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Colin
Munro Photography
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Stock,
fine art and commissioned photography
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Image
of the week 21
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A
pair of common or European cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis, slowly criusing
above a Sargassum covered boulder field, Babbacombe Bay, Devon, UK.
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| The Torbay area of South Devon, within which the small embayment of Babbacombe Bay lies, is not noted for its crystal clear waters. So often the shallow waters and fine sediments covering much of the seabed conspire with the lightest winds to turn the bay into a muddy brown soup. But sometimes winds blown lightly off the land, leaving the nearshore almost mirror calm. If you are lucky this happens before the summerbloom turn the water green with curtains of stringy plankton. If you're very lucky this co-incides with the arrival of cuttlefish to mate and spawn. This picture was taken on a fine evening in late April. The water was chilly but the six or seven metres visibility was exceptional for this area. As the sun started to dip I was fortunate enough to come across a pair of cuttlefish. Not fortunate enough though! This pair were not mating or laying eggs, so were warying and kept their distance before jetting off into the distance. A couple of days later I tried again. This time I was in luck. After 50 minutes or so of slowly cruising around the shallows I found a pair where the female was laying eggs. As the picture below illustrates, two days can make a big difference. Clear waters had gone as light Easterlies had stirred up the sand, and plankton had begun to thicken in the water. However, so focussed was the female on laying eggs that she allowed me to approach to within half a metre, sometimes less, so acceptable pictures were just about possible. | |
| Image: MBI000879 | |
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Image
of the week 20
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| A female common or European cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis, attaching eggs to Sargassum weed whilst guarded by a male for completing males, Babbacombe Bay, Devon, UK. | |
| keywords: common, European, cuttlefish, Sepia, officinalis, mating, eggs, reproducing, spawning, spawn, cuttle, cuttles, mollusc, molluscs, cephalopod, cephalopods, Babbacombe, Bay, Sargassum, muticum, japweed, Devon, England, UK | |
| Once a year a rather special event happens in the shallow bays and inlets around Southern England. For a couple of weeks in late spring the fortunate diver may be lucky enough to observe the courtship and mating displays of cuttlefish as they move into shallow water to mate and lay their eggs. females attached the eggs one at a time to clumps of seagrass (Zostera marina) or seaweed. The introduced species Sargassum muticim appears to be a favourite. The eggs are laid in small clumps, appearing like bunches of black, pointed grapes. Once a male has mated with a female he will guard the female for some time after, often through the egg laying process, as depicted here. Other males can often be seen swooping around in the background, hoping to mate in an unguarded moment. During mating males will vigorously flush water through the buccal cavity of females (where sperm is stored after mating)flushing out any previously deposited sperm, hence the jealous guarding post-coitus. For male cuttlefish being last may be best. More cuttlefish pics will be added to galleries shortly. | |
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Image
of the week 19
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The small spider crab Inachus dorsitensis hiding under
tentacles of snakelocks anemone, Anemonia viridis.
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| keywords: Snakelocks, anemone, Anemonia, viridis, Inachus, dorsitensis, spider, crab, symbiosis, symbiotic, relationship, mutualism, association, tentacles, hiding | |
| Clinging to a waving frond of kelp, a Leach's spider crab, Inachus phalangium, shelters beneath the tentacles of a large snakelocks anemone, Anemonia viridis. A commensal relationship has been known to exist between these two species since the early 1970s, but the nature of the relationship has still been little studied. Individual, or sometimes pairs of spider crabs live beneath the tentacles, coming out only at night to forage for algae. leach's spider carabs appear immune to the stinging tentacles, which could deliver a very unpleasant sting to potential predators. What benefit the anemone gains is unclear. One recent study has suggested that female spider crabs are faithful to an individual anemone, whilst males may stray a little more (especially after a few beers). | |
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Image
of the week 18
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A fulmar, Fulmarus glacialis, dives for fish entrails,
thrown from the deck, as it follows a fishing boat. English Channel,
UK.
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| keywords: fulmar, Fulmarus, glacialis, fish, fishing, sea, English channel, England, UK, fishing boat, gutting, scraps, diving, underwater | |
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Image
of the week 17
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Recently hatched tadpoles of the Common or European
frog, Rana temporaria, feeding on the egg mass raft.
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| Newly hatched tadpoles, each only a few millimetres long, cling to the floating egg raft. In Devon frogspawn may appear as early as January, with tadpoles appearing a few weeks later. | |
| keywords: tadpoles, tadpole, frog, common frog, European frog, Rana, temporaria, spawn, eggs | |
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Image
of the week 16
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Maja squinado, the spiny or European spider crab.
A spider crab suddenly bursts out from under a canopy of silt covered
algal fronds, sending up a shower of fine particles as it makes its
escape.
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| About spiny spider crabs. The spiny, or European spider crab as it is sometimes known, Maja squinado, is the largest species of majid crabs found in the North-East Atlantic (Brownell et al, 1977). It is also the only one commercially exploited. Large individeuals may reach around a metre across (leg tip to leg tip). They are fairly omnivorous but predominantly feed on algae and molluscs. A notable feature of Maja is the seasonal migrations it undertakes, adults moving in to shallow water to copulate. Large aggregations of mating adults, sometimes numbering many thousands, can sometimes be seen in late summer along the South coast of Britain. | |
| About this picture. It is often said that digital systems have completely replaced film for underwater photography. In most instances that is true. However there are still situations where some film-based systems will consistently out-perform the latest DSLRs. I took this picture a few years back when diving on a fairly shallow reef in Lyme Bay, South-west England. The conditions were far from ideal; visibility was low at less than a metre and a heavy plankton bloom was just beginning to die off, covering every surface with a thick coating of detritus. The careless touch of a hand or waft of a fin would send this up into the water column, leaving one peering through a haze of brownish 'snow'. Swimming along a low ledge I spotted the spider crab when I was almost on top of him, hiding beneath a canopy of red algae drooping under the detrital load. Unfortunately he spotted me at roughly the same time. For a second or so he weighed up the options, then sensing his cover had been blown he made a run for it. Rising up on his spindly legs he sent fronds and detritus flying. There was no time to sink down level with him and compose an image so I simply lowered my arms until my camera was level and snapped. In such situations both auto-focus and TTL flash metering are useless. Fronds and suspended particles will so confuse an autofocus system that it will not be able to properly detect the subject. Similarly, millions of tiny particles suspended in the water column will act like tiny mirrors, all bouncing light back in to the camera. In such situations a compact range-finder system such as the Nikonos cameras, coupled with the wide-angle close focussing abilities of the Nikonos 15mm lens is hard to beat. Being aware of the likely camera to subject distance and having all controls pre-set are vital. Then you need a large measure of luck. | |
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Image
of the week 15
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A wall of jewel anemones, Corynactis viridis, on the
Eddystone Reef, 12 miles out from Plymouth Sound, Southwest England
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| Keywords: jewel anemone, jewel anemones, Corynactis, viridis, Eddystone Reef, Eddystone, Plymouth, Sound, Southwest England, Devon, English Channel, anemone, anemones | |
| After the big chill we've had some almost spring-like weather, so I thought I'd go for a nice bright image. I also thought it was time for another underwater image. This is an old pic of mine, taken with a very old film camera - a Nikonos III in fact, no light meter, no TTL flash, completely mechanical. So correct exposure was calculated by the old method of working out guide numbers and flash to subject distance, slightly complicated by a rather big swell which meant pictures had to be taken as you were swept past the subject rather taking your time to compose the image. The image was taken using extension tubes (between the lens and camera body) to produce the high magnification required, thus when calculating guide numbers for correct exposure the reduced amount of light reaching the film plane must be factored in. Although tiny, many thousands of jewel anemones carpet large areas of the Eddystone reef, producing spectacular colour on the vertical rock faces. | |
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Image
of the week 14
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Icicles create a fantasy world above a small stream, Dartmoor National Park, Devon, England. |
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keywords: icicles, ice, fantasy, frozen, shapes, stream, Dartmoor, National Park, Devon, England, UK, water, running, river, hanging, winter, wintry, freeze |
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Image
of the week 13
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Dartmoor pony in snow, Dartmoor National Park, Devon,
England.
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| keywords: Dartmoor, pony, horse, Dartmoor National Park, snow, winter, snowy, winter coat, ponies, devon, england, uk | |
| Dartmoor ponies: Dartmoor pony in winter snow, Dartmoor, Devon, Southwest England. Dartmoor ponies are not truly wild; they belong to local farmers but are allowed to roam and graze freely across the moor. Dartmoor has a long tradition of ponies, in the nineteenth century Haytor on Dartmoor was one of the main sources of grantie in the UK. Ponies were used to haul carts of granite along the Haytor tramway, a unique granite-railed tramway track running from Haytor to Teingrace, where the granite could then be transported to Teignmouth harbour. In the 1950s there were around 30,000 ponies on Dartmoor. currently there are around 3,000. | |
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Image
of the week 12
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The minature World of a rockpool: a tiny pycnogonid,
or sea spider, (Pycnogonum littorale) feeding on a Beadlet anemone,
Actinia equina.
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| keywords: sea spider, pycnogonid, Pycnogonum littorale, beadlet anemone, anemone, actinia, equina, seashore, littoral, intertidal, rocks, rocky, shore, invertebrate, marine, rockpool, rockpools, tidepool, tidepools, macro, micro, macrophotography, microphotography | |
| About Sea Spiders: These odd creatures creep around in the understorey of rockpools waiting to pounce on unsuspecting sea anemones (okay pounce may be a little melodramatic, fleetness of foot is not one of their characteristics). They feed by puncuting the body wall of anemones and sucking the body fluids. Hmmm...almost makes marzipan seem appealing. A characteristic of sea spiders is a small body and spindly legs. This doesn't inhibit their appetite at all however as their gut extends beyond their body way down into their legs. Sea spiders have traditionally been considered chelicerates; a group containing spiders, horseshoe crabs and scorpions among others. However they don't fit neatly and there remain many unanswered questions about their taxonomy. Currently they are best described as Incertae sedis (uncertain placement). | |
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Image
of the week 11
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Silouette of a young boy staring in wonder at a giant
marine aquarium
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Image
of the week 10
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Red Bandfish (Cepola macrophthalma a.k.a. Cepola rubescens)
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| Bearing more than a passing resemblace to Ridley Scott's Alien, the red bandfish, Cepola macrophthalma, is one of the most fascinating and elusive fish species found in the waters of North East Atlantic and Mediterranean. Although not especially rare, its shyness, nocturnal activity and choice of habitat mean it is rarely seen by divers. The red bandfish live in large colonies over mud or muddy sand seabeds, generally below 20 metres depth. They inhabit large burrows within the mud and are believed to spend most of the day hidden withing these burrows, emerging to feed at night. Their appearance and lifestyle is similar to the better known garden eels of the Indo-Pacific, although they are not closely related. Red bandfish colonies can be very large indeed; their numbers off the east coast of Lundy Island (Southwest England) was estimated at around 14,000 in the 1970s ( Hiscock, 2003). These colonies are often quite transitory however, the huge colonies off Lundy have all but disappeared. It is postulated that winter storms may destroy burrows and fish may simply move elsewhere. I photographed this individual off South Devon a few years back. Despite their needle-like teeth and fierce appearance red bandfish are quite harmless. They grow to about 18 inches long and feed on planktonic crustaceans. Current data suggests they live to be 3-4 yearsa old (Dulcic et al, 2008). Until recently the scientific name for red bandfish was accepted as Cepola rubescens (at least in the UK). Cepola macrphthalma is now accepted as the correct (senior) name. Please note, the Red Bandfish is quite distinct from the Redfish Band, a country-rock duo, Red on lead guitar, Fish on acoustic, based in Wisconsin (you get a plug and I've never heard you play). | |
| If you'd like to be kept informed when this page is updated click on the link below to send an email, you'll then receive email alerts when I add new images. | |
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Image
of the week 9
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Reflections on water. Moored yachts and heavy clouds
mirrored on the still waters of the Exeter Canal
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| Many yachts come in the the Exeter Canal for their winter lay-up. Some will stay just inside the first lock (Turf Lock) all winter. Others will wait here until they can travel up to the canal basin to be craned out. Vessels must wait to travel in convoy, as the bascule and swing road bridges must be opened before vessels can pass. The Turf Locks and estuary mudflats nearby are amongst my favourite places. On still winter days, as heavy clouds drift lazily across the estuary and low-angled sunlight glints on the polished hulls, the area exudes tranquility. This is often rudely interrupted by skeins of honking brent geese arriving to dine on exposed eelgrass (Zostera) as the tide drops and the estuary mudflats are uncovered. As ever, my images are available to license. This one is also available as a fine art print. | |
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Image
of the week 8
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An Old tongan spear fisherman, Hakautu'utu'u islet,
Niuatoputapu Island lagoon, Tonga, with a good day's catch.
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| An old tongan spearfisherman, Hakautu'utu'u island (or islet), Niuatoputapu Island lagoon, Tonga. Niuatoputapu is one of two inhabited islands in Tonga's remote Niua Group, 300 kilometres north of the more developed Vavau group. Niuatoputapu has a population of around 1000 and is rarely visited by tourists. Fishing has been a way of life for Niuatoputapu islanders for at least a thousand years. Netting and spearing are the prime methods used, but spear fishing is often practised in the shallow lagoon bordering the island. Whilst snorkelling around the edge of Hakautu'utu'u, this old fisherman suddenly appeared and appeared pleased to show me his catch. The equipment he uses appears much more primitive than in the more developed parts of Tonga. His speargun comprises a small catapult , with a few simple steel rods for spears ( a system known as a sling spear). His mask appears to date from at least the nineteen eighties, with the metal clamp securing the glass plate fastened by nylon twine. The two fins he wears are each different colours and design. Despite the antiquity and simplicity of his equipment, he has made a good catch, including a reef octopus, a porcupine pufferfish and several surgeonfish. Breathe-hold or free diving for fish (known as 'Uku in Tongan) and has a long history in the South Pacific. | |
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Image
of the week 7
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Large pink seafans (Eunicella verrucosa) dominate
a rich faunal turf growing on top of the Saw-tooth Ledges Reef, Lyme
Bay, Southwest England.
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| The Saw-tooth Ledges is one of the richest, in terms of epifaunal species, and certainly one of the prettiest occurring in Southwest England. It is also one of the few reefs within Lyme Bay to have largely escaped the ravages of mobile fishing gear. I say largely, for despite the jagged relief of the reef deterring most fishermen from risking their gear, it has not escaped completely unscathed. Sadly, parts of the reef are now reduced to rubble. However many pristine areas, such as depicted in the image above, still remain. As this part of Lyme Bay falls within the recently protected area where mobile fishing gear is banned, it is hoped that in time areas such as this will expand as the reef recovers. The picture shows large pink seafans (Eunicella verrucosa) dominating a rich faunal turf growing on top of the Saw-tooth Ledges Reef, Lyme Bay. Lyme Bay contains a large number of rocky reefs, some of which support extremely rich and diverse benthic faunal communities. The Saw-tooth Ledges, so called because of their stepped and undercut relief, consists of large limestone bedrock outcrops forming sheer or overhanging cliff faces. This image shows the plateau atop such an outcrop; large pink seafans are surrounded by numerous colonies of the soft coral dead men's fingers (Alcyonium digitatum), ross coral colonies (Pentapora fascialis), the large axinellid sponge Axinella dissimilis and the yellow tasseled sponge Iophon amongst a dense turf of hydroids, bryozoans and sponges. | |
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Image
of the week 6
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A ross coral colony (Pentapora fascialis) flourishes
within a damaged seabed as Lyme Bay no-take zone recovers
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With the UK Marine Bill now finally becoming a reality, and statutory protection for important areas of seabed possible, I thought it a good time to put up an image from a successful example of seabed protection. Having been involved from the start, nearly 20 years ago, in the data collection and campaigns to establish no-take areas within Lyme Bay, I wanted to find an image that captures the changes starting to take place now that statutory protection for the most vulnerable reefs has finally become a reality. Since the protected zone was established in 2008 I've continued to dive most of the reefs within and outside the protected zone in Lyme Bay. Some of these have been research dives as part of DEFRA's recovery monitoring programme, some have been specific photographic dives and some have simply been recreational dives. The recovery pattern is complex; some areas are still quite damaged, some are now starting to flourish. Yet even in the most badly affected areas life is returning in clearly identifiable, measurable ways. Much of the inshore seabed within Lyme Bay consists of low-lying reefs. These reefs support rich and diverse faunal communities; however due to their low relief and in some cases being composed of relatively soft rock they were being rapidly destroyed by mobile bottom-fishing gear (trawls and dredges). As a result of growing evidence to this effect, and campaigning by conservation NGO's (notably the Devon Wildlife Trust), in 2008 a large area within the centre of Lyme Bay was designated a no-take zone to protect these reefs and allow them to recover. In 2009, much of the seabed still shows extensive damage following years of exploitation by mobile fishing gear, in particular scallop dredging. Yet even within the most damaged areas smaller species and some of the more rapidly growing species are reappearing in significant numbers. The image depicts a ross coral colony, Pentapora fascialis, ( a type of bryozoan) growing within a badly damaged area of seabed, Lyme Bay. Ross corals are not in fact corals, they belong to a group called bryozoans. However they share many of the characteristics of true corals. They are also colonial animals living within a calcium carbonate skeleton created by the tiny individual animals. Ross coral colonies consist of thin and brittle convoluted plates. These plates expand and multiply as the colony grows. Young colonies tend to grow in a fairly globular shape, becoming flattened and disc-like as they increase in size. A large, old colony may be 60 to 70 centimetres across; today very few colonies this size remain in Lyme Bay. Like many true corals, this limestone skeleton of ross corals is extremely delicate and brittle. Simply tapping with one of the colony plates with a finger can be sufficient pressure to cause it to snap off. Try to imagine snapping a poppadum in two and you get an idea of the strength and structure of a ross coral colony. In the environment in which they evolved, such sharp physical occurred only very rarely thus colonies may grow to form such large delicate structures. The passing of one scallop dredge or trawl will instantly turn an entire colony into potato crisp sized fragments. Approximately 60 square miles of seabed within Lyme Bay are now protected from such activities. In years to come coffee table sized ross corals may again be found there. The small one in this image may even become one of them. |
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All images
copyright Colin Munro. Unauthorised use prohibited
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| Contact me: | colin@colinmunrophotography.com |
| +44(0)7535680507 | |
Colin Munro Photography, marine, underwater and commercial photography, advertising, surf photography, yacht photography, ship photography, design photography, portrait photography, fine art photography, band and music photography, artist and promotional photography,event photography, stock photography. Photographer based in Exeter, Devon, Southwest UK, working Worldwide.