these photos taken during low tide?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Heather Buttivant Avatar

      Yes, we have big tides around our coasts which make it easy to see marine wildlife without diving. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  3. Trisha Poxon Avatar
    Trisha Poxon

    Beautiful pictures as ever – and what amazing finds! Thank you x

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Heather Buttivant Avatar

      Thank you Trisha! Happy New Year 🙂

      Like

  4. Ann Wake Avatar
    Ann Wake

    WOW Heather, great pics.
    I agree we all need to do more to help our Marine life.
    Hopefully in the coming year we’ll all be able to get out there more & make a difference.
    All the best for 2021
    Ann x

    Like

    1. Heather Buttivant Avatar

      Thanks Ann! I’ve been enjoying all of your pics and discoveries too. Best wishes for 2021 – hopefully we’ll be back to rockpooling together before too long. x

      Like

  5. Charlotte Cumming Avatar
    Charlotte Cumming

    Happy New Year to you too Heather. Thank you for all your wonderful words & pictures during 2020. I look forward to enjoying more this year. Xx

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Heather Buttivant Avatar

      Thanks Charlotte. I’ve enjoyed your photos too. I hope that we’ll get to do more as the year goes on and that we can get together for Shoresearch. xx

      Like

  6. scooj Avatar

    I your opening comments chime with me. I hope we and the rest of the world make the most of the two global conferences this year, in particular COP 26.

    Happy new year. Keep up the great and inspiring work.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Heather Buttivant Avatar

      Sorry I missed your lovely comment. A very belated Happy New Year to you too! I hope your year is going as well as it can and that it will be a turning point for the environment. I found some sea slugs today, which has to be a good omen 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

Leave a reply to Trisha Poxon Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.