Honeycomb Worm Reef

We went on a group naturey expedition to explore a beach covered in bits of this reef and to poke into rockpools.

The Honeycomb Reef is created by large numbers of worms called Sabellaria alveolata, which build these tubes for themselves to live in. This bit I photographed has 'porches' to the tubes (quite wide openings), which means they're still in use and have live worms hiding inside.

Among the rockpools the group met: beadlet anemones, shore crabs, a broad-clawed porcelain crab, a green leaf worm*, sponges of some sort, plenty of seaweed, starfish, a sea potato, and a couple of things (can't recall their names) that looked like plants but were actually colonies of tiny creatures. Oh and there was something that looked much like a cockroach.


*I found this unfortunate fellow. After minutes spent trying to get him to worm his way onto a piece of shell I gave up and picked him up by the tail end.