Page 41 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #06

Marine biologist Last summer, Cornwall Wildlife Trust’s marine
Matt Slater awareness officer, Matt Slater, began to notice something
(centre) shows very strange. “We used to hear about the odd spiny
his team a sonor
trace of the dive lobster sighting here and there, but that was over an
site where they entire season. So when we started getting reports from
will conduct the divers of 10 or even 20 individuals per dive… well, that
spring spiny was enough to get us all very excited!”
lobster survey.
Sadly, the lobsters’ reputation rarely extends beyond A marine biologist and the son of a fisherman, Matt
the dinner plate. I think that’s a crying shame because, is a local legend well known for his outreach work with
on closer inspection, these animals are beautifully the fishing fraternity and for raising awareness of marine
bizarre, with looks and habits strange enough to rival conservation in the community at large. He grew up just a
any science-fiction character. stone’s throw from some of Cornwall’s best rockpooling and
Not convinced? Then consider this: spiny lobsters dive sites. Like all good naturalists, he is finely tuned and
are known to march en masse along the seabed, like an alert to even the subtlest changes in his local patch.
approaching armada, during their seasonal migrations to
deeper waters; females sing to males to attract a mate; and CRUSTACEAN COMEBACK
h
the larvae are paper-thin, see-through creatures that wander I met up with Matt shortly after Autumnwatch last year,
the high seas as plankton for up to a year. Studies have when he told me about the unexplained rise in spiny
shown that the larvae can travel vast distances, riding ocean lobster sightings. He was hatching a plan, together with
currents, and it is likely that this is how the latest wave of CIFCA, to conduct a dive survey in the early spring.
colonisers returned to British waters. “We weren’t expecting spiny lobsters to bounce back,”
he admitted. “We’ve no idea if this sudden spike means
that spiny lobsters are now here to stay, or whether it is
just a momentary blip.”
Behind Matt’s calm demeanour, there was a clear
sense of urgency. “We need good-quality data to form the
SQUAT LOBSTER bedrock of a solid fisheries management plan,” he says.
GALATHEA SQUAMIFERA “If ‘open season’ is declared on these animals, they may
A strange-looking species disappear again before they ever get a chance to
that looks like a comedy re-establish themselves.”
cross between a crab and a The clock was ticking, but we would have to sit it out
lobster. True to its name, and wait for the inevitable roll call of winter storms
it grows to only 6.5cm, but to pass. What we didn’t know at the time was that the
what its stubby body lacks in Cornish coast was in for a battering, opening with Storm
length it makes up for in bulk. Brian and closing with the grand finale when Storm
It is found on rocky seabeds at Emma met the Beast from the East.
depths of up to 70m. Female spiny lobsters migrate to deeper water over the
winter and begin their return journey to shallow water in
June 2018 BBC Wildlife 41