UK Diving » A weekend in Abercastle » Abercastle underwater

Guided by Bruce of West Wales Diving School in Mathry (not to be confused with West Wales Divers in Hasguard Cross) we dived the bays North of Abercastle. Unfortunately the vis started average and thickened up so this is another mainly macro selection.

I hope you like Devonshire cup corals - Caryophyllia smithii - there's quite a lot of them in this gallery.	There rarely seems any pattern to the colouring of corals in one area, this caramel and lime one is quite unusual	The strawberry ones are probably my least favourite - too pink I suppose	There were a huge number of edible mussels - Mytilus edulis - most nearly covered by silt but bursting up in mounds where they had grown too large to fit together	A small Common feather star - Antedon bifida - taking a breather on a mussel bed
The Tritonia lineata, like other slugs, has a trick to prevent it toppling over onto its face...	...it is able to extrude a safety line from the rear (where else?) so it can control its descent	Looks like this Tritonia lineata slug forgot his safety line and has just nose dived down the wall into the ground	Cup corals are solitary and don't normally get this close but those two don't appear to object to the arrangement	The blobs on the end of the feeding tentacles can give rise to ID confusion with jewel anemones but the coral's hard core and usually solitary lifestyle are clear differences
This one appears to have an identity crisis - orange, strawberry and lemon flavour - something for everyone	With the amount of food in the water it was no surprise that there were some healthy Double spiral fanworms - Bispira volutacornis	The white ones are particularly elegant	A Common lobster - Homarus gammarus - probably has the same problem I do when at a formal dinner, trying to decide which implements to use. Best to work in from the outside...	Their high set eyes and impressive feelers seem to give lobsters confidence that they know what's going on - unlike crabs who always look confused...
Of course the Velvet swimming crab - Necora puber - is an exception. It is always looking for a fight	We hadn't seen any other Crawfish (or Spiny lobsters) - Palinurus elephas - this year	Their characteristic swept back antennae haven't been enough to keep the Crawfish safe and they are increasingly rare	I couldn't resist another cup coral	...and another. They rarely have any defects which makes them very photogenic, well I think so
This one is here for a reason. You might miss it at first but the barnacle growing on it (top right) is a species specific to parasitic growth on cup corals - Megatrema anglicum	The elegant anemone - Sargatia elegans- manages to maintain a pristine appearance despite the filthy surroundings its neighbours enjoy	Blue rayed limpets - Helcion pellucidum - are the jewels of the kelp, and always aligned in formation	Their transparent shells allow a good view of a very small creature	I've yet to get a good picture of a Sand mason worm - Lanice conchilega - or rather its case. So here's another so so one to add to the collection
Snake pipefish - Entelurus aequoreus - have been everywhere in huge numbers this year...	Now in the autumn their numbers seem to be falling...	I can't help liking them as they seem so laid back...	...even mildly curious...	...and they look pretty entertaining too!
The Tritonia lineata were bigger and better than examples we've seen elsewhere...	Which is why you've had to put up with so many of them this time :-)

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