View Full Version : St Abbs brit star photos
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great photo... thanks for sharing it :D
on a recent trip to st Abbs I was doihg a bad job of navigating to Cath Rock. on My travels found this field of brit stars.
Its not till you see them moving that you get the full of life feel of ST Abbs.
Check out the clip, its poor quality and i had no lights but you can get the picture!!!!
http://s60.photobucket.com/albums/h39/ranchuolddog/?action=view¤t=e0a4ffb6.flvhttp://
Best regards Olddog
I am not so hot at posting the links I will try again
http://s60.photobucket.com/albums/h39/ranchuolddog/?action=view¤t=e0a4ffb6.flv
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h39/ranchuolddog/P71202388x6.jpg
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h39/ranchuolddog/P71202268x6.jpg
Thanks for posting the links. :D
Brittle star carpets can be quite spectacular... we saw lots off the Isle of May and there are many in Loch Melfort too. :rolleyes:
Taking over the world...? :eek:
Hi Charlie,
I have to say I wasn’t too keen hovering over them to take close up shots. What do the evil looking aliens eat apart from the odd diver with poor buoyancy control?
Any one know if they all one species or do they just sport different colours. Most of the ones in that carpet looked the same, but there was at least a half dozen that had significantly different body forms.
I have heard that the sun star is their natural predator. Does any one know?
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http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h39/ranchuolddog/P6040069.jpg
Any one know if they all one species or do they just sport different colours. Most of the ones in that carpet looked the same, but there was at least a half dozen that had significantly different body forms.
Brittle stars are classified within the Class Ophiuroidea and are characterised by long thin arms, which are distinctly delineated from the plate-like central disc. There are over 1800 species within the Class. Most of those in your photos look like Ophiothrix fragilis which have been known to reach densities of 10,000 specimens per square metre. :eek:
Starfish including Astropecten irregularis predate brittle stars although the latter have been known to be removed from the guts of starfish and make a complete recovery! Incredible survivability. :rolleyes:
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some yellow and some brown ones
Thanks for posting the links. :D
Brittle star carpets can be quite spectacular... we saw lots off the Isle of May and there are many in Loch Melfort too. :rolleyes:
Taking over the world...? :eek:
theres millions of them on top of Blae Rock too, horrible little things
If you dive the Hurkers (eyemouth) the place is carpeted in them, if you brush them away it's amazing to see how quickly they re-cover the space you made. Plenty sunstars around as well so adds weight to that theory.
Yeah Hurkers, Black Carr and the Skerries usually have a good carpeting of these little things, It really looks like the seabed is alive, I love watching them, especially when there is plankton and a good little current, their legs are all up in the air catching their food, great!!
Brittle stars have their admirers and detractors. For some people they are considered a pest of plague proportions. I recently saw one dive site described as" having a nasty infestation", that is a very subjective comment.
For other people their simple form and stunning colours are appreciated.
I like them for one good reason and that is they make perfect photo subjects. They have the merits of moving relatively slowly and are easy to lock in focus.
As for plague like communities I suspect that they are exploiting a niche of localised food source that would probably turn into an over nutrient fed vegetable mess.
I witnessed a similar situation in the Maldives several years ago. After the El Nino event when a lot of coral died, surgeon fish multiplied at the expense of the relatively more interesting coral eating fish. Loads of divers started disliking their multiplication.
However this turned out well in the end as in the areas that surgeon like species did well, the algae was kept cropped. These areas where subsequently the first to recover good coral growth and later return of the coralavorus fish population.
In the un-cropped areas conditions deteriorated from coral gardens to veg gardens.
Brittle stars have their admirers and detractors. For some people they are considered a pest of plague proportions. I recently saw one dive site described as" having a nasty infestation", that is a very subjective comment.
For other people their simple form and stunning colours are appreciated.
I like them for one good reason and that is they make perfect photo subjects. They have the merits of moving relatively slowly and are easy to lock in focus.
As for plague like communities I suspect that they are exploiting a niche of localised food source that would probably turn into an over nutrient fed vegetable mess.
I witnessed a similar situation in the Maldives several years ago. After the El Nino event when a lot of coral died, surgeon fish multiplied at the expense of the relatively more interesting coral eating fish. Loads of divers started disliking their multiplication.
However this turned out well in the end as in the areas that surgeon like species did well, the algae was kept cropped. These areas where subsequently the first to recover good coral growth and later return of the coralavorus fish population.
In the un-cropped areas conditions deteriorated from coral gardens to veg gardens.
You have to go a long way to prove mother nature wrong :D