Low tide and a broad expanse of beige barnacle-encrusted rocks surrounds the mount that demarcates the northern limit of the sandy bay dominating the west coast of Jersey.
The mount is topped with a large, rounded, second world war German defensive turret; it overlooks weedy pools, under a cloudy sky. Here, in a deep lagoon, its vertical sides carpeted with a thick, mossy pile of algae and bryozoans, shanny (blennies) rest on top of slate-grey cobbles, surveying their watery domain with large eyes and glum mouths; one of these mottled denizens is huge, more than 15cm long. Glassy matchstick-sized fry swim near the surface, a pair of dark eyes followed by a thin, snaking, iridescent green line.
Further out, the pools are shallower and packed with boulders, asking to be peered under. Clumps of japweed sprawl in the water like knotted yellow-brown wigs. The disappointment of seeing this invasive alga in such a remote location is compensated for by the variety of other seaweeds present, including clumps of the bizarre velvet horn, long furry fingers of dark green algae.
Upending each limpet- and periwinkle-adorned boulder reveals an array of life. Broad-clawed porcelain crabs, flat and hairy, creep away; edible crabs, looking like little purple pies, squat in the gravel, scale worms wriggle, and shanny flap and splash their way into cover.
Beauty is present in the form of the sea-squirt Botryllus schlosseri, flat patches of purple jelly with a repeating pattern of rings of white dots; snake’s-lock anemones, each long pink tentacle tipped with turquoise; and endearing little cushion stars. But unexpected novelty is the prize, and today that is a small-headed clingfish, chocolate brown, its flattened head bearing white spectacles and fronted with a duck-like mouth.
And then the profoundly unusual burrowing prawn, Pesterella tyrrhena, finger-long, with the structure of an anaemic lobster, a long cream tail, white bean-shaped carapace and pale pink claws, the right one huge, flat and smooth, the left delicate and hairy; all put together with deplorable attention to appearing to be a coherent animal.
