Woman searching tidal pools spots ‘colorful blob’ — and finds a ‘rare’ creature in UK
Searching the rocky tidal pools along the U.K. coast, a woman spotted a vibrantly colored blob — and immediately recognized it as a rare creature. Photos show what experts believe is a first-of-its kind encounter with the majestic animal.
Vicky Barlow, a volunteer and safari guide with The Rock Pool Project, finished up the usual day of activities along the rocky Cornwall coast, she said in a May 13 news release from the organization. Hoping to find a spider crab, she began searching some of the larger tidal pools.
In one of the pools, she picked up “quite a large, heavy rock, covered in various seaweeds,” Barlow said. Underneath, “something extremely bright and unusual caught my eye.”
“I knew exactly what the colorful blob in front of me was! The extremely rare Rainbow Sea Slug!” she said in the release.
“(I) definitely let out a little squeak of excitement!” Barlow said in an Instagram post about the “special find.”
Rainbow Sea Slugs, or Babakina anadoni, are small animals that are often found in the warm waters of Spain, Portugal and France, the release said. These slugs were first spotted in the U.K. in August 2022 and seen occasionally since by scuba divers or snorkelers.
“As far as we can tell, this is the first time this species has been found by a rock pooler in the U.K.,” Barlow said in the release.
Barlow carefully moved the sea slug into a bucket where she watched and photographed the creature.
Photos show the vibrantly colored animal. It has a pink body with two antennas on its head. The sea slug has purple, yellow and orange tentacle-like appendages along the length of its body.
“It had quite the personality, rearing up to get a better look at its surroundings, and using its tentacle-like ‘cerata’ along its back to make itself appear bigger if one of our hands got too close,” Barlow said.
The rainbow sea slug was returned to the tidal pool, the release said.
“It is absolutely amazing what you can find on our rocky shores,” Barlow said.
Cornwall is a peninsula region along the southwestern edge of England and about 255 miles southwest of London.
This story was originally published May 15, 2023 at 1:43 PM with the headline "Woman searching tidal pools spots ‘colorful blob’ — and finds a ‘rare’ creature in UK."
