CRITTER CONFIDENTIAL
Fertile Firestone Fish
Paul Naylor celebrates one of his favourite Plymouth shore dives ,
which sees a wealth of fish activity over the calendar
This Steven ’ s goby looked like he was on guard duty
Anyone who follows my underwater adventures will know I have an obsession with tompot blennies . Their highly complex social lives , boldness and unique skin markings ( that mean they are individually recognisable ) all make them brilliant subjects for filming and behaviour studies , not to mention their superb appearance and charisma . There is one dive site , however , where the tompots have recently been relegated to a supporting role in my affections . Located in the northwest corner of
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Plymouth Sound , I know it as Firestone Bay but it ’ s often described as ‘ Eastern Kings ’. Port of Plymouth Control ( Long Room ) permission is required for diving activities and slack tide needs to be carefully chosen to avoid fierce currents , but the planning is well worth it for this stunning site . There ’ s a wonderful wealth of marine life thanks to those currents bringing in plenty of planktonic sustenance , and a good variety of different habitats at various depths . My favourite is an area of silt-covered rock and large stones in around 12 metres at high
Variable blenny among the Plymouth Sound sponges water . The seabed is richly smothered in life including sponges , hydroids and jewel anemones with , crucially , lots of nooks and crannies for small fish .
It was in this habitat that I spotted my first variable blenny , the second recorded in the UK , in 2008 . As in other places around the South West , there is now a thriving population here at Firestone and I love to visit them . Their scientific name is Parablennius pilicornis ( so a close relative of the tompot P . gattorugine ) and the ‘ variable ’ in their common name comes from the variety of colour forms they exhibit .
Their overall colour can be almost black , or a patchy brown with spotty patterning . The evenness and density of that brown colour , and the intensity of a dark stripe running eye to tail , varies enormously ; so some individuals look almost white with a black stripe . A further yellow-gold colour version is known from their wider , more southerly , distribution but I have never seen one , nor heard of them around Britain .
What do the colours mean ? The allblack livery is sported by breeding territorial males , and there are plenty of them guarding eggs in the summer at Firestone , so they are doing well . The other colours appear more enigmatic . It seems straightforward when I see quite evenly