Under Sea Sussex – Tompot Blenny, Piddock, Devonshire Cup Corals and Jewel Anemones ...

We do not seem to have been there and I thought a post about our undersea life in the shallow seas off Sussex with more wonderful names and different views, undersea caves or wrecks might be of interest.

Usually there is a continental shelf – that shallow gradient, before the Ocean depths open up starting with the sharper drop of the continental slope; these coastal plains were part of the continent during glacial periods – hence remains of the woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros and bison have been found in the UK, as they would readily have been able to roam across from Europe, which now during an interglacial epoch are under water.

The global continental shelf, highlighted in cyan (turquoise to you and me!)

The continental shelf is very widespread in the northern hemisphere, and also down the coasts of eastern Russia, China and southerly to include Oceania .. as you can see from the image. Back to our small portion of coastline – our murky waters off Sussex and what lives or can be seen beneath our waves.

The English Channel narrows as it reaches towards the North Sea and turns the island corner, at which point ships could go north on to the Hanseatic ports of Lubeck (the cornerstone to the Baltic regions), Hamburg, Brugge (now Bruges-Zeebrugge – a large container port for Europe) and London – in the days of the Hanseatic League (13th – 17th centuries); ...

... or to the Dutch ports, when the Netherlands ruled the waves, via Amsterdam, through the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company in the 17th Century, when the Dutch rebelled against Philip II of Spain and secured their independence. London was always involved in the fray – be it as the antagonist or champion of the various factions for that period – before British independence came to the fore.

The Sussex coastline has many wrecks, even William the Conqueror lost ships off Pevensey Bay in 1066, due to the weather, the uncharted under-waters, or the many wars that have been waged in these narrowing Channel waters over the centuries, and probably millennia.

A Bib (- a Whiting)

The wrecks and reefs, with their holes, crevices, canyons, boulders and cliffs, are all huge magnets to a prolific range of marine life – fishes, shellfish, eels, soft corals, sponges, and various anemones. Shoalling fish love the wrecks – they act like oases for these fish, such as the Bib.

We forget that life continues beyond the sea-shore .. there is a surprising amount of habitat in our murky waters off the Sussex coast. As on land, species adapt to their environment and create specific evolutionary changes so that they can live in harmony with their surrounds.

Much of our seabed is sandy attracting fish such as Plaice, Red Mullet, Dab, Crabs, Halibut and Sole amongst others. Sussex’s shoreline is very varied, ranging from mudflats and pebble beaches in the west, to chalk shore, with rock pools in the east.

The Sussex shoreline: tidal range, shallow waters before the darker depths of the Continental Shelf begin

Unfortunately a large percentage is no longer in a ‘natural’ state, having been modified by constructing sea defences, such as groynes, which we have along the Sussex coast, protecting our beaches and coastline.

Groynes in Stitges, Catalonia, Spain

Nature takes its course too – the weather batters the shore: the sun bakes down, the stormy rains drive in, the crashing waves thrash the shore, the sea spray keeping everything damp and wet, the winds whistle in .. finding any crevice, much like in a house or a shelter, whittling away ... all affect the cliff face, while the flints lodged in the chalk are secure until they are released, thus loosening the chalk around them – sometimes causing large landfalls.

Then there’s the Piddock – natures’ own excavator! They are bivalves and bore into soft rocks, such as chalk and clay; they live for eight years .. just in their hole! – but when they depart to higher horizons .. anemones, crabs and other molluscs move in.

Piddock burrows, 1 inch or less, in calcic rock, coast Boulogne - Calais (France)

The seaward edge of the chalk platform below the chalk cliffs are eroding into narrow gullies – wonderful hiding places for crabs, small fishes; while the sandstone reefs provide a firm foothold for ‘attached’ marine animals, such as sponges, sea squirts, and anemones, while more nooks and crannies provide hideaways for others.

Our organically enriched shoreline provides the ideal environment for mussels, which thrive here, and in doing so stabilise the sea bed. Many a picnic is held on a beach under the Seven Sisters .. where the primary object is to collect mussels and enjoy some wonderful food, a beer or a glass of wine in the setting sun on a low tide.

Starfish flourish, molluscs abound, Cuttlefish breed close inshore, Tompot Blennies inquisitively peer out to keep an eye on their surrounds, PipeFish, close relatives to Sea Horses (which are found further west along the coast in the seagrass beds) generally inhabit the sheltered areas in coral reefs, seagrass beds and sandy lagoons.

Tompot Blenny - to the right

There are anemones and corals – the wonderfully called Devonshire Cup Coral appears to be an anemone (known as a jewel anemone), however it is a true coral with a hard stony body .. only about 1.5cms high. It inhabits rocky pools and was thought to only be found around the Devonshire coast, but with underwater photography becoming a popular hobby and with improved technology .. this coral grows around the coast of Great Britain.

Photographed in the Small Isles of Western Scotland: below a Devonshire Cup Coral – Jewel Anemone (below) - courtesy of Clikpic.com

The area offers any number of diving sites – shallow wrecks, deep water wrecks .. some of which are still intact and are popular dive sites, underwater chalk cliffs – a unique feature of the Sussex sea bed, especially as the deeper side of the cliffs face the coast, as well as one feature (in West Sussex) called the Mixon Hole to be found on an impressive 20 m high cliff, that occurs once the seabed end is reached.

Our sea shores are a living habitat, as are the seas and oceans and we need to be aware of the threats to these precious resources, as much as we do with our lands and skies. We know about a number of activities that can damage our seas ... but so often forget others .. the sewage outfalls, agricultural run-off from land and rivers, the dumping of dredged spoil, marine aggregate extraction, bottom trawling, ships’ anchors dragging on the sea bed, litter and waste materials dropped at sea: if there is any comparison to land dumping refuse – it is an increasing problem .. which we need to address and remember.

We are collecting more and more data about shore lines – recording the sea bed types, the marine life that is found – generally mapping our shores to a greater extent than has been done in the past: and then repeating this statistical gathering on a regular basis to see the changes that are happening.

Seaweed covered rocks in the UK

If you draw a line due South from London .. it is about where Eastbourne is on the Sussex Coast and this where you will find our Sussex murky waters - you can see how the English Channel narrows as it meets the North Sea - so that Dover to Calais is only about 20 miles away. The French call it 'La Manche' - the sleeve .. and it looks it doesn't it? It is the smallest of the shallow seas around the continental shelf of Europe.

Life is constantly changing and so are our shorelines – a great deal of it naturally as has happened over the millennia and epochs, species evolve as we are finding out as our statistical gatherings and research grow annually .. this data is giving the human race an opportunity to realise the damage we are doing – or will nature occur naturally and the English Channel once again become a grassland for the Woolly Mammoth, the Cave Lion, the Giant Deer, as the next glacial age takes it turn in earth’s history?

Dear Mr Postman .. my mother cannot hear still, which makes me sad and is tricky for us both - she said to me on Sunday .. that it must be very boring for me - difficult to answer. I must spend more time with her - life has been somewhat hectic lately and though I've been visiting .. the room flooding, meant taking the posters down and then putting new ones up, and bringing all her possessions over .. then we have to do it again in a few weeks as we move back upstairs to the refurbished part of the building. We cope - but this is not really how I want it to be for my Mama .. life should be kinder now to her.

Hilary Melton-Butcher

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