A European cowrie hides among sponges.
The magnificent 'sea lemon" a large and strikingly coloured sea slug
The egg sack of a sea lemon.
Thursday the 5th saw the start of the new season at the Wembury bay Marine reserve with a volunteer rock pool so new volunteers could learn about some of the wildlife found on the beach. The rock pools where fantastic and we found everything from cornish sucker fish to brittle stars. However I've devoted this post to some of the more unusual species found. Firstly a european cowrie. Usually associated with tropical waters cowries are not uncommon, though easy to overlook as in the UK they rarely grow over a centimetre in length and at low tide retreat in deep crevices. It feeds on sea squirts such as the star ascidian.
My second species is the aptly named sea lemon, These are one of the largest and probably the easiest to find of our sea slugs, and can often be spotted on the lower shore feeding on sponge.
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