Category Archives: Anemones and Jellyfish

Anemones and Jellyfish, Beaches, Molluscs, Wildlife

Rock Pooling at Lizard Point: Cowries, Sea Slugs and a Saffron Bun

June 9, 2022 Heather Buttivant Leave a comment

It’s not exactly tropical, but we’re as far south as you can go on the UK mainland. The sun is shining and the clear water gives us a perfect view into the pools. After a morning of geological exploration at Kynance Cove, my family are treating me to some low tide rock pooling here at Lizard Point.

Apart from the chatter of seabirds and a distant hum of voices from the cafés perched on the cliffs, the beach is still, expectantly waiting for the tide to turn. Out in the bay, a bull grey seal rests upright in the water. He is ‘bottling’, his broad snout raised to the sun, keeping half a sleepy eye on the female that is snoozing closer to the shore. There are no boats here to disturb the seals, so they nap peacefully on and on, barely moving with the gentle rise of the swell.

The colours in the pools are as vivid as a royal procession. Neon green snakelocks anemones jostle for space with dusky pink coralline algae, yellow sea squirts and iridescent blue seaweed. Tiny rainbows play across the rocks.

A colourful pool at Lizard Point – Snakelocks anemone

Looking closer, we begin to notice other rock pool wildlife that is less keen to stand out, adopting the same bold colours as the seaweeds and encrusting animals to hide from predators. Tiny Elysia viridis sea slugs are everywhere, but they match the deep green of the codium seaweed perfectly.

These are the ‘solar powered’ sea slugs. They retain the seaweed’s chloroplasts, which carry on photosynthesizing in their bodies, making glucose to supplement the slugs’ diet.

*Elysia viridis* sea slug stretching out to make the most of the sunlight. Spot the second slug!

A variety of animals are resplendent in shocking pinks and oranges, which allow them to disappear among rocks adorned in pink paint seaweed and forests of other red seaweeds. A European 3-spot cowrie (Trivia monacha) is roaming the rocks looking for sea squirts to eat.

*Trivia monacha* – the European 3-spot cowrie at Lizard Point. It feeds on sea squirts like the blue star ascidian to the left of the photo.

With its sunset-orange proboscis fully extended and its spotty mantle draped over most of its shell like a (fake) fur cape, it has the air of a glamorous Dalek.

European 3-spot cowrie (*Trivia monacha*) doing a Dalek impression

Not to be outdone by the molluscs, there are some stunning worms in the pools. My favourite is this syllid worm, gliding across the rock with its enormously long, whisker-like appendages stretching and curling in all directions at once.

Syllid worm. *Amblyosyllis sp*. looking spectacular. Lizard Point, Cornwall.

This feels like a spot that sea slugs should like. There is a variety of food on offer and no shortage of hiding places among the pools and boulders. Sure enough, under one rock I find two species hanging out together. They look like friends, but they are on separate missions. The great grey sea slug (Aeolidia filomenae) feeds on anemones, while the Berthella plumula – or feathered Bertha as I like to call it – eats sea squirts or sponges.

A quick hello in passing – Great grey sea slug (*Aeolidia filomenae*) and *Berthella plumula* sea slugs.

Junior, who excels at gathering people to look at things, has collected up an excited young boy and his grandfather to show them the pools. We all find things to show them – solar powered sea slugs, hermit crabs and a stalked jellyfish. While Junior is explaining barnacles to his fascinated audience, I wander down the shore, thinking I might find a starfish for him to show his new friend.

Stalked jellyfish (*Haliclystus octoradiatus*) on codium seaweed at Lizard, Cornwall. Photo by Cornish Rock Pools Junior

Sheltering under a small stone is a neat five-armed cushion star, but close to it, even more excitingly, there is a slender little Aeolidiella sp. sea slug.

This slug looked a little different: *Aeolidiella glauca*

Aeolid slugs vary in colour depending on what they have eaten, but there is something unusual about this one that I can’t place. It has a bit of a white ruff behind its head, but I’m not convinced it is the white-ruffed sea slug (Aeolidiella alderi) that I frequently see.

Aelolidiella alderi (pictured near Falmouth) is the more common species locally. It is often white or grey, but can take on bright colours like this after eating anemones.

I take some photos. Zooming in, I soon ‘spot’ the difference; the difference is the spots! There are tiny white flecks on the slug’s body. I take photos in the pool before ensuring it is returned safely back under its stone.

*Aeolidiella glauca* sea slug, Lizard, Cornwall

Despite my rush to identify the slug (which I suspect is an Aeolidiella glauca) there are even more important things to do on the way home: like stopping for a saffron bun and ice creams at Roskilly’s, and visiting friends in Gweek.

Thanks to the wonders of expert Facebook groups and also the brilliantly helpful David Fenwick of Aphotomarine, I have confirmation the same day. Aeolidiella glauca has occasionally been recorded in this area before, but it’s a first for me. It may be more common in northern waters, but marine creatures rarely follow the rules. There are surprises everywhere and that is exactly what makes rock pooling so fabulous.

Another lovely little find: Lamellaria latens (gastropod mollusc) at Lizard Point

Dahlia anemone at Lizard Point, Cornwall

Whatever the weather, always stay safe in the rock pools. Follow my rockpooling tips to look after yourself and the wildlife on the shore.

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Anemones and Jellyfish, Fish, Uncategorized, Wildlife

Who Needs Mythical Beasts? Rocket Jellies, Snakelocks Anemones and a Dragonet

September 5, 2021 Heather Buttivant 1 Comment

When my son was younger he thought he saw a kraken. I returned from releasing a crab after an event for the local Cub pack to find him and a friend staring out over the sea, shading their eyes to better spot tentacle tips or unusual splashes among the waves. They were quite sure it was out there.

I watched with them for a long time, until the tide was lapping at our boots, because you never know what might be in the sea. A giant squid would be unusual, but our oceans are full of things that are so weird we are only just beginning to understand them. We sometimes see seals, dolphins and fish feeding frenzies, so why not a kraken?

Since then, my son has grown up a lot and is less sure that there are krakens in Looe. We no longer spend much time hiding in the woods looking for dragons or watching the waves for sea serpents. Junior still loves mythology, Cornish and otherwise, but knows that the real world has as much strangeness as fiction.

We are two minutes into this week’s rock pool expedition when he calls to me urgently to look at a thing he’s found.

“I think it’s a hydroid medusa,” he says, because there’s not much he doesn’t recognize these days. “Quick, it’s going to get away.”

I grab a pot and wade over to where he is pointing. Staring into the tangle of colourful seaweeds, at first I see nothing.

A flicker of movement has me scooping up the water and when I look in my pot there is a tiny creature zipping from side to side, throwing itself against the edges of the pot like a trapped Trogglehumper. Of course, this creature is not a Roald Dahl creation, but an actual, fabulous marine animal. My books call it a ‘root arm jelly’, although Junior and I know it by a different name.

Whoosh! A rocket jelly. (Cladonema radiatum – aka the root arm jelly).

“Rocket jelly!” we shriek in delight.

With great care, we transfer the jelly into the lid of the pot to see it better.

The underside of the hydroid medusa (*Cladonema radiatum* – the root arm jelly)

The main part of its body, measuring less than a centimetre, is a perfectly transparent dome, through which we can see its rocket shaped internal parts. Pointing downwards, a mouth fringed with ball-shaped structures is feeling about, moving left and right.

The jelly’s transparent body with dark eyespots around the edge. Root arm jelly (*Cladonema radiatum*).

At the base of the medusa’s dome there are several dark eyespots. Spreading out at around them, like the fire below a rocket, are the most incredible red tentacles. They are branched, curled and almost feathery. As we watch they expand and contract, feel and reach.

Every time I focus on the medusa, it fires itself off in a new direction. Zooming from one side of the petri dish to another in an instant.

I have never seen a medusa with such expanded tentacles before, but I am sure this is the same species of ‘rocket jelly’ we have seen before (Cladonema radiatum).

Those little tentacles pack a strong sting for their size; it is an efficient little predator. I always find it hard to comprehend is that this free-swimming, speedy jelly is the reproductive stage of a colonial hydroid: an organism which lives attached to rocks or seaweed and doesn’t move from the spot.

Obelia geniculata - a hydroid known as 'sea fir'. — Hydroids like this sea fir, Obelia geniculata, live attached to seaweeds.

While Junior takes photos of the rocket jelly, I notice a young fish glide over the sand, stopping near my feet. It has mottled markings in blue, orange and brown, which look colourful and yet provide the fish with an ideal camouflage among the sand, pebbles and shell fragments. Its eyes are mounted high on its head, giving it a wide field of vision. This is the wonderfully-named dragonet.

Dragonet lying still on the sand. Despite the lovely colours, it is perfectly camouflaged.

These captivating fish have a distinctive way of swimming in short bursts across the seafloor and they have an exceptionally long first dorsal fin. Male dragonets raise this sail-like fin as part of a mating dance, which I would love to see some day! It is perhaps this display, somehow reminiscent of a frill-neck lizard opening its collar, that gives these fish their fabulous name.

The dragonet comes unusually close to my camera before scudding away over the sand, becoming invisible every time it stops.

I take some photos of another striking animal with a mythical name, which seems to abound in this pool: the snakelocks anemone. Just like the Medusa of Roman mythology, this anemone has long, green moving ‘hair’. Instead of being made of snakes, though, the anemone’s locks are its stinging tentacles. They are pretty but deadly, especially if you are a small animal, or even quite a big one. We’ve often seen crab legs hanging out the mouths of these large anemones.

Some snakelocks anemones are neon green with purple tips, while others are a muted beige colour. Out of the water, they are a sorry squidgy mess of jelly but in the pools their tentacles move and flow, sometimes with the current, sometimes reaching and grabbing for prey they have sensed.

Snakelocks anemone – some are green and some are beige.

The chug of a boat makes us look up. Unusually for this area, there is a dive boat close to the rocks. Two-by-two, people in Scuba gear pop up on the surface and clamber aboard. I wonder what they have seen and whether they have noticed the tiny rocket jellies, lurking dragonets or even the medusa-haired snakelocks anemones.

Perhaps the divers have seen the kraken as they’ve explored the sea just beyond our reach. Even if they have, we don’t feel we have missed out by being confined to the land. The rock pools are full of truly magical beasts. You just have to look.

Snakelocks tentacles waving in the current.

Anemones and Jellyfish, Starfish, Urchins and Sea Cucumbers

Neap Tide Adventures

August 1, 2021 Heather Buttivant 4 Comments

Days like this don’t seem ideal for rock pooling; the tide is nowhere near low enough to expose my favourite pools and the weather is iffy. Despite this, I am convinced that there is plenty to see on the mid-shore. Cameras and rock pooling super-crew (Other Half and Junior) at the ready, we set out to uncover marine treasures.

One advantage of neap tides, when the sea doesn’t go out very far, is that it won’t rush back in either. We can take our time. Junior soon locates lots of gem anemones with their tentacles wide open.

Under a stone further down the shore, I spot a beautifully camouflaged anemone. It’s too small to see properly, so I have to wait until I get home to confirm that it’s a Sagartia troglodytes anemone.

The B shape at the base of the tentacles is a useful identifying feature, although I’ve always thought they look more like Scooby Doo ghost eyes than letters.

Other Half calls me over to look at a blob. He’s becoming quite an expert blob finder.

We look together at the tiny brown jelly-spot on the seaweed. At first, we think it is an anemone because it seems to have a circle of retracted tentacles. As soon as I dunk it in the water though, I can see the pale lumps of primary tentacles around the edge. It must be a stalked jellyfish.

Is it just me or does this stalked jelly not look pleased to see me? Haliclystus octoradiatus.

Gradually, the stalked jelly unfurls each arm until it looks much less blob-like.

Haliclystus octoradiatus -starting to look more like a stalked jellyfish than a blob.

The rain seems to be holding off now, and I make myself comfortable by a calm pool to watch the little world go by. My camera has barely entered the water before a bold prawn trots out of the seaweed, its legs working at top speed in its eagerness to check out what I’m up to.

Common prawn coming to take a look at my camera.

A head pops up between the fronds of saw wrack at the back of the pool. The young Montagu’s blenny swivels an eye back and forth beneath its jaunty headgear. I feel a larger blenny move through the seaweed near my hand and lift my camera out of the water before I get a nip from the territorial shanny.

Peek-a-boo! Montagu’s blenny taking a look above the serrated wrack.

A dinky starfish in the coral weed catches my eye. I see several species of starfish on this beach, but this is a mid-shore specialist: Asterina phylactica. The colours of the tiny pincers on its back (the pedicellariae) form an orange star shape. Under the camera, I can see its tube feet reaching out and exploring its surroundings as it glides along.

Other Half brings passes me a tiny shell he has found. He thinks it might be a wentletrap, a shell we sometimes find. I have never seen one so small and assume it is probably a different species. I take a look with the camera and realise he was right. The bold sculpture of ribs over the rounded whorls of the long spire are striking, even in this tiny juvenile. Best of all, the shell is occupied.

I watch the snail emerge and set off across the pool.

This makes me think of a unicorn and a rainbow – juvenile wentletrap.

Sea squirts are something of an enigma to me. They are hugely varied in their colours, shapes and sizes. Aplidium turbinatum, in particular, seems to me to look different every time I find it. When I first see this one, I am convinced that the white, spiky-looking set of openings under the coral weed is a bryozoan.

I know this looks familiar, but takes me a long time to work out that it is Aplidium turbinatum, a sea squirt.

Yet, after a while watching it, I realise it is opening and closing like a squirt, puffing water in and out. It bears little resemblance to the orange gelatinous Aplidium turbinatum I usually see further down this beach, but the jutting triangular crowns around the edge of each opening are the same.

Fortunately, I can turn to the incredible Aphotomarine website for confirmation and, sure enough, it has some photos of very similar specimens (thanks David!).

While the tide seeps back into the pools, we chat with a fellow rock pooler whose photos I have often seen online, and who I eventually realise I have met before in real life through another conservation group.

Chthamalus sp barnacles starting to open as the tide comes in.

By the time we leave, the sun is low in the sky. I am more than satisfied with all the wonderful creatures I have found on the neap tide, and it is high time I had some birthday cake.

Whatever the tide, always stay safe in the rock pools. Follow my rockpooling tips to look after yourself and the wildlife on the shore.

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Anemones and Jellyfish

A Swim Over The Rock Pools

July 25, 2021 Heather Buttivant Leave a comment

“Quick, I need the camera. There’s a jelly.”

Junior’s enthusiasm takes me aback. He has a healthy aversion to getting close to jellyfish. We have already changed course many times on today’s high tide swim to avoid the trailing tentacles of compass jellyfish.

Compass jellyfish. Also known as sea nettles as they pack quite a little sting, these jellyfish have beautiful markings. — The distinctive markings of the compass jellyfish.

These common summer visitors have striking brown V-shaped markings around their edges, like the points of a compass. Although their sting is rarely serious, somewhere in the region of a stinging nettle in strength, it isn’t much fun if you swim face-first into one as I have done on a few occasions.

Crystal jelly. This is a hydroid medusa rather than a ‘true’ jellyfish. It has short tentacles around the edges rather than long trailing tentacles.

Some other species we have seen this week, like the moon jellyfish and crystal jellyfish, are harmless but today only the compass jellies are out.

One of many moon jellyfish washed up by the strong swell. This species is harmless. — Moon jellyfish only have a very weak sting so are usually harmless to people. Never touch a jelly if you’re not sure of the species and wash your hands well before touching your eyes.

Incredible numbers of sand eels fill the water in every direction, flashing silver as they turn, before melding into the green sea. Junior notices a small spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula) – also known as dogfish – swimming through a rocky gully beneath us. Alongside submerged rocks, several species of wrasse flit among the kelp.

This sand eel is speeding along – photo by Junior

I unclip the camera from the safety float and pass it to Junior who is pointing excitedly at something I can’t see.

I dip under the water and look at where he’s pointing. Still nothing. I bob up for air and try again.

This time I see something much smaller than I was expecting, or half see it – it’s mostly transparent with just the faintest pink hue.

“Is it a comb jelly?” Junior asks. This is the first one he’s seen and much excitement ensues as he tries to photograph a barely visible tiny swimming thing while holding his breath and floating in water 5 metres deep.

Comb jelly by Junior. The transparency of the animal and its movement in the water make it hard to focus, but you can see the shining light of the combs.

Mostly we just enjoy the incredible coloured light show this Beroe cucumis comb jelly is putting on for us. The iridescent disco-light effect is created by lines of beating hair-like cilia (the combs) that run the length of the comb jelly’s body.

This species looks like a simple hollow tube or sack, but it is an efficient predator, known to feed on other comb jellies.

The different colours of the lights around the edges of the comb jelly are incredible to watch. Photo by Junior.

How Junior spotted this little speck in the ocean, I have no idea. We look around for more but find none.

Eventually we have to head back to shore, drifting over all of our familiar rock pools on the way. Hermit crabs and netted dog whelks are out in force and as we near the beach, we see shannies basking on sunny rocks in the shallows.

There are lots of these ‘south clawed’ hermit crabs (Diogenes pugilator) on the sand. Their left claw is much longer and larger than their right.

This might not be rock pooling in the usual sense, swimming on a high tide gives us a whole new perspective on life here. You don’t need to be a billionaire to become weightless and take a soundless flight over the rock pools. There is no better way to see how this environment looks for most of each day, when the wider ocean and the shore cross over and become one.

Swimming in the sea in Cornwall is a wonderful experience but is very different from swimming in a pool and can be dangerous. Always consider the conditions and stay well within your limits. Check the weather, tides and currents, enter the water slowly and adjust to the temperature. Choose a lifeguarded beach if possible and a place where you know how to safely enter and exit the water. Swim alongside the shore. A tow float makes you more visible and beach shoes can protect you from weever fish and sharp rocks. Don’t swim alone and let someone know where you are. In any emergency at sea or on the shore, call the Coastguard on 999.

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Anemones and Jellyfish, Books, Volunteering

Introducing the Rock Pool Project and the ‘Rocket Jelly’

July 26, 2020 Heather Buttivant 1 Comment

After a whirlwind of book promotion, including my debut on Woman’s Hour, in which I introduced the nation to barnacle reproduction, it was a relief to return to the rock pools. Thursday was the sort of mizzly day that only sea creatures and marine life fanatics appreciate, so I had no doubt that Dr Ben Holt would turn up as planned for some distanced exploration of one of my favourite local rocky shores near Looe.

Who could resist a day out in the drizzle?

Ben may have started his career researching fish in the Caribbean, but he soon realised that Cornwall was the best place in the world and moved to Falmouth, where he founded the fabulous Rock Pool Project.

The Rock Pool Project is a not-for-profit social enterprise, offering not just rockpooling and marine conservation themed activities on Cornish beaches for the public and school children, but also brings the rock pools indoors with the help of its mobile rock pool. So far, the team of experts has visited schools, care homes and community events to give people the chance to learn about our rock pool wildlife and how we can look after it. Now they are looking to expand their range of citizen science projects that everyone can join in, as well as reaching out more widely, once social distancing restrictions allow.

Socially distanced photo with Dr Ben Holt of the Rock Pool Project. (Photo by Cornish Rock Pools Junior).

This month Junior and I helped to test out the crustacean survey method and had great fun seeing how many different species of barnacle, prawn and crab we could find within our allotted time. Anyone will be able to sign up to survey a local beach, regardless of previous knowledge and experience. It’s a great way to get out with the family, learn together and discover your local beach in a new way, and barnacles are lovely if you catch them feeding as the tide’s going out!

Chthamalus sp. barnacles showing a flash of blue as they open to feed.

Back to our rainy day and Ben, Junior and I soon discovered that trying to point out tiny creatures is a challenge when you’re social distancing. I found a stalked jelly but by the time I’d moved a few metres away, the seaweed had shifted and it took a while for Ben to relocate it. Despite the challenges, we made the most of having the beach to ourselves.

One of the largest Haliclystus octoradiatus stalked jellyfish we found.

The dense seaweed made it hard to see into the water, but we found crabs, urchins and ascidians as we clambered ever further out across the rocks. We had a half-mile long stretch of beach all to ourselves and everything had fallen silent under the misty cloud.

Star ascidian colonial sea squirt on an overhang.

Arctic cowrie looking for sea squirts to eat, its shell almost entirely covered by its mantle.

Junior discovered a clump of seaweed with lots of stalked jellies on it: Halyclistus octoradiatus and Calvadosia campanulata. Most were too small to photograph in the moving water, but we delighted in losing and re-finding them among the swirling weed.

Calvadosia campanulata stalked jellyfish.

As the tide moved in, Ben was intent on finding a stalked jellyfish for himself. After a few minutes of filming the stunningly pink entrance to a worm burrow that Junior had found, I joined Ben’s search.

With the tide rising up my boots I was about to give up on the stalked jellies, when I saw a tiny shape float past me. It looked like a stalked jellyfish that had become detached from the seaweed, drifing with the tide. I made a quick grab and scooped it into a bucket.

The whole animal was only a few millimetres long and for a moment I wondered if it was just a blob of seaweed. Junior and I peered into the bucket, heads touching. The blob had arms but wasn’t a stalked jelly. It looked more like a miniature space rocket pointed skyward, with trailing tentacles spread around its base. As we watched it launched, zipping across the bucket at surprising speed.

The tiny jelly was tricky to photograph and kept zooming away across the petri dish.

Under my camera it was weirder than ever. The rocket shape was enclosed in a jelly dome and the tentacles had a knobbly appearance, rather like the sucker arms of an octopus. At the base of each tentacle was a black spot: a primitive eye. This was a jellyfish-like medusa of an athecate hydroid, Cladonema radiatum, a species I’ve only seen once before. We decided to call it the rocket jelly, although I’ve also heard it called the root-arm jelly, presumably due to those twisting tentacles. Although it isn’t a true jellyfish, the tentacles do pack a fair sting.

Cladonema radiatum – the ‘rocket jelly’. An athecate hydroid medusa.

We took turns watching and trying to photograph the minute animal as it zipped around a petri dish. The tide was rising steadily so after a few minutes, Junior waded out and released the medusa, repeating the process several times as it kept swimming back to the petri dish.

Cladonema radiatus swimming upside-down for a moment.

Cladonema radiatum showing the dark eye spots at the base of the tentacle arms.

It may be a while before we are able to resume events and before I can meet again with Ben and his team, but lots is going on behind the scenes both at The Rock Pool Project and at Cornish Rock Pools HQ where the first draft of my new children’s activity book is nearing completion. Watch this space!

Anemones and Jellyfish, Wildlife

A Quick Winter Walk

December 30, 2019 Heather Buttivant 14 Comments

Though there is much to love about December, I know I’m not the only one who’s flagging well before the end of the month. The spring tides arrive at the perfect time to boost my energy levels, ready for all the rockpooling and writing adventures that await me in 2020.

No-one in the family is sure what day it is, and the gloomy weather isn’t doing anything for our timekeeping. By the time we reach Plaidy, we only have half an hour left before it will begin to get dark. Fortunately, that’s plenty of time to find some winter colour.

This beach is ideal for strawberry anemones, a species that seems to like some wave energy. While I try to take photos of a stunning open anemone, its bright tentacles tucked too far under a dark overhang for my camera to capture well, the waves surge in behind me, finding a hole somewhere in my left welly.

Undeterred by the steady seep of chilly water down my ankle, I take a close look at the tough seaweeds that have clung on at the edges of the pools through the winter storms. There are tufty pink fringes of coral weed, the frayed remains of last summer’s kelp, and, sprouting from the rocks at the pool’s entrance, there are dark clusters of wiry-looking Irish moss. Among these seaweeds are dozens of mauve stalked jellyfish dancing like fairy lights.

Stalked jellyfish – Calvadosia cruxmelitensis.

In every rocky crack and crevice alongside the pools there are crabs lurking, waiting for the returning tide. A velvet swimming crab watches me through red eyes like glowing coals.

Nearby, the sculpted pink spire of a painted top-shell brightens up a shady overhang that is also home to several cushion stars and bright sponges.

Everywhere I look there are colourful sea squirts, shells, fish and seaweeds. These may be the darkest days of the year, and I can feel a cold coming on, but the brightness of the shore always reminds me that spring is around the corner.

In fact, new life is beginning already in the rock pools. Before I leave I come across this 2mm long baby sea hare grazing on the seaweed. By the summer, if it survives, this tiny slug will have developed a striking brown leopard-spot colouration and will have grown large enough to fill my palm. Perhaps we will meet again?

Happy New Year! May 2020 bring you health, happiness, and many, many beach adventures.

Happy New Year from Bernard the hermit! (Pagurus bernhardus).

Anemones and Jellyfish, Wildlife

Full Moon in the Cornish Rock Pools

January 28, 2019 Heather Buttivant 11 Comments

Ever since we discovered gem anemones in the pools at Plaidy last week, Junior has been planning a night-time trip to see them fluorescing under ultraviolet light. Lots of anemones glow in UV due to special proteins they contain that absorb the ultraviolet light before re-transmitting it at a longer, visible wavelength.

Snakelocks anemones are well-known in rockpooling circles for glowing a vivid, eerie green in UV and we have seen those many times, but we’re intrigued to see if gem anemones are as spectacular by night as they are by day.

Other-Half joins our after-dark ramble. We wrap up and walk through the deserted lanes. In the light of the rising full moon, there’s no need for torches. The stars have been out for a while already and the Eddystone lighthouse is flashing away at the horizon.

It took us quite a while to spot the gem anemones by daylight. Despite their pretty colours, they are tiny and well camouflaged among the pink encrusting seaweed that lines the pools.

We cross the sand and the heap of seaweed that the tide has brought in to the far rocks and take our UV torch out. Junior scans it over the pool and within seconds we’ve found them. They seem to light up in patterns of green and orange.

Under UV the gem anemones are easy to spot

We kneel down and look closely at the starburst of orange that radiates out from the turquoise and pink mouth at the anemone’s centre. The green fringes to the tentacles that are sometimes visible by day are unmissable now.

Junior is keen to look at the sponges and seaweeds to see what they do under UV and leads me on a precarious climb towards an overhang he knows. The rocks here glow insanely orange and though it’s hard to tell what is causing this effect in the dark, it feels like either a dense red seaweed or a sponge.

Junior's orange-glowing sponge or seaweed — Junior’s orange-glowing sponge or seaweed

As we scramble over the rocks, we find more fluorescing plants and animals. A brown seaweed glows green, possibly due to micro-algae that is growing on its fronds.

Brown seaweed glowing green in places - presumably coated in a microalgae — Brown seaweed glowing green in places – presumably coated in a microalgae

Grey topshells are easy to spot because the tip of their shell glows pink.

We are intrigued by thin bright-blue streaks among the seaweed. It takes a while for us to realise that these are man-made threads. They feel coarse and may well be fibres from a fishing net. Many seaweeds on the shore are so tangled in them that it is almost impossible to clear the plastic fibres without damaging the seaweed.

One of many plastic fibres found tangled in the seaweed — One of many plastic fibres we find tangled in the seaweed

In a shallow, rocky pool lined with sediment more anemones are glowing. These look nothing like the gem, snakelocks or daisy anemones I’ve seen so far.

Another anemone species that fluoresces - Sagartia troglodytes. — Another anemone species that fluoresces – Sagartia troglodytes.

I turn my normal torch on them to see what species they are and I can’t see them at all. By switching back between UV and normal light I manage to pinpoint them. They are at least as small as the gem anemone, but are flecked with a marble of brown, white and orange that blends perfectly into the sand and rock around them.

Under the camera I can make out dark ‘B’ shaped markings at the base of the tentacles and realise this is Sagartia troglodytes. I don’t remember seeing this anemone before, probably because it would be almost impossible to spot in daylight.

The same Sagartia troglodytes anemone under normal torchlight is much harder to see among the sediment.

I touch one of the anemones gently with a finger and it retracts in a puff of sediment, disappearing without trace.

I take photos while Junior and Other Half climb onto a high rock to watch the stars. On nights like this it is hard to tell whether the sea or the sky is shining more brightly. With a last sweep of the torch over the glowing anemones we turn away and head home for hot drinks.

This daisy anemone glowed red under UV but was a dull brown under normal light. — This daisy anemone glows red under UV but is a dull brown under normal light.

Anemones weren't the only animals out in the moonlight - this green shore crab glowed blue under the UV torch. — Anemones aren’t the only animals out in the moonlight – this green shore crab glows blue under the UV torch.

Anemones and Jellyfish

Gem anemone hunt

January 8, 2019 Heather Buttivant 6 Comments

We weren’t really rock pooling, just going for a walk to the beach, or so we said. Junior packed his hammer and chisel in case there were fossils and I packed my camera, because you never know.

On my last wander at our local beach I had hoped to find some gem anemones to photograph, but didn’t succeed. It was worth another look for these tiny creatures, which have stripy tentacles and bright colours around their mouths when they are open, but at low tide most of them are retracted into white-striped blobs.

When retracted gem anemones look rather like an urchin test with a warty surface and white stripes down their sides. — When retracted ,gem anemones look rather like an urchin test with a warty surface and white stripes down their sides.

I left the sounds of hammering and splitting rocks behind me at the edge of the shore, where Junior was happily amusing himself on a fossil hunt, and headed towards an unseasonably glassy sea, pausing to look for anemones in the small pools on the way.

At the water’s edge, I reached a large pool too deep for gem anemones, but in the middle of the pool a submerged boulder was covered in Irish moss seaweed, providing the perfect habitat for stalked jellyfish. I looked so closely among the tangles of weed, hunting for tiny jellies, that I almost missed the huge stalked jellyfish right under my nose.

Haliclystus octoradiatus stalked jelly near Looe, Cornwall

This was an unusually large Haliclystus octoradiatus stalked jellyfish, easily distinguished from the other species we see in Cornwall by the presence of blob-shaped primary tentacles in between its arms.

Most stalked jellyfish of this species have just one primary tentacle blob between each pair of arms, but this one had far more blobs than usual. The jelly can use these primary tentacles as anchors to grip onto the seaweed if it chooses to move, using a looping, cartwheeling motion.

I've sometimes seen a stalked jelly with one extra primary tentacle blob between its arms, but this one had lots of extras. — I’ve sometimes seen a stalked jelly with one extra primary tentacle blob between its arms, but this one had lots of extras.

In another nearby pool I spotted this colourful Calvadosia cruxmelitensis stalked jellyfish, well decorated with white nematocysts, which are its stinging cells.

Junior joined me at this point, wanting to show me a blenny he’d found. We scrambled nearly to the top of a high rocky outcrop in which some small pools had formed. There was no sign of his little fish, and there were no gem anemones, but there was this daisy anemone.

Daisy anemones have many layered tentacles, like daisy petals and come in all sorts of colours.

We carried on our expedition through a gap in the rocks to the adjoining beach where clear, shallow pools lined with pink encrusting seaweed nestled under a towering overhang carved out by the sea into the shape of a breaking wave.

These pools were full of anemones too and we stopped to take photos of clusters of snakelocks anemones and a rather flattened-looking strawberry anemone before I noticed the first gem anemone. It was closed up, forming a diminutive pink blob that blended perfectly into the colours of the pool. Close to it was another.

As we moved among the chain of pools we found dozens, but not a single one was open. Junior stared determinedly into every cranny, excited that the pools he had found were proving so interesting.

“There are some open anemones here,” he called out, “maybe Dahlia anemones? What do gem anemones look like when they’re open?”

I knelt on the rock beside him. At the far edge of the pool, tucked under a small ledge, I could see the white stripes of the gem anemone tentacles. Much cheering and hugging ensued.

The open gem anemones Junior found near Looe

Soon I was able to show Junior my up-close photos of the anemones so he could see why I was so obsessed with finding them. Each one had a vivid, almost fluorescent green mouth tinged with bright pink spots at its corners. The anemone’s mouths were framed in deep red and grey rays that stretched to the base of the zebra striped tentacles, some of which had flashes of green at their bases.

Truly one of our most spectacular anemones, people rarely notice the gem anemone because it is only a few centimetres across even when fully grown.

Junior is already planning a night time return to these pools to investigate whether these anemones will glow under the light of our ultra-violet torch. Watch this space!

Gem anemone -winter colour in the Cornish rock pools

Anemones and Jellyfish, Crabs, prawns and lobsters, Molluscs

From Cornwall to Cornouailles – a dabble in the Breton rock pools

November 14, 2018 Heather Buttivant 2 Comments

Once the busy summer season of rock pooling events is over, we like to jump on the ferry and get away for a few weeks. We have friends to visit and lots to do, but somehow we always end up on the beach. It’s fascinating to discover the difference it makes to be a few hundred kilometres further south.

Although there are plenty of familiar species here, there are some that are around their northern limit here in Brittany, but might put in appearance in Cornwall one day, especially as the seas warm up.

On a sheltered shore in the lee of the Quiberon peninsula, the beach where our friend Mylene spent her childhood holidays, I find a Pachygrapsus marmoratus crab, a species I saw nearby last year when I didn’t have my camera.

The rippled pattern on its carapace and the wide flat edge between its eyes make it unlike any of our native crabs. Originally found further south on the Atlantic coast, it has been working its way northwards in recent years and seems to be firmly established in Brittany now.

The three teeth along each side of the carapace distinguish this species from other rock crabs

Something I didn’t notice last year is how fabulously green its knee joints are, matching its emerald eyes. It’s not afraid to use those leg-joints, scuttling away at high speed at every opportunity to hide among the dense aggregations of the invasive Pacific oyster. I nearly lose it several times before it decides to settle in the corner of a pool, allowing me photograph those hairy legs and green knees.

The fabulous green knees of Pachygrapsus marmoratus! — The wonderful green knees of Pachygrapsus marmoratus!

Junior calls out that he’s found a slug. He thinks. He’s not sure. There are so many living blobs on the shore that it can be hard to tell.

The blob is a plump yellow thing, perhaps four or five centimetres long and from the speed it’s crawling across the rock, it is most definitely a slug. Initially, I assume it’s a sea lemon, but it doesn’t quite look right. It has a more squidgy, unicoloured look and instead of the citrussy bumps of the sea lemon’s skin, this slug has rounded protrusions of varying sizes all over its back. I can’t place it so we call it a ‘Doris might be a sea lemon, species’ and I take plenty of photos to help identify it for sure later.

Doris verrucosa - the 'warty Doris' - exploring a bed of Pacific oysters — Doris verrucosa – the ‘warty Doris’ – exploring a bed of Pacific oysters

It’s over a month after we return from holiday that I remember the photos and transfer them to my computer. On screen it’s obvious that this Doris slug looks nothing like any sea lemon I’ve ever seen. With the help of some extremely geeky books, websites and a forum of fellow nudibranch aficionados, I manage to confirm that it is a Doris verrucosa. The “warty Doris”… not the most charming name, but Junior is rightly thrilled that he found it. This isn’t a species we’ve ever seen in the UK.

Each rhinophore on the slug's head is framed by two pairs of prominent protrusions and the gills are framed by a crown of tall protrusions. — Each rhinophore on the slug’s head is framed by two pairs of prominent protrusions and the gills are framed by a crown of tall protrusions.

We revisit a beach that is the polar opposite of the sheltered shore of Quiberon. Ste Anne de Palud is a west-facing windswept expanse of muddy sand framed by a north-facing rocky headland and pools, which provide an incredible habitat for all sorts of clam shells and colourful anemones as well as a perfect set of conditions for the honeycomb reef worm, which builds its huge beehive-like structures all around the rocks.

A honeycomb worm reef overhanging a pool at Ste Anne la Palud, Brittany

The anemones are fabulous, but so well tucked under steep overhangs of rock or so well buried in sediment that they are tricky to see, let alone identify.

Sagartia elegans anemone, Ste Anne la Palud

Strawberry amemone showing its blue beadlet fighting tentacles

Another colour variation of Sagartia elegans

Junior is digging holes in the sand and discovers just how packed with life the sand is as he uncovers dozens of thin tellin shells, which burrow their way back down as he watches. The tideline is strewn with evidence of the diversity of life beneath our feet, with spiny cockles, sea potato urchins, the delicate tubes of the worm Pectinaria belgica and necklace shells.

Spiny cockles and their relatives are common here

There’s a good chance that some of the less familiar animals we’ve seen will show up on the Cornish coast at some point. The St Piran’s hermit crab has already successfully made the crossing and I saw them first here.

A trip to Brittany feels like the perfect way to familiarise myself with creatures that I might need to identify in future. It’s also a good excuse to eat lots of pancakes and put my feet up. Both make me happy!

The vast, rich sands of Ste Anne la Palud

Anemones and Jellyfish, Fish

A summer of snorkels, jellyfish and wrasse

September 8, 2018 Heather Buttivant Leave a comment

On a summer’s day when the sea and the sky are a matching blue and the whole world sparkles, there’s nothing as inviting as donning a snorkel and taking a swim across the bay. This summer, for the first time, Junior joined me in my forays over the rocky reefs.

While he built up experience, we floated shoulder to shoulder and sculled our way over the waving seaweed to the deeper gullies.

On our third snorkel outing, I was enjoying the sun on my back and the gentle roll of the waves when Junior screamed down his snorkel. I grabbed his arm in case he was hurt, but he was frantically pointing and making the “fish’”sign with his hand. He had just seen his first ballan wrasse.

The fish was a full-sized adult, maybe 40 or 50cm long with a thick body and a criss-cross patterns of lines interspersed with pale blue spots. An impressive fish. Undeterred by Junior’s shriek of excitement, it carried on its slow, hovering path through the kelp-lined gully for a while before darting away as we neared.

Juvenile ballan wrasse can be bright green like this one, but they grow up to around 50cm long when they're mature. — Juvenile ballan wrasse can be bright green like this one, but they grow up to around 50cm long when they’re mature.

On the same venture, we spotted barnacles feeding with their feathery legs, shore crabs strolling along the sea floor, a shanny surveying its territory from the top of a rock and great glistening shoals of sand eels rolling by. On other days, we came across groups of corkwing wrasse with pouting lips and turquoise-striped faces, spider crabs lurching through the kelp, and tangled snakelocks anemones spreading their green tentacles.

Nearby, crowds of tourists paddled and swam, oblivious to the beauty below them (or the pinching claws and stinging tentacles near their feet).

This summer has seen waves of jellyfish drifting through, from comb jellies to the harmless moon jelly, the less harmless blue and compass jellies and the enormous barrel jellies. Some days the sea was thick with jellyfish, but this didn’t stop Junior from mastering the art of catching waves on his bodyboard or wiping out headfirst into the blue-jelly-soup. He swam for the shore in a hurry on one of our snorkel safaris though, when a compass jelly brushed over my face and stung my back.

Compass jellies have striking markings and also pack a nettle-like sting

I have almost no photos of our snorkelling expeditions this year. Next year, when Junior is more confident, I’ll be able to carry a camera, but this season we just revelled in the perfect days and soaked up the sun . As we knew it would, the summer ended abruptly, dissipating like a mirage from one day to the next and the water is no longer so inviting.

For now, we are hanging up our snorkels and returning to the rock pools, exchanging beach shoes for wellies as the autumn chill moves in, but there is everything to look forward to. A week of Shoresearch surveys starts tomorrow in Looe, which is guaranteed to bring new finds and lots of species records for Cornwall Wildlife Trust.

The empty beaches make this a wonderful time of year to explore the rock pools and before we know it, the first of the autumn storms will blast in, washing who knows what onto our shores. Watch this space!

Between the snorkel trips, I did squeeze in some rock pooling. Here are some of my favourite photos from the summer.