Plantlife

• The plants you can find here include Eelgrass, which as its name suggests is long, green, and flowing in appearance, and is easily recognised, so there's not much danger of confusing it with the other sort of seaweed you're likely to find at this level.
• Kelp. This is brownish-olive in colour. There are two main species: Sea Belt, with a crinkled spearhead-shaped leaf on a short stem, and Oarweed, with a broad, flat, deeply fringed leaf also on a stem.
• The third type is the red algae, such as Caragheen, distinguishable by their colour. These seaweeds are at the bottom of the food chain.

Shellfish

Next up the food chain are the shellfish, which graze on the seaweed.

• Winkles are small molluscs which live in a pointy spiral shell.
• The small, seed shaped shells with the toothy grin belong to one or other of the Cowries, either Spotted or the English. They also graze on seaweed.

Hunters

• The Dogwhelk, by contrast is a hunter, and preys upon the Blue Mussel, or the white wart-like Barnacle. In fact you can tell which he prefers, because the mussel-eaters become dark, and the barnacle eaters become white. If they have a mixed diet they will actually become stripy!
• The Corkwing Wrasse, is another shell-fish eater - a small (a few inches) greenish-brown fish. It has a deep, flat body and a dark spot at the base of the tail.

Scavengers

• The Velvet Swimming Crab is a dark blue, and, as its name suggests, velvety creature, and it has an array of sharp, horn-like projections either side of its face. It is a scavenger.
• Easily distinguished by its long spidery legs and overall reddish-orange colour is the Spider Crab. Some species can grow quite large and are edible (but don't try taking them home!).