Co Antrim rock mark 15 Dec 10.

[cathalger]

Charlie the lobster men have only been catching trigger fish in the creels for the past 6 years or so round here. Its pretty clear they are a recent arrival in these waters.

I'm always very wary of published 'distribution maps' of any species(not just fish), their vagueness and unreliability, downright innacuracy often renders them virtually useless. What I'm talkin about is based on on the ground observations on my bit of the sea shore and in the water over the past 25 years and more.

There are greater abundances of certain things in these water now than even 10 years ago, and species there was no evidence of a few years ago. What is surprising me is the discovery big no's of certain species I am not familiar with in the past couple of years, with the least amount of looking Ive done in my life. I'd like to know if anyone else has noticed the same.

I understand what you mean about the ever changing populations, variations, fluctuations. Its what makes the seashore even more interesting. Its the possible extensions of the range of some species that I'm curious about and think I might be seeing evidence of.

Later.

[alannelson]

quality photos there cathgler nice fish too

[cathalger]

nice one, never seen a squat before. that areas hiving wi dogs at the minute, pain in the arse when trying to target other species

Yeah seems to be a lot of dogs comin in at present. An odd one is nice but as you say, when theyre about in big numbers its hard to catch anything else. Doesnt matter where you anchor a boat out there, the dogs seem to be everywhere. They must eat a massive amount of stuff.

[Der Baron]

Great pics Cathal! Squat lobster are indiginous by the way, I've been eating them for years They are a very sweet tasty meat!

[cathalger]

Great pics Cathal! Squat lobster are indiginous by the way, I've been eating them for years They are a very sweet tasty meat!

Cheers Der Baron, gonna do bit more rockpool hokin tonight. Might gather a few squats if I see enough and I can get them. Any amount of prawns to be had but the majority of them are probably a bit on the small side. Aye I know squats are indigenous alright, what puzzles me is that I never saw them or the remains of them on this bit of shoreline til 2010? A few other things have been popping up everywhere I look this year, eg Hairy crab and what I think is Banded Chink Shell, getting both of these on the shore and in coley and cod guts.

Another thing that got people talkin 2 years ago was the amount of octopus being caught off the rocks, not mountains of them but one here and there, something I had only previously seen done out in the boat. I think Charlie (Chuckaroo) has a good point that things are just constantly changing and bits of the sea that you think you know will continue to throw up surprises year on year.

Have to try these squats, everyone says they are good grub.

[cathalger]

Re squat lobsters, heres a nicely marked juvenile I found in a rockpool at night at the end of December. Very small, the 5p coin is 18mm across so the squats body length as viewed here (with tail tucked in below) is only about 16mm. Theres a very small edible crab here too.

I found other juvenile squats but this one was the only one so colourful.

[syboit]

great pics, never seen those lobsters before. Always nice to see something new.

[lampard]

nice picture

[tomgrey]

I came accross one of those baby squats myself recently, had an idea it was a lobster of some kind. Well done cool pics!