Wonders of the Deep

All the following photographs were taken by Alasdair MacLachlan, who is one of the two full-time fisherman who work out of Kilchoan - his boat, the Sylvia-T, is moored in the bay throughout the summer, though, just at present, she's hauled up on the slipway undergoing repairs to her propeller shaft.

Alasdair may be a fisherman earning a hard living from the sea, but that doesn't prevent him taking a keen interest in the amazing variety of life that he hauls up in his creels. This picture is of a hermit crab which has made its home in a sponge rather than the usual cast-off mollusc shell.

This is a tiny shrimp, very similar to the pistol shrimp which featured in an earlier post, here, but without the one, unusual claw. This is the only animal in these pictures Alasdair can't identify - has anyone any idea what it is?

Amongst the hundreds of prawns he lands, Alasdair spotted that this one has a deformed claw....

....while this picture illustrates the great variety of life he comes upon each day.

Langoustines, Dublin Bay prawns or, to give them their scientific name, Nephrops norvegicus, are an important catch - though, as the picture shows, they don't all come up the same colour. Packed in the container seen in the photo, they go away by van from Kilchoan to the fine-food restaurants of London and the near continent.

Many thanks to Alasdair and Morven for the pictures.