On Saturday the 8th October our Plymouth Blue Recovery Rangers, Rock Pooling Families and a healthy dose of Rock Pool Project volunteers & team members, grabbed their passports and set off aboard the wonderful Edgcumbe Belle. The course was set for Cremyll, Cornwall on reportedly the oldest passenger ferry route in the UK. Luckily, the waters were calm as we approached Kernow, with not a pirate in sight!
Our second species in focus features probably the most popular new arrival to our shores in recent years. Well certainly in Cornwall anyway, where this charming little crab is named after the region's patron saint: St Piran.
The Cushion star (Asterina gibbosa) is a little, well camouflaged starfish that is commonly found in rockpools on many of the UK coasts.
Following up on February Half Term which saw us host our first monthly event at Castle Beach for the year, we are now going to be advertising some information about hotels from some of our favourite rock pooling locations in Cornwall, along with information about the hotels!
Galathea squamifera, the common squat lobster, is a species of intertidal crustacean. Don’t be fooled by the name- these fancy fellows are actually more closely related to hermit crabs than lobsters.
We had just wrapped up our Beach Day activities, tallied up the points, and announced the winners of our bioblitz competition. In the summer months we run a ‘See Our Shore’ session, complete with a mobile rock pool so that the general public can view some of the wildlife we have found. I decided to hang behind in hopes of finding a Spider Crab to add to the collection. We often come across these magnificent creatures in the low shore pools.
