Page 21 - August 2016 WN complete final version
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National Marine Week:
join in!
An entire world of perfect ross hoddinott/NPL
greens and reds
To check out these Rocky Horror Shows
for yourself, along with the opportunity
to encounter other amazing delights,
such as basking sharks, seals, dolphins
and puffins, make a date for National
Marine Week, which this year runs until
August 7. During this time The Wildlife
Trusts will hold hundreds of events
– including rockpooling – to celebrate
our rich array of marine and coastal
wildlife. Contact your local Wildlife
Trust, or see wildlifetrusts.org/
nationalmarineweek
jack perks
Back off or I’ll bite! An eTnhoeucgohm.mUnolnesstsayrofius’hreloaomksohllaursmc less
edible crab in a Cornish
rockpool. Believe it or not, gobies or blennies, or a pipefish lying
the barnacles are fellow amongst the weed. But most will move
on in the next tide, to other rockpools, or
crustaceans rocky reefs in deeper water.
crustaceans (barnacles, who kick food into rEovcekrpyochoillsd. Ehvoeordysahdouultldhoinocdlutodoe messing around in It’s not only on the rocky shore that
their mouths with their legs) and shelled this horror show is played out. Sandy
larger crustaceans, such as the hermit beaches hide similar dramas: cuttlefish
crabs, locked in a ceaseless quest for bones, necklace shells that, like the dog
evermore suitable housing. whelk, drill into their prey, and the dried
egg cases of sharks and rays.
In most habitats on Earth, a shell is a
guarantee of safety. But in a rockpool no For me, a trip to the beach is always
shell is safe from the drilling mouthparts of exciting: the intriguing and fascinating
the dog whelk (a monstrous kind of rock cast of rockpools, and the delightful
snail), or the pneumatic crowbarring of a surprise of the strandline. And every tide
starfish’s inside-out stomach. These are brings new players and new finds.
deliciously nightmarish creatures, easily
observable to anyone with a little bit of
patience or a dab of luck.
There are some vertebrates, of course.
You might spot the shadows of darting
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