You can use this website to find out more about the animals and seaweeds most commonly found at Trevaunance and Trevellas.
The rock pools here are fantastic for seeing many forms of creatures: anemones, crabs, starfish, fish, marine snails, sponges and a huge range of seaweeds.
But take care when exploring and know your tide times for the day. Also, watch out for slippery seaweed covering the rocks, especially the green stuff as it’s mega-slippery!
This rocky foreshore has deep gullies, full of vibrant sponges, ‘pink paint’ seaweeds and even the occasional lobster. Between the rocks lie fascinating pools of all shapes, sizes and depths.
The sea and scouring from stones and sand has carved this pool into a smooth circular shape.
The intertidal zone is the area where the sea meets the land between the lowest low tide and the highest high tide. It’s in this zone that you find rock pools.
Tides mean that during the course of 24 hours marine animals and seaweeds can be covered completely by saltwater or fully exposed to the air. At low tide on a sunny/windy day they face a real danger of drying out. Rock pool creatures also have to cope with a range of temperatures.
But life at Trevaunance is particularly difficult on this north-facing coast due to turbulent seas. The waves here can be violent, particularly during autumn and winter storms.
Staying attached to the rocks can be a problem as seawater swirls in or out of the pools.
Top tips for rockpooling:
- Look up times of high and low tide in advance. You will see a greater variety of marine life at low tide but you don’t want to be caught by an incoming tide. Head up the shore to explore rock pools further from the sea once the time of low tide has been reached.
- Useful equipment includes: a plastic container for collecting specimens and an ID guide. The camera on a mobile will be fine for taking photos of creatures which are not submerged, e.g. barnacles on the upper shore. For underwater photos, use a waterproof camera. Sometimes, it’s the tiniest rock pool creatures that are the most colourful and interesting so a small hand lens might help.
- Using nets can hurt animals in rock pools. Use your hands instead.
- Just lifting a smallish stone from the bed of a pool can reveal an amazing array of creatures. Try to replace the stone in its original position so that the underside is not exposed to the light.
- Often it pays to observe a pool quietly rather than immediately rushing to ‘catch’ creatures. Fish and crabs are easily disturbed and will swiftly hide in inaccessible crevices.
- You can use a plastic container, e.g. a bucket, for collecting specimens. But don’t keep marine creatures in a plastic container for a prolonged time, especially in hot weather. This stresses the animals. Also, don’t overcrowd the container. Crabs will fight if overcrowded. Ideally, just put one creature at a time in your bucket. Always put some seawater in your bucket before adding the rock pool animal.
- Try to return an animal to the pool where you caught it. Many marine animals have special ‘homes’.
- Some living organisms should never be removed from the rocks. Pulling off an anemone or limpet will damage the animal and probably kill it.
- Be mindful of dropping litter. Try to leave the pools as pristine as you found them.
For further information on the intertidal zone in Cornwall and Scilly and the Nature Recovery Strategy, see https://letstalk.cornwall.gov.uk/cornwall-and-the-isles-of-scilly-marine-nature-recovery-framework