Shore Life

Introduction

This site shows some of my pictures of shore life, mostly taken on the south-west peninsula in Devon and Cornwall, but with a few from other localities. I assert my copyright on all the images, but they are freely available for non-commercial use. I'd like, but don't insist on, a credit. See my copyright page for details.

At the moment only animals are covered. Plants and other plant like organisms (lichens, red, green and brown algae) may be added later.

I apologise for the poor quality of some of the images. They are included because they are the best I've got so far. Some notes and advice on photography are here.

Exploring the shore

Safety - remember that the tide can come in quickly. Always make sure that you can escape to safety. Occasional large waves can occur, even on quite calm days, always exercise caution when venturing near the water. It is best always to face the sea. Take the advice of any life-guards. Know in advance how to summon help if the worst should happen.

A good field guide will be invaluable. See the references page for suggestions.

More interesting and varied animals will be found lower down the shore. Many of the species shown here cannot tolerate long exposure out of water. A set of tide tables, which give the height of the low tide, may let you choose days and times when more of the lower shore will be accessible.

Many animals live under stones on the shore. Always replace any stones you move the right way up in their original position. Failure to do this will kill many of the animals and will rapidly degrade the environment. You may want to keep some animals in a container for examination. Try to keep containers cool and shaded and return the animals to their habitat as soon as possible. Don't take animals home or off the beach unless you can provide suitable conditions for them. A day in a bucket will kill almost any of them.

If you really need to take samples for identification, always take the minimum number or amount possible. Never take the only example you find. If it is rare where you are, then you shouldn't make it rarer! In a few areas, to be known as 'Reference Areas', within Marine Conservation Zones, it will be illegal to collect or disturb any marine organism. Only licenced researchers will be permitted to do this. More information can be found at http://www.finding-sanctuary.org/ , http://www.ukmpas.org/ and http://www.mczmapping.org/ .

Linnaeus

Names

While I have given English or common names wherever I know them, many of the organisms here have no such name. Latin names may be daunting at first but have the great advantage of being unique to a species and universally understood, whatever the local language of the reader. Common names may vary with locality and may be applied to several different species. Here is an explanation of Latin names .

Finding things on this site:—

by classification

If you know which of the major groups - phyla (singular phylum) - your organism belongs to then the phyla page is the best starting point.

This is also a good place to browse by general appearance as it includes pictures of representative examples of each phylum and the classes within each one.

If you know (or suspect) the identity of another level - family, order, class etc. then the higher level taxa index will help and lead to a gallery, or part of a gallery, of the species in that group.

by exploring a 'Tree of Life'

Here is a 'Tree of Life' for the species shown on this site. It includes all the higher level taxa (groups) to which the species belong as currently used by the World Register of Marine Species (WORMS) on-line database.

The page includes a large Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) image, so some scrolling will be required to explore it. This can't be avoided if the text is to remain readable. The browser magnification keys (CTRL-+ and CTRL--) will work.

Internet explorer before IE9 cannot display SVG files natively. Plugins are available. One will be suggested if you visit the page with an older version of IE.

by name

Here is a full index to species by English and Latin names. This is probably the easiest place to find a particular species without knowing its full classification. The index is fully permuted, so, in case the name of the genus has changed, you can try looking up the specific epithet.

For example Patina pellucida , the Blue Rayed Limpet, is now Ansates pellucida , but you will find it by looking for pellucida . You can also find it by searching for ' Blue ' or ' Limpet ' of course. The same applies to Thais|Nucella lapillus and many others.

Reference material

This site is not intended to be a field guide. A good field guide, which can be taken to the shore, is strongly recommended.

The references page has a list of books and pamphlets, both for beginners and for more advanced readers.

Acknowledgements

I should like to thank Jo Corke, formerly Senior Lecturer in the Department of Education at the University of the West of England, who invited me on several UWE field trips to Salcombe and who taught me a great deal about marine biology and field work.

I also thank Pam, Dan and Tim Cowley for their enthusiastic help. Many of the illustrated species were found or caught by them. Pam provided invaluable help with identification and examination of specimens.