Spring is a wonderful time of year in the Cornish rock pools, although like all things British, it’s hard to predict when it will arrive.
This time of year, the fish are moving inshore to lay their eggs. In many common shore species, the male stays close by, protecting the eggs until the baby fish hatch. Blennies, in particular, are frequently found hiding among the rocks, close to their precious broods.
Many crabs too are ‘in berry’, tucking their clutches of eggs (more…)
I’m not cut out for rockpooling in a northerly wind in February. My hands are too frozen to hold my battered old camera steady, but nothing is going to make me miss this tide. It’s so low that the seagrass at Hannafore is high and dry and a shark is lurking in shin-deep water, but I haven’t seen that yet.
There are fish, crabs, worms and brittle stars in droves (more…)
Fish often become trapped in the shallows during exceptionally low tides, even big fish like mullet and wrasse, but it’s the first time I’ve met an adult shark on a rockpooling trip.
It’s been a cold but productive afternoon and I’m about to head home to defrost my painfully frozen fingers when a movement in the kelp around ten metres away grabs my attention. (more…)
I love this rock; no frame could suit it better than Mawgan Porth’s sheer cliffs, golden sand and wide horizon. Perhaps I need emotional counselling, but it really is a beauty. Its seaward side lifts its face to the churning Atlantic, defying the waves that batter and submerge it for most of the year. Only a few mussels and barnacles cling on to its western edge, oblivious to the storms and sunsets I have watched from here since childhood. (more…)
It’s exciting, healthy, educational and cheap. So, why not take the kids rock pooling with the experts this half-term or join a beach clean? (more…)
February is a wonderful month for rock pooling in Cornwall. Well, we think so, although we consider a packet of chocolate biscuits a pre-requisite for achieving anything, especially enlightenment, so (more…)
I’m not big on resolutions. It’s no secret that Cornish Rock Pools HQ is powered by chocolate and would crumble without it. This year I do have one resolution though. It’s something I do already, but I know I can do more.
This year I’m going to cut down on plastics. (Thankfully I can still buy chocolate that isn’t wrapped in plastic).
I’m going to be ruthless in my avoidance of plastic bags, bottles and (more…)
Standing on the beach it’s hard to imagine how anything survives in our seas at this time of year. Fierce Atlantic winds send the waves surging high onto the shore, exploding against the rocks and blowing hair or sand into my eyes whichever way I turn. Yet on these dark winter days, when many of our land animals have migrated or gone into hibernation, most marine life is clinging on and waiting for spring.
Wintertime is tough even for the hardiest mariners. The strandline is strewn with those that haven’t made it (more…)
After an hour of fruitless searching for stalked jellyfish in this rock pool at Readymoney, I decide to give up and am putting my camera down when I notice a tiny crimson blob stuck to my thumb. (more…)
My son loves the beach at Sainte Anne la Palud; wild dunes stretch towards a distant headland and the sand is perfect for building his creations. It’s why we return here at the end of our holiday in Brittany.
Last time we came it was a high spring tide and the beach was just a sliver of sand strewn with prickly cockles, sea potato urchins and even a dead eel. Now the sea is at its very lowest, a bare glimmer on the horizon. I walk towards distant low cliffs, expecting to find mussel beds around the exposed headland.
I should know by now that rock pooling can be surprising. (more…)
Cornish Rock Pools 