LymeBay-Oct2011

Seasearch weekend in Lyme Bay blessed with glorious weather for my first visit here

Nice day for it... Dawn breaking over the Dorset coast, viewed from the Cobb, Lyme Regis	Our weekend home "Miss Pattie" in Lyme harbour	Will it all fit onboard?! "Miss Pattie" and (some of) the vast pile of dive gear. The arrival of the second rebreather on Sunday made it quite a squeeze!	Lyme Bay loveliness Phallusia mammillata and pink sea fan (Eunicella verrucosa) shows life coming back after dredging was banned.	Well-named sea-squirt Phallusia mammillata
Mixed animal 'turf' Hydroids and sponges and silt	My first eyelash worm... Myxicola infundibulum	More Lyme Bay loveliness... Mixed sponges (Axinella dissimilis is the bright orange branching one in the centre), hydroids, pink sea fan	More Lyme Bay loveliness... Pentapora foliacea, Eunicella verrucosa, Polymastia boletiformis, Raspailia ramosa (?)	Coral in the silt... Devonshire cup-coral (Caryophyllia smithii, centre), and the things with ∞-shaped holes are piddocks (sometimes covered with orange bryozoan).
Unobtrusive anemones Epizoanthus couchii colonial anemones - quite tricky to spot...	Wrong-colour sponge? White version of shredded-carrot sponge (Amphilectus fucorum) (??)	Idyllic campsite location Nice place for a campsite (Cannington Farm, http://canningtonfarm.co.uk‎)	Idyllic campsite location Dawn at the campsite (Sunday) heralding another beautiful day	Sponge and coral colours Spiky golfball ponge (Tethya aurantium) and dormant Alcyonium digitatum
Everyone's favourite! Tompot blenny (Parablennius gattorugine)	Elephant hide sponge Pachymatisma johnstonia	Beautiful sea fans Eunicella verrucosa, in the usual pink and the less common white forms	Another new sponge Haliclona simulans - like H. oculata but prostrate form and white tips...	Gorgeous anemones Trumpet anemones (Aptasia mutabilis) - "nationally scarce but locally common" (never seen them before, saw LOTS here!) Beautiful blue stripes on the disk.