The Crazy Critters of Carrigaholt: Spaghetti Whatsits and Cliff-Jumping Newts?

This week, the Sustainable Shores project lead Éabha spends Covid-19 isolation in rockpools alongside some truly crazy critters!

A Strawberry Spaghetti Worm (Eupolymnia nebulosa) photographed in Carrigaholt, Co. Clare.

After spending a few days bedridden with Covid-19, I plucked up the courage to pack my bags and head to the coast with my partner to isolate in true nature-nerd fashion. With overalls, a wooly hat and a week's worth of snacks I was able to spend the weekend exploring the wonderful shores of Carrigaholt, Co. Clare.

Similar to the project's previous trips to Kilkee, this trip focused on recording as many species as possible for the National Biodiversity Data Centre and gathering photographs of species that can be used for the book Sustainable Shores: Ireland's Life Below Water. The more information people can access on Ireland's life below water, I believe the more people will become engaged in tackling Goal 14!

While exploring one of the coastlines near Carrigaholt, I was thrilled to discover a new species to add to my collection of photographs: the Strawberry Spaghetti Worm (Eupolymnia nebulosa). This fascinating creature is a type of marine polychaete worm that lives in tubes made of sand and shell fragments. It gets its name from its bright red color and spaghetti-like tentacles, which it uses to move around and capture food particles.

I was also able to record different goby species and a new species of shrimp for me, the Hooded shrimp (Athanas nitescens). As part of Sustainable Shores, I am documenting marine and freshwater biodiversity around Ireland and contributing to citizen science efforts to monitor changes in the marine environment. The Strawberry Spaghetti Worm is just one example of the fascinating and important species that we can find on our shores, and it's essential that we continue to monitor and protect them.

I'm also documenting the pollution I come across, and doing my best to clear up what I can. Even though the seashores I explored supported a great diversity of life, there were some species that I expected to see that were completely absent. The high tide mark along each of the shores I visited was covered in plastic waste and pollution, from old shoes and tooth brushes to shotgun cartridges and fishing gear.

After a day of turning over stones by the coast, I set my sites on visiting the Kilkee cliffs nearby as I had never seen them in person before. When I arrived at the cliffs, I started walking around and to my complete surprise, found an isolated pool overlooking the Candlestick. You can only imagine my further surprise when upon inspecting the pool (pictured), I found Smooth Newts (Lissotriton vulgaris) swimming about!

The Smooth Newts of the Kilkee Cliffs:

The video isn't great, but it does highlight the incredible resilience of nature when given the opportunity to thrive. You can even see plastic waste inside this remote, clifftop pool. It makes me sad to see these beautiful creatures surviving in such an isolated habitat alongside plastic pollution from humans.

While this trip to Carrigaholt highlighted some of the wonderful biodiversity of Ireland's life below water, it also highlights the urgent need for action to protect our marine and freshwater environments. It is important for each of us as individuals to take responsibility for our actions, and to hold accountable the businesses, industries and sectors contributing to such pollution. We need to reduce the amount of pollution that we generate as a species.

We must work towards the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 14 - Life Below Water, which aims to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources if we want to protect these incredible habitats and their creatures for future generations. It is crucial that we all play our part in protecting our planet's biodiversity.