Neon Medusa

By Michael Blencowe

Over the past few months I’ve been putting together an illustrated talk entitled ‘Something in the Night’ which focusses on the nocturnal wildlife of Sussex and beyond. On my travels I’ve tracked brown bears in the mountains of Spain and been cautioned by cops for manhandling an armadillo on a Texas highway. Yet one of my most impressive nocturnal encounters occurred closer to home on the seashore at Saltdean yesterday evening.

Not wanting my talk to just focus on the ‘typical’ nocturnal species such as bats, owls and moths I asked our Living Seas officer Olle Akesson if there was any interesting wildlife that could be encountered on the seashore at night. Olle assured me that I would be amazed if I saw a snakelocks anemone under a UV light. So I headed off to eBay and I was soon the proud owner of a cheap UV torch which came with some faulty wiring and a warning not to shine it at your eyes or hotel rooms.

Snakelocks anemones are common on rocky shores of western Britain but the Sussex coastline offers limited opportunies to find them. If you find some rockpools head to the water's edge at low tide and you could be in luck.

Yesterday evening, with the sun setting over Brighton Marina, myself and six Sussex Wildlife Trust colleagues met after work and headed to the rocky beach at Saltdean and started to search its rockpools, crevices and gullies as they became exposed by the retreating tide. Scrambling around on wet seaweed covered rocks is a risky business at the best of times and doing it at night just added extra uncertainty to every step. Luckily it wasn’t too long before our ecologist Graeme Lyons yelled that he had found a snakelocks anemone and we gingerly scampered across the rocks to join him.

Gathered ‘round the rockpool we all gazed down at the anemone its brown tentacles waving in the shallow pool. I pulled out my eBay UV torch and excitedly shone it in the rockpool. Nothing happened. The anemone stayed the same dull brown colour. Underwhelmed we all turned to Olle and it was then he informed us that “It doesn’t work with brown ones. Just the green ones.” We headed back out across the rocks.

After a while the light had totally faded and my faith in finding one of Olle's apparently amazing anemones wasn't far behind. But then Olle shouted out that he'd found another snakelocks anemone. We gathered around the rockpool and shone our torches.

This time the anemone was definitely green and much bigger; a mass of flowing purple-tipped tentacles. We turned off our torches.

I pulled out the UV torch, counted to three and and turned it on.

In the darkness the anemone was suddenly transformed into an incredible fluorescent glowing green; a neon Medusa. Everyone gasped in genuine amazement at the sight as the anemone seemed to light up the night. The last time I saw such day-glo colours and waving arms was at a rave I went to back in the early nineties..

Olle explained that this stunning display can only be witnessed in the green snakelock anemones as they have zooxanthella, a symbiotic algae, growing in them. It has also been suggested that the colour may be caused by a protein created by the anemone to protect itself from UV light. Whatever the reason it was certainly a sight to behold and proof that you don't have to travel far to have a truly amazing wildlife encounter.

Thanks to Olle, Graeme, Nikki, Katie, Tom, Jess and Cat.

Join Olle Akesson and explore the rockpools at Saltdean on a Shoresearch survey on September 28th (4pm-6pm). Call Olle on 07717835039 to book a place.

Michael’s talk ‘Something in the Night: The Nocturnal Wildlife of Sussex and Beyond’ can be seen at the Sussex Wildlife Trust’s Eastbourne Regional Group meeting at 7:30 on January 21st 2016 at the Victoria Baptist Church, Eldon Road, Eastbourne, BN21 1UE. £2.00 for Sussex Wildlife Trust members and £3.00 for visitors/non SWT Members.