Four nights, three men, two countries and one camper van. I've been on a bit of an adventure for the last few days taking in an eclectic range of species from Wild Boar to Pilchard. Small Cushion Star (above) to Heath Grasshopper. Where better to start though than the end? The end of the world. Well, the end of the Gower in South Wales or the Worm's Head to be precise...
...we (Seth Gibson, Danny Copper and I) decided to go rock-pooling along the Welsh Atlantic coast so we drove to the end of the Gower. The Worm's Head is an impressive island (it looks a bit like a dragon) that is accessible for 2.5 hours either side of low tide. We got there a little after low tide but we had plenty of time on the second day too for rock-pooling. Ricocheting Choughs bounced along the thermals around the car park, this is a striking landscape.
Fish were on my mind but the smaller, shallower more sheltered rock pools were providing lots of new species other than fish. This Elegant Anemone was quite a looker.
Compared to the more intricate and subtle beauty of the Daisy Anemone.
However, I think my favourite new species was the Green Sea Urchin. Exactly the same colour combo as a Snakelocks Anemone!
Saddle Oyster, Black-footed Limpet and Trophon barvicensis were all knew molluscs for me but the fish were pretty quiet. Shanny was the most abundant with a few Five-bearded Rocklings and singletons of Long-spined Sea Scorpion and Butterfish. Then we stumbled upon a rock pool full of fish!
We hoyed a few out and after a bit of deliberation and an expert second opinion, we believe they are in fact Pilchards (fin position and radial marks on the gill covers clinches it). Quite an unexpected tick and with Transparent Goby added retrospectively from Rye Bay in August, I'm now on 78 fish. Next up it's the Wild Boar story...
End of summer is always a difficult time after a busy field season and the last few weeks have been very trying, so I almost didn't take the opportunity to go out on the Watchful again last week with Sussex IFCA, but I'm glad I did. It ended up being an epic 16 hours at sea and it certainly came up with the goods again. Another cephalopod in the form of an immature
Common Cuttlefish was one of the highlights for me! Not to be mistaken for the adult
Little Cuttlefish that we also saw.
In fact we recorded quite a few nice molluscs, including my first live Rayed Trough Shells (top) and Netted Dog Whelks (bottom).
And this Leach's Spider Crab Inachus phalangium was also one I hadn't seen before, although this one is covered in an orange sponge.
But this was a small fish survey and that's where all the effort went. And there were so many fish this time...
The two fish I had never seen before were Sprat and this awesome little Worm Pipefish.
However, we pulled up something very strange and as yet I have not been able to put this to a taxonomic group, our best bet is a type of sponge. When the Skipper came out (referring to his fishing days) he simply said 'we used to call those Dutchman's Farts'. So, can you tell me what on Earth this is?! Most unusual about this 'thing' was that after a few minutes it would take on the shape of the bottom of the container it was in, like it was struggling to hold its weight above water. I might not know what it is but I love it!
A big thank you to Sussex IFCA for allowing me to tag along, at least I was able to put something back by measuring and identifying thousands of fish! Thanks also to Oli Froom for the lift back so late at night!
Last Tuesday I went out with
Sussex IFCA to carry out a small fish survey in Rye Bay
on their boat, the
Watchful. I was rather excited the night before and despite a sleepless night and a 4.00 am start, I was wide awake and very alert as we left Shoreham Harbour at 6.00 am.
It was misty as we headed out to Rye Bay but it soon cleared by the time we starting trawling for the first of the samples. The best bird of the trip was a dark
Arctic Skua.
We pulled up a couple of
Sea Mice Aphrodita aculeata. I guess people who spend a lot of time at sea don't see many mice. It's actually a worm would you believe it!?
I saw four new fish including quite a few of these
Hook-nose,
Pogge or
Armed Bullhead. Having neither arms or hidden weaponry, I would have thought Armoured Bullhead would have been more appropriate.
I also added
Solenette (we saw hundreds of them - photo below) and a few
Lesser Sandeels.
But best fish of the trip has to be the
Tub Gurnard with the most amazing bright-blue fins.
And of course, the highlight of the trip was seeing my first ever cephalopod in the form of this 2 cm long
Little Cuttlefish Sepiola atlantica. I think this is a candidate for one of my favourite ever species!
Another striking creature was this Compass Jellyfish Chrysaora hysoscella with veins of caramel like stuff running through it. It looks like an alien's pudding.
It was a great day and seeing the whole of the East Sussex coast in calm sees and glorious sunshine on the way back was a real treat. Here is a very different view of Beachy Head. A big thank you to Kathryn Nelson and the rest of the team, I have definitely got the bug when it comes to sea life and I'll be doing more of this when I can. We processed nearly 3000 fish which was surprisingly hard work so I glad to be able to give something back. For the time being though my feet are on dry land.
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