The UK ’ s extensive kelp forests serve as birthing zone , nursery and breeding ground for some of our most beautiful marine creatures . Paul Naylor is your guide
CRITTERCONFIDENTIAL
Blue-rayed limpets , each one in a little pit it has eaten into the kelp
Keep an eye on kelp
The UK ’ s extensive kelp forests serve as birthing zone , nursery and breeding ground for some of our most beautiful marine creatures . Paul Naylor is your guide
Kelp diversity : blue-rayed limpets , a tiny snail and an even smaller nudibranch to the far left of the photo
Kelp sometimes gets a bad press from divers . ‘ Just kelp ’ or similar words are muttered as they return from a dive after descending to find a forest of swaying fronds rather than a colourful rocky pinnacle or the remains of a wreck they were expecting . Forests of kelp of course provide vital feeding and nursery grounds for an immense variety of marine life , as emphasised by important campaigns to restore them where destructive human activities , such as trawling , have taken their toll . Much of the rich life tends to be hidden among and beneath the kelp canopy , but the fronds themselves are also worthy of a very close look …
One of the most striking finds , hard to spot at first but instantly recognisable , is the blue-rayed limpet ( Patella pellucida ). Their shells are tiny , a large one would be the size of your little fingernail , and are kelp-coloured overall but with eye-catching
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