Thousands of sea creatures 'like fairy lights' spotted off Cornish coast

  • Watch incredible ocean display of sea salps in Cornish waters

A pair of snorkellers have captured stunning images of a rare sea salp colony off the coast of West Cornwall.

Salps are a type of floating sea squirt that often form chains, resembling structures that look like lights in the water.

Marine photographer Heather Hamilton and her dad David Hamilton were snorkelling near Porthcurno when they spotted thousands of the jellyfish-like creatures drifting through the water.

Heather told ITV News: "It was incredible, it was almost like fairy lights lighting up the sea.

"It just shows the diverse life that we’ve got in Cornwall, and should encourage people to get out into the sea and respect it, but also see the amazing creatures that we’ve got all around us."

The sea salps look almost like a string of lights floating through the water. Credit: Heather Hamilton/@underwatercornwall

David said he feels lucky to have seen the sea creatures not once, but twice.

"We were fortunate enough to see this bloom of salps last year," he told ITV News.

"When we saw that, we thought wow, we’re never going to see that again in our lifetime.

"Now 12 months on and we experienced it again in a similar spot.

"It's just absolutely amazing, so whether this is going to be a bit of an annual thing in British waters will be interesting to find out."

Cornwall Wildlife Trust says salps have always been a very rare sight in Cornish waters, until last summer when huge numbers started to appear in late-August.

Marine conservation officer Matt Slater said: "This year we are seeing large numbers of salps and chains of salps around Cornwall's coasts.

"These bizarre structures are created by free living sea squirts that have an oceanic existence drifting in the open seas.

"They filter feed and extract plankton from the water as they pump it through their bodies and this also provides jet propulsion."

Sea salps forming a spiral Credit: David Hamilton/@beechbuoy

He added: "Several different species of the strange jelly like colonies have been found and reported to Cornwall Wildlife Trust environmental records centre. The public are encouraged to report sightings via the ERCCIS website."

The charity says salps are mostly herbivores, feeding on vast quantities of phytoplankton and are easy prey for pelagic snails, jellyfish, sea turtles, sea birds, and many types of fish.

Salps are said to possibly be the fastest growing multicellular animal, increasing their body length by up to 10% per hour to reach maturity in just two days.

When conditions are right, populations of sea salps can reproduce and grow rapidly, creating huge booms.

Heather and David also captured images of Mauve Stinger jellyfish, which like to feed on smaller jellyfish and sea squirts.

Mauve Stinger Jellyfish Credit: Heather Hamilton/@cornwallunderwater

According to Cornwall Wildlife Trust, they're fairly uncommon close to UK shores, but may be found offshore and in warmer European waters such as the Mediterranean.

They can also give a painful sting, so swimmers are advised to keep their distance if they see them in the water.