Photographs of the marine creatures that live in the seas around northern England and Scotland.
Common dolphin - Delphinus delphis.
A pod of common dolpin off the coast of the Isle of Mull, scotland.
Rhizostoma pulmo - Rhizostoma octopus - barrel jellyfish - dustbin lid jellyfish.
The barrel is a largest jellyfish in UK waters. It can grow up to 1 metre wide and weigh 25kg,
This jellyfish was washed up on Silecroft Beach in Cumbria in May 2023.
Variegated scallop - Chlamys varia.
The interior surface of a variegated scallop shell with toothed wrack seaweed.
Beadlet sea anemone - Actinia equina.
A beadlet sea anemone in a rockpool on the Isle of Mull, Scotland.
Beadlet sea anemone - Actinia equina.
A red beadlet sea anemone in a rockpool on the Isle of Mull, Scotland.
Brown shrimps - Crangon crangon
Brown shrimps, caught in the shrimp nets in Morecambe Bay, Flookburgh, Cumbria.
Sea potato - heart urchin - Echinocardium cordatum.
Sea potatoes in a rock pool on the beach at Heysham in Lancashire in July 2016.
The thin hollow shells of dead sea potatoes are called 'tests'.
Sea potato - heart urchin - Echinocardium cordatum.
This sea potato was found on Silecroft Beach in Cumbria in May 2023.
Weever Fish - Echiichthys vipera
Length - 3cm. June-October.
Weever fish caught in the shrimp nets in Morecambe Bay, Flookbugh, Cumbria. Weever fish are a tiny fish with a very painful sting that can be allieviated by placing the effected body part in a very hot water.
Lugworm - Arenicola marina.
Lugworm casts on West Kirkby Beach, Merseyside. The worms live in a U-shaped burrow and ingest the sandy mud at one end, and excrete digested sand at the other. They digest the micro-organisms in the sand in a similar way that earthworms process soil. Lugworms help to make up the food chain of the Dee Estuary which sustains a large bird population.