Last Hurrah at Hele !

Beautiful weather greeted a strong Coastwise contingent at Hele Bay for what will probably be the last of the summer events. There was an exceptionally low tide of 0.2m, and the extensive kelp beds were revealed.Disappointingly there was a lot of silt on the lowest exposed area, but it became apparent that this, the sand and the many rocks were hiding a rich and diverse poulation of animals, and the draft species list is attached here.
The major curiosities were a crab (pictured R) which was either Zantho incisus (Furrowed Crab) or Zantho pilipes (Risso's or Lesser Furrowed Crab, which has a hairly fringe), and a stalked jellyfish, initially thought to be Haliclystus auricula. However, after a demon bit of Facebook networking by Janice Whittington it was identified by Dave Fenwick (a real expert !) as Haliclystus octoradiatus, a species only identified as different quite recently. It is identified by larger nematocysts (Dave's circled identification only just visible in this small web picture). H. auricula has BAP status and is therefore protected, so, having been identified more recently, octoradiatus must be also.