WOW

I saw this photo on FB - does anyone know where it is?

Highlight on Sunflower Starfish

Did you know that Sunflower Starfish can have up to 24 arms!

Learn more about them on https://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/species/Sunflower_starfish

There is a video of them here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p005bpt2

Huge Starfish

We saw a huge starfish near the pier this evening. It was +5Ocm and had 5 arms. Peach colour.

* the weather was very dull and the water was not very clear.

The scallop shells near the starfish are really big ones!

There were also a few large crates jam packed with live crabs. Obviously keeping them in storage for a few days. They were under the water but clearly far to overcrowded even for a short time :(

On the other side of the pier some distance away, there was a crab fisherman sorting his catch. He had about 30 crates full of smaller crabs (they were screaming). Some of them were frantic and were leaping out of the crates and crashing to the floor.

There is so much wastage. We saw him toss about 40 dead crabs back into the water around the pier just for the short time we were there.

Crabs, starfish and an anemone

Apart from the host of crab casings that have been washing up around the island, I found a few live crabs - even a green one and a prawn.

Very temporarily I put them in a clean glass bottle to get a good look at them and we are dreaming of having a marine aquarium to study some of our finds before releasing them again. I also found a red anemone on a little rock and managed to have a good look at it before putting it back. Its amazing how it interacts with snails and things. I put it briefly in the bottle with a little seaweed and a couple of sea snails and its so amazing to see how its tentacles move.

It was also fascinating to see how the crabs breathe and how they circulate water.

One of the little live crabs I found had 3 white diamond shapes on its back and that was the first time I have seen something like this.

I also found some unusual seaweed whilst kayaking with my dad in the bay and it had two little starfish on it. The one starfish was absolutely tiny. It was awesome!

Its been really distressing at school how kids bring in dead sea creatures and how they kill them to look at them. Its really not necessary and I don't think the teacher should allow this without pointing out that sea creatures can be observed and released asap by into their own environment without any harm being done.

I found some pipe fish last week, tiny little ones when we were out kayaking and I put them in a clean glass bottle to take to school. We had only had kids bringing in dead ones with their heads smashed in and I think that's really cruel. I especially asked the teacher to make sure that none of the kids touched them or injured them, so I could take them back and release them after school. She promised to keep them safe but it did not work out well. Some of the kids really like looking at them carefully but one of the boys stuck something in and squashed all their heads, killing them at break time. I was so upset, it was awful!