Shore Life

Anemone (Beadlet)

Debbie — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 11:57:13 +0000

The Beadlet Anemone is a small sea creature that is bright red and covered with lots of stinging tentacles. It can be found all around the shores of England in rock pools and in the shallower parts of the sea where it clings onto rocks and hard shells.

The Beadlet Anemone is around five centimetres in length and can be a green or an orange colour. It has around two hundred tentacles and at the base of them there is a ring of bright blue spots that look like beads. This is why this anenome has the name the ‘Beadlet Anemone’. It opens its tentacles when it wants to feed because it uses them to sting its prey. The sting is not harmful to humans and it doesn’t hurt. When this anemone is exposed to air, it closes its tentacles to protect and hide them. It also closes its tentacles when it feels threatened.

Beadlet Anemones inflate their bodies when they want to release themselves from rocks. Once they are flowing freely in the sea they allow themselves to be carried away by waves and currents to a new location. Beadlet Anemones also move so slowly that it is almost impossible to see with the naked eye.

Anemone (Plumose)

Debbie — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 11:52:31 +0000

The Plumose Anemone is a long column-shaped sea creature that has stinging tentacles. It can be found all around the shores of England in strong flowing water. It is often found clinging onto rocks and boulders on the lower shore, but it can also be found in waters as a deep as a hundred metres. This anemone can also be seen on sewage pipes, piers and ships wrecks.

The Plumose Anemone is around thirty centimetres tall with a smooth column which has lots of fine tentacles on the top of it. The tentacles almost look like a cluster of feathers. The base of the column is usually around four centimetres wide and has fine tentacles attached to it. This anemone is normally orange-pink or white, but it can sometimes be yellow, dark green, brown, grey or a reddish colour and the tentacles can be a different shade to the column.

Plumose Anemones extend their tentacles in water, but when the tide is low they retract them back into the centre. These anemones creep very slowly along rocks and as they move, they sometimes leave fragments of their bases behind. These fragments slowly develop into fully formed Plumose Anemones.

Anemone (Snakelocks)

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:48:23 +0000

The Snakelocks Anemone is a small green sea creature with long stinging tentacles. It can be seen on the western coastline of England and in the English Channel. It can also be spotted in rock pools which are situated in sunny locations and also in shallow sea water clinging onto rocks.

The Snakelocks Anemone is around five centimetres in length and although it is usually green, it sometimes can be a brown or grey colour. It has around two hundred snake-like tentacles and this is why it has the name ‘Snakelocks’. The tentacles are green with light purple tips and are used to sting prey. The sting is not only painful to humans, but it can also leave a rash on the skin for up to a month. This anemone does not close its tentacles like the Beadlet Anemone does, but keeps them free-flowing all the time.

Snakelocks Anemones have a special relationship with Leach Spider Crabs because these crabs hide amongst the stinging tentacles of the Snakelocks Anemones so they can protect themselves from predators. Both these sea creatures don’t seem to have a problem living together.

Barnacle (Acorn)

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:48:51 +0000

Acorn Barnacles are cone-shaped marine crustaceans that can be found along most of the rocky coasts of England at low tide. They can be seen clinging onto rocks and other hard surfaces such as on the underside of boats.

The Acorn Barnacle usually grows to a maximum of one and half centimetres and it has the name ‘Acorn’ because of its cone-shaped shell. The shell is usually an off-white colour and is made up of six plates which surround and protect the barnacle’s body. The Acorn Barnacle opens its shell when the tide is in and then extends six legs out of the shell. The legs are quite small and feathery and are used to filter water to help the Acorn Barnacle to find food particles. It closes the shell when the tide goes out to stop itself from drying out.

Acorn Barnacles are ‘hermaphrodite’ which means they are both male and female. They carry their eggs in special cavities within their shells for about five months. When the larvae hatch out of the eggs, they swim freely in the sea and become part of zooplankton until they grow bigger and can attach themselves to objects.

Coat-of-mail Chiton

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:49:23 +0000

The Coat-of-mail Chiton is a mollusc that has a soft brown body enclosed in a small oval-shaped shell and can be found on the west and south-west coasts of England. It has the name ‘Coat-of-mail’ because it has eight overlapping plates on its shell that look like the plates of armour similar to those on a knight’s gauntlet. It can be found in shallow waters and in waters as deep as fifty metres where it firmly attaches itself onto the underside of rocks. It can sometimes be found in rock pools.

The Coat-of-mail Chiton is about three centimetres long and its body is protected by a shell which is usually a brown colour. Sometimes the shell can be a combination of colours such as off-white, pink, yellow-brown and olive-green with a marbling effect. The Coat-of-mail Chiton has a small mouth and very hard teeth which are used to grind food. It also has a very strong muscular foot which it uses to move along surfaces and also to attach itself firmly onto rocks. If it is removed, it curls itself up tightly to protect itself.

The Coat-of-mail Chiton lays its eggs directly into the water where they develop. Larvae hatch out of the eggs and become part of zooplankton for a while before they settle on the seabed to develop into adult Coat-of-mail Chitons.

Cockle (Common)

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:49:49 +0000

The Common Cockle is also known as the Edible Cockle. It is a ‘bivalve’ mollusc which means it has a soft body enclosed in two hinged shells, just like the Common Oyster and the Common Mussel. Common Cockles can be found in sandy bays and estuaries all around England, but they are often difficult to detect because they bury themselves about five centimetres under the sand when they are not feeding or when the tide is out.

The two shells of the Common Cockle are the same shape and size with around twenty-five curved ribbed lines running along the surfaces. The shells are quite solid and thick with a width and length of around four centimetres. The outer surfaces of the shells can be an off-white, a yellowy white or a brownish white colour and the inner surfaces are usually white with brown or light purple markings. The Common Cockle has a long and powerful muscular foot which is often bent under the shell, but it straightens the foot when it wants to jump forward. Sometimes the foot can be as long as the shell.

Common Cockles release their eggs directly into the water where they develop and hatch. The newly hatched larvae become part of zooplankton for around three to six weeks and then they settle on sandy seabeds to develop into adult Common Cockles.

Crab (Common Shore)

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:50:14 +0000

The Common Shore Crab is also known as the Green Shore Crab and the European Green Crab. It can be found all around the English coast in rock pools under large stones and amongst bunches of seaweed. It can also be found in estuaries and is also well-adapted to living in diluted seawater.

The adult Common Shore Crab has a body width of around eight centimetres and is usually a dark yellowy green colour. Younger crabs can be yellow, green or red with whitish markings. This crab has ten walking legs with two large pincers on the first pair and its right-handed pincer is bigger than the left. It also has two pairs of antennae of which one pair is quite long.

The female Common Shore Crab carries her eggs under her abdomen where they are attached to tiny legs called ‘swimmerets’. She carries the eggs around with her for several months until they are ready to hatch. When the larvae hatch out, they become part of zooplankton for a while before they move to the shore to develop into mature crabs.

Lugworm (Common)

admin — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 15:56:33 +0000

The Common Lugworm is a segmented worm that can be pink, red, green, brown or black. It can be seen all along the English coast where there are muddy shorelines and also in sheltered estuaries, but it is very rarely seen because it lives in burrows. The burrows can be ‘U’ or ‘J’ shaped and can be as deep as twenty to forty centimetres.

The Common Lugworm can grow up to twenty centimetres long and it has a firm body. Its head is quite small and holds no eyes. The middle part of its body has segments with tiny ‘parapods’ which are like little-legs covered in bristles. Its abdomen is narrower than the rest of the body and has lots of segments without the parapods. The Common Lugworm also has a ‘proboscis’ which is a long thread-like tubular organ that shoots out of the worm’s mouth when it wants to feed.

Female Lugworms lay their eggs in burrows and when the larvae hatch out of the eggs, they crawl to the surface where they are taken to different locations by water currents. The larvae eventually settle on the sand and live inside tubes made out of mucus for about two months. Then they drift in the water again before they eventually settle on the sand again to make burrows of their own and to develop into adult Common Lugworms.

Mussel (Common)

Debbie — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 12:05:36 +0000

The Common Mussel is a ‘bivalve’ mollusc which means that it has a soft body enclosed in two hinged shell, like the Grooved Razor Shell and the Common Oyster. It can be found all around the coasts of England on rocky shores attached to rock surfaces. It can also be found attached to piers and is often seen in large groups known as ‘mussel beds’. Large masses of mussel beds can be found in Morecombe Bay and in the estuaries of south-west England.

The Common Mussel has an almost triangular-shaped shell which is usually a purplish or a bluish colour. Sometimes the shell can be brown. The inside of the shell is pearly white with a blue coloured edge. The soft body inside is an orangy colour. The Common Mussel has a large muscular foot which is usually the only part of the body that can be seen outside the shell. The foot can produce a hard thread called the ‘byssus’ thread which the Common Mussel uses to attach itself onto hard surfaces.

Common Mussels lay their eggs directly into the sea where they develop and hatch. The newly hatched larvae become part of zooplankton for around four weeks before they settle on seaweed for a short while. They eventually detach themselves from the seaweed and drift in the water on ‘byssus’ threads for a short time before joining mussel beds to develop into adult Common Mussels.

Oyster (Common)

Debbie — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 12:07:46 +0000

The Common Oyster is also known as the Native Oyster and the Edible Oyster. It can be found in shallow waters on solid mud, muddy sand, gravel and rocks all around our English coast, although it is not so common in the east and north-east. It is a ‘bivalve’ mollusc which means it has a soft body enclosed in two hinged shells, like the Grooved Razor Shell and the Common Mussel.

The Common Oyster can reach a width of up to eleven centimetres and is almost pear-shaped with a rough, scaly shell that has ridged circular lines. The shell can be a grey-white, yellow-grey or a creamy brown colour with brown or bluish band-like markings on the ridges. The inside of the shell is a pearly white, yellow-grey or a creamy brown colour with random blue markings.

If sand, grit or a particle of food gets trapped in between the two hinged shells, the Common Oyster can feel this so it covers the foreign body with a shiny iridescent substance called ‘nacre’ to reduce the irritation. It repeatedly coats the ‘irritant’ with nacre which eventually forms a pearl. The pearl is often called the ‘Mother of Pearl’ and its size depends on the size of the foreign body that gets trapped inside the shell.

Ragworm (Harbour)

admin — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 15:59:08 +0000

The Ragworm is a reddish-brown segmented worm that is also known as the Harbour Worm. It can be found all along the English coast where there are muddy shorelines and also in estuaries, but it is very rarely seen because it lives in burrows. The burrows can be ‘U’ or ‘J’ shaped and as deep as twenty metres.

The Ragworm can grow up to six to twelve centimetres in length and it has a body that is divided into around ninety to one hundred and twenty segments. It has a flattened body and each segment has a pair of leg-like flaps called ‘parapods’ which are covered in tiny bristles. The parapods help the Ragworm to crawl and swim. It also has a ‘toothed proboscis’ which is a long thread-like tubular organ that shoots out of the worm’s mouth when it wants to feed. The Ragworm sometimes bites and the bite feels a bit like that of a bee sting.

The female Ragworm carries the eggs inside her body until they are ready to hatch and then releases them in her burrow. Both the male and female Ragworm die shortly after the eggs have been released. The newly hatched larvae stay very close to the burrow where they develop into adult Ragworms.

Razor Shell (Grooved)

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:50:47 +0000

The Grooved Razor Shell is also known as the Common Razor Shell. It is a ‘bivalve’ mollusc which means it has a soft body enclosed in two hinged shells, like the Common Mussel and the Common Oyster. It can be found on most of our English shores, apart from the east coast shores and it has its name 'Razor Shell' because its shell looks like an old-fashioned hinged razor blade.

The Grooved Razor Shell has a long oblong-shaped shell which can be over ten centimetres long. The shell is smooth and is usually a yellow colour with pale brown or green markings. The soft body inside is usually a dull red colour. It has a tube-like fleshy coloured organ which juts out at one end of the shell. This organ is called the ‘siphon’ which is used when the Grooved Razor Shell wants to feed.

The eggs of the Grooved Razor Shell are laid directly into the sea where they develop and hatch. The newly hatched larvae become part of zooplankton for about a month before settling on the seabed to develop into adult Grooved Razor Shells.

Sandhopper

admin — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 16:05:23 +0000

The Sandhopper is a small land crustacean that is also known as the Sand Flea or the Beach Flea. It has the name ‘Sandhopper’ because it hops or leaps on the sand when it is disturbed. It can hop up to a distance of around twenty centimetres. Sometimes it hops onto people’s feet and ankles and bites them.

The Sandhopper looks almost shrimp-like in shape and is about one and half to two centimetres in length. It is a brownish grey colour and has a long arched body that has seven segments. Its tail-end is often tucked under its body, but the Sandhopper has to ‘untuck’ its tail and flick it out very quickly when it wants to hop. It has two pairs of antennae on the front of its head. One pair is quite long and the other pair is quite short. It also has two large round black eyes.

Sandhoppers hide during the day under the sand as deep as ten to thirty centimetres and emerge early evening and at night. They can often be seen in large groups on the sand, especially where seaweed has been washed up on the shore. Sandhoppers feed on decaying seaweed or decaying algae.

Whelk (Common)

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:51:41 +0000

The Common Whelk is a quite a large marine snail with a spiral shell. It can be found all around the coast of England in both shallow and deep waters on sandy and muddy sea beds, as well as on gravel and rock. Although this snail is quite common it is quite difficult to detect because it blends well into the background of its environment.

The Common Whelk has a grubby-looking spiral shell which is a yellowy brown colour with lighter and darker markings around the spirals. The shell is attached to the whelk’s back. The shell can grow up to six centimetres in length and can reach a height of around ten centimetres. The front part of the shell has a broad opening which the snail quickly retreats into if it feels threatened. It closes the entrance with the back of its foot for more protection. The Common Whelk has two stubby-looking tentacles which stick out at the front of its head and it has a quite a long flat tail.

Common Whelks enclose their eggs in protective capsules which are attached onto rocks, shells and stones. The mass of capsules are a yellowy cream colour and a single capsule can contain up to a thousand eggs. Young whelks hatch out of the capsules and the empty masses of capsules, known as ‘sea wash balls’, can be seen washed up on our beaches.

Worm (Green Leaf)

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:52:07 +0000

The Green Leaf Worm is a bright green or a yellow-green segmented worm that can be found all around the English coast. It is quite an active worm that can be seen moving around on rocks at low tide, especially on dull cloudy days. It can also be seen in rock crevices, beds of barnacles and mussels and also amongst kelp. Kelp is a very large type of brown seaweed.

The Green Leaf Worm can grow five to fifteen centimetres in length and has a body which is divided into around two hundred segments. It is also called the ‘paddle worm’ because it has lots of stiff paddle-like bristles that project and run along the sides of its body. It uses these bristles to move along surfaces and to breathe through. The Green Leaf Worm has a ‘proboscis’ which is a long thread-like tubular organ that shoots out of the worm’s mouth when it wants to feed.

The egg mass of the Green Leaf Worm looks like little pouches of bright green slime which is often attached to seaweed and small stones during the summer months. The newly hatched larvae become part of zooplankton for a short while before they settle on the seabed to develop into adult Green Leaf Worms.