Tomatoes of the sea

Low tide today so I went to gather some mussels at a nearby bay.

In some places the uncovered shore looked as if a gory murder has just taken place leaving gobbets of thick blood hanging from the rocks, gelatinous clots of ruby red glistening above the receded tide.

Not to worry: these are beadlet sea anemones, pomodoro de mare, tomate de mer or Actinia equina. Left high and dry for the duration of the ebbtide they have withdrawn their 200 or so tentacles until the sea returns.

These are fascinating animals: carnivorous, they feed on smaller sea creatures using a stinging row of blue beads below their tentacles, they can move around and they reproduce in an explosion of tiny young anemones.

I searched in vain for the larger, rarer, strawberry beadlet variety I once found here, Actinia fragacea, which is stippled like the said fruit. Alas, it was nowhere to be seen. Anemones, like all marine life, are sensitive to environmental change and disturbance.