In the wide Looe yonder.....

.....is where Heather Buttivant likes to spend her time - mainly in the rock pools.

The authoress, conservationist and blogger ( Cornish Rock Pools) lives within sight of the Looe shore, and gave Coastwise members a virtual tour of what can be found Hannafore and Talland Bay beaches.

Coastwise will be visiting the area in early April, with Heather as the guide, so this was a very useful introduction to the area.

Heather's books include "Rock Pool - Extraordinary Encounters between the tides", and contain excellent pictures as identification aids.

The Looe area is in a sheltered bay, but recives a lot of nutrients on the strong currents, and the nature reserve of Looe Island can be visited at very low tides.

Heather is a stalked jellyfish enthusiast, and showed coastwise members a very rare type - Lucenaria quadricornis - which has its 8 arms grouped in twos, so has 4 arms and a wrinkly stem. (picture R)

One speciality of the area is the strangly named Montagu's Sea Snail, which is actually a fish, shown R with parasitic crustaceans.

Heather's also a fan of sea slugs, and showed the fascinating Calma gobioophaga, here pictured eating, and in, goby eggs, a source of nutrients so complete that the slug does not excrete solids.

A YouTube video of Heather's talk will be available here shortly.....