Corynactis viridis | An Bollenessor

Last Friday I had a really enjoyable rockpool/snorkeling trip with my rockpool buddy David Fenwick (see his website aphotomarine for all your marine ID questions). Dave suggested we go far west, down to Sennen Cove where he knew about some interesting mini sea caves with jewel anemones and other things to explore. That is what we did, see the photo below!

Jewel anemones were indeed found in this spot….the water was too shallow to take a good photo though. I therefore jumped in the water where at first I got a bit seasick of all the waving Furbelows kelp. The water was noticeably colder than on the South Coast too. I discovered a nice deep gully with a whole variety of sea anemones growing on the vertical rock face. Orange, purple and green Jewel Anemones (Corynactis viridis) were common from 6 meters deep (at low tide). Very tricky for this middle-aged man to take good photos on one breath though! I was stumped by one white anemone but as Dave pointed out it looked like a Dahlia Anemone (Urticina felina) (and multiple ‘normally’ coloured individuals lived nearby so that makes sense). Finally a Sandalled Anemone (Actinothoe sphyrodeta) (my photos of the White-striped Anemone Anthothoe albocincta were unfortunately out of focus).

We had a blast and David found a Nemertean worm which might be new to the UK, or even new to science! It will find its way to aphotomarine eventually I am sure (check for ribbon worms here). I certainly like to go back snorkeling here some (windstill, swell-less) time.

It has been a long time coming, but I finally managed to go on a boatdive to the Manacles this weekend. I rented my gear at Seaways in Penryn and got on board the Atlantic Scuba rib ‘Stingray’ in Mylor Marina. Nine divers were on board; I was teaming up with Thomas and his intern Andy from HydroMotionMedia (make sure to check out the revamped website), who are working on a documentary about Marine Conservation Zones (the Manacles are one). The Manacles are a group of rocks east of the Lizard peninsula about half an hour by boat from Mylor which historically have claimed many ship wrecks, and they form one of the best dive sites in the UK. The name is an anglicization from the Cornish ‘Meyn Eglos’, meaning church stones. It was a beautiful sunny morning, and when we were close we spotted several Common dolphins Delphinus delphis, who came up to the boat, an awesome start! At slack tide, we descended to about 18 meters to inspect the walls of Raglans reef, the outermost pinnacle of the Manacles group. For the first time, I saw many of the species I was familiar with only from the internet and books with my own eyes: Cuckoo wrasse, Dead men’s fingers (a soft coral), Ross coral (which is not a coral but a Bryozoan), enormous amounts of Feather stars (see this recent post when I found them first on holiday in France), Sun stars and of course the incredibly pretty Jewel anemones Corynactis viridis:The photos are OK but I could do a lot better, this was in part due to my camera malfunctioning for a bit and my dive was pretty short anyway, as I guzzled too much air (I need to do some sports and drink less beer!). Also, I need a lot more practice with video light and strobe. However, this dive was primarily about checking out the new scenery. Some shots of other species below: the Edible sea urchin Echinus esculentus, Elegant anemone Sagartia elegans (variety rosea) and Dead men’s fingers Alcyonium digitatum. I hope to go back to the Manacles on the Stingray very soon!