Rare glowing sea creature discovered in waters off Cornwall coast – Source: ITV News West Country
Cornwall Wildlife Trust has identified the creatures as Salps, a species of plankton. The population of salps increases rapidly during the summer due to the warm ocean conditions.
Wildlife photographer Heather Hamilton captured photographs of salps while scuba diving near Logan Rock in Cornwall.
Hamilton said, “We were diving near Logan Rock, just off Porthcurno. They were in full bloom. I’ve seen them in the ocean before, but I’ve only seen isolated individuals. Never seen so many of them.” Told ITV News West Country.
Ms Hamilton was searching very shallow water, perhaps only a meter below the surface. “I felt like I was floating in space,” she said.
A group of divers spotted these glowing creatures in 1 meter shallow water in Cornwall – Photo: Cornwall Wildlife Trust
Matt Slater, marine conservation officer at Cornwall Wildlife Trust, said salps are rarely seen in Cornwall’s waters, but when they do appear they can breed quickly.
Salps have a gelatinous, cylindrical transparent body made of cellulose and have circular muscles within it that contract to rapidly pump water through the body.
Characterized by living in groups, salps will link their bodies into a large chain and move, eat and grow together.
Currently, Cornwall Wildlife Trust is calling on the public to provide information to this agency via a hotline in order to establish a fence to protect them.
Beautiful creatures are not often seen in British waters – Photo: Cornwall Underwater
Salps’ bodies linked together in chains – Photo: Cornwall Wildlife Trust
beauty of plankton
(tags to translate) fauna
