Explore beaches in the British isles and you’ll see rockpools of varying sizes with a whole host of rockpool wildlife to identify.
We’ve put together a list of the most common species hiding in an amongst the rocky water world.
Common Mussel
Found on beaches around the world, the common mussel is an edible bivalve mollusc with a blue and purple shell.
Common Blenny/Shanny
If you look closely in rockpools around the UK, you’ll see the bottom dwelling fish known as blennies or shannies. They can be difficult to spot as they can change colour to match their surroundings.
Common Limpet
Moving on a trail of mucus they excrete, the common limpet eats algae found on surrounding rocks. Their tongue is the worlds strongest known biological material and they use it to cling on to their environment.
Common Prawn
The common prawn has a translucent body with brown tiger stripes along its back. It has two small claws on its front legs and three pairs of walking legs. The prawn is a bottom feeder and eats decaying matter such as mussels and seaweed.
Grey Sea Slug
Image Courtesy of Bude Marine Group
A species of ‘nudibranch’, the grey sea slug is found around the British Isles. It feeds on seaweed, anemones and other nudibranches and can be identified by its soft plumes on its back.
Dog Whelk
Dog whelks can be found by their brown and yellow pointed conical shell. They feed on mussels and barnacles by boring through their shells and then injecting enzymes which digest the contents.
Shore Crab
The most common crab found on our shores, the shore crab can be identified by their green, red or orange colour and the pattern of spikes on its shell.
Shore crabs can be found hidden under rocks and between the seaweed and this type of rockpool wildlife scavenge on anything they can find in their habitat.
Hermit Crab
The hermit crab doesn’t grow its own shell. Instead, they steal leftover mollusc shells to protect their soft, vulnerable body. Like, the shore crab, they are opportunistic scavengers and feed on anything they find.
Common Starfish
Identified by there orangey, yellow colour, the common starfish has lots of small bumpy tubes which it uses to hold food and to move along the ground.
Being blind, the starfish uses its arms to pull cockles and whelks from rocks as it slowly moves around the rockpools.
To eat its prey, the starfish holds the shell and turns its stomach inside out through its mouth and into the shell to digest the flesh.
Beadlet Anemone
The beadlet anemone resemble small blobs of jelly in red, orange or brown in colour. They release their tentacles once underwater and use them to sting and catch their prey.
Snakelock Anemone
Image Courtesy of Bude Marine Group
Unlike the beadlet anenome, the snakelock anenome are not able to retract their tentacles and so can be found lower down the shore. Their stinging cells are strong enough to be felt by human fingers so care must be taken when rockpooling around these creatures.
The tentacles are usually bright green with purple tips, with the green colour provided by the algae which lives inside them.
Our Local beach…
Here at OA Surf Club, we are lucky enough to have our own private beach right on our doorstep.
When the tide goes out, Wanson beach is the perfect environment for rockpooling, with the reef providing all manor of sea creatures within walking distance to our OA Stay B&B.
On rare occasions, octopus have been found resting in the rock pool shallows and the majority of rockpool wildlife can be found in and amongst the rocks and seaweed.