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The last passage
Posted by Graeme Lyons , Saturday, 15 November 2025 08:24
Last Thursday to Saturday was an utterly unforgettable rock-pooling experience down at Falmouth in Cornwall. In fact 10 of the above 15 species were lifers for me, one of which was new to Cornwall! On the Saturday, there was a 'Rockpool Project' event being run at Castle Beach and given we had already seen the targets on Thursday and again on Friday, I couldn't really take seeing Babakina and Sprurilla three days in a row - it would have blown my tiny mind. Finley suggested going to Helford Passage after I was talking about a similar site on the Isle of Wight (Seaview - both are eel-grass on sand). So we did just that and it was utterly amazing!
With pond nets, waders and trays in hand, Finley and I set off. It didn't take long to find something I hadn't seen before. My 5th new mollusc of the trip - Calyptraea chinensis. A limpet-like species.
I haven't seen a Solenette for years! The fish were were great here. Sand Gobies, Fifteen-spined Sticklebacks and a whole loud of pipefish. I'll come to them later.
I found this brittlestar and it look different straight away to the ones I see in rock pools. A proportionally bigger disc and a texture and pattern of an animal that looked adapted to living on sand. It's Ophiura ophiura and another lifer.
Finley took this shot of an Antony Gormley statue that's called 'The Lone Pan-species lister'. There was a chill wind along that passage.
Visibility wasn't great, but Finley did spot and photograph this awesome Common Welk Buccinum undatum! By the time I blundered into range, I clouded it up so much a photo wasn't possible. Look at those spots on the mantle!
Finley had mentioned there being some impressive Spiny Cockles here, although I had seen many shells, I only noticed one live adult. I hoyed it out for a series of photos. Yet when I got home and had a look, it didn't look right. I soon discovered there was a species that fit for what I had here, and Simon Taylor confirmed it. This is another mollusc on the move and is new to Cornwall! It's Acanthocardia paucicostata. The shape of the ridges is quite distinct. The cross section of the shell looks more like a series of green houses side by side (rather than say the 'battlements of a castle' that are seen in more typical cockles). The spines are different too, being rather spoon-shaped. Size is key, this being a fairly small cockle. My size estimate from memory was way off, fortunately we were able to estimate the size more accurately from my my fingers in the photo!
Then things started getting exciting! I netted my first ever Deep-snouted Pipefish! My 102nd fish - I've seen all six pipefish in the UK now! I was proper stoked!
What a gorgeous fish.
I also found this baby Common Cuttlefish!
Finley pulled out a couple more pipefish. This is only the second time I have seen Straight-snouted Pipefish.
And this small animal that by a process of elimination we are thinking is Nillson's Pipefish. I'd be interested in what others think of this. It has been a long time since I saw one of these either way.
Then something really unexpected. I only went and found yet another Spurilla neapolitana! That makes three days in a row in which I have seen this recent arrival to our shores, but this time from a totally different habitat! Bonkers. I found it just as Ben Rumsby and a contingent of other students turned up, so they were very happy to see all these wonders.
Here are my records for this species. Three records of four individuals, all likely adults. From three 2 km squares and two diagonally adjacent hectads. Considering it wasn't even on the British list in August that is mad, imagine how many more of them are out there.
And to conclude, here's my favourite shot from the weekend, the Rainbow Sea Slug Babakina anadoni that was found by Rachel Edworthy on Friday at Gylly Reef. What an incredible three days that was!
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