At Home in the Rock Pools

Our home educating days are coming to an end as Junior prepares to try out life at college. With this momentous change approaching, this year has been all about cramming in local, national and international adventures and travels to make the most of this precious time. Our visits to the rock pools – and my posts about them – may have been less frequent than usual in recent months, but it will not surprise you that we have still packed beach trips in between our travels and I have amassed lots of fabulous finds to share with you.

This trip back to my favourite childhood rock pooling beach at Porth Mear with Junior and Other Half was a reminder of what makes this place so special.

There’s a hint of blue sky and the waves are only breaking around the edges of the rocky islands offshore, rather than bursting over the top as they so often do. With the tide set to fall to a low of less than 0.1m, this is set to be a perfect day.

In my happy rock pooling world, there is nothing more auspicious than finding a nudibranch sea slug in the very first place I look. Admittedly, I know this pool well and have good reason to hope, but this very tiny, citrus-yellow Doris ocelligera is the happiest omen. With its rhinophores held tall and proud, it is such a lemon-burst of joy that I spend many minutes crouched by the water watching it through my camera.

Since I have lived on the south coast of Cornwall, I have come to appreciate how wonderfully clear and un-silty the water is here on the north coast. Whether it is down to this transparency that allows more light through or something else about the conditions, the colours of the shells and anemones often appear more vivid here.

Strawberry anemones, which are bigger than beadlets, are especially photogenic whether they are open or closed. The pale red tentacles catch the sun beautifully, but the yellow flecks on the shiny red columns are also stunning.

As I move down the shore, I come across some less commonly seen species, including some that are harder to idenitfy.

This anemone is well hidden under an overhang and completely closed up, showing just the tips of white tentacles. The translucent column with pale stripes, but no suckers, suggests that it could be a sandaled anemone (Actinothoe sphydodeta). In my photos, you can see that the column is packed with curly white threads. These are the acontia and are packed with stinging cells. If something attacks the anemone, it can eject large numbers of these in defence.

Nearby, the population of scarlet and gold cup corals is looking radiant. They live on the lower shore in areas of very high current and wave action, so most days they are completely inaccessible. Even on a relatively calm day like today, I keep nervously glancing up at the rocks behind me, expecting the waves to break over the top.

In another pool, I come across an even more mysterious anemone. It is hugely extended, like a long worm, when I first see it. I am amazed at how transparent it is, its organs clearly visible inside. It quickly retracts into a squat blob, with a few pale yellow striped tentacles. It has nothing stuck to the column and no obvious coloured spots, but there are some brown markings around the base of the tentacles in the disc. There are a few possibilities, but I will need to consult experts to see if anyone can narrow this one down.

Another pool, another mystery creature. This time, a minute crustacean is making its way across a stone at the base of the pool. It is almost impossible to make out anything except the bright pink colour and the long antennae with the naked eye, but under my camera, I can see it has fabulously hairy legs.

These animals are often only identifiable under a microscope and are tricky even then… so I take a few photos and carry on enjoying the shore, sharing finds with Junior.

I am nearly fainting with hunger before I realise I haven’t had lunch yet. Other Half and Junior have long since had their picnic, but I keep going with the tide stalking me as I move up the shore. After all, there are more sea slugs to be found, along with hairy crabs, St Piran’s hermit crabs and plenty of colourful variants of other common rockpool creatures.

Take a look at all the slugs we see!

As a family, we have always spent time together on this beach, yet there are still new things to discover. Junior may be growing up, but I hope that we will often return here, to these familiar pools and to the springy-turfed paths of the wild cliffs that always feel like home.