On the Shore

Recent attractions have been some large fish (by rockpool standards) including a covey of 5-bearded Rockling and a very fine Shanny/Common Blenny. On a much smaller scale, Warren Maguire has determined some Sea-lice I sent him as the Speckled Sea-louse (Eurydice pulchra)

There are three species of Eurydice that regularly occur in the intertidal zone (pulchra, affinis, spinigera) and these are keyed out in the Handbook of the Marine Fauna of North-West Europe, but there are also three more species (grimaldii, inermis and truncata) that live largely offshore but which can occur near to shore and these are not in the book.

So, even though the habitat – sandy pool halfway down the shore – made E. pulchra the most likely, I sent four away for expert determination.

Speckled Sea-louse

Shanny

Tags: Sea Creatures