If you’re interested in seeing which marine species have been recorded from Lundy, then the species lists produced in the series of papers published by the Lundy Field Society during the 1970s and early 1980s (see Table below and all available on-line) would be the place to start. Even though these are a little out of date, they list all of the species recorded within each of the featured groups at the time, and whilst more species have been recorded since, this number is very few. More recent records of marine species recorded from the island have been added directly to the National Biodiversity Network (NBN) database. Some historical records from Lundy have still to be added to the database and this process is on-going. Those references given in the sections below should be checked in the Bibliography [link: 6.1 Bibliography] for full details.
Underwater exploration and discovery during the 1970s
The rise in popularity of scuba diving during the 1960s appealed to intrepid marine biologists as a means of seeing marine life at first hand, undisturbed, in its natural habitat. Their records rapidly added to our knowledge of nearshore marine ecology. Once it was realised that Lundy’s marine life was ‘special’, with its overall biodiversity richer than most adjacent sites on the south-west mainland, it was then a matter of undertaking a stock check of which species were present and at what levels of abundance. During the 1970s, Keith Hiscock managed to coerce various colleagues and other experts to come to Lundy with their diving gear and to catalogue the range of species present within their own particular area of expertise. The seaweeds were the first to be looked at in any detail, thanks to a group of marine phytologists from North-East London Polytechnic led by Dr David Irvine (Irvine et al., 1972). There then followed studies of animal taxa, all of which were published in the Annual Report of the Lundy Field Society, as set out in the table below.
Yellow cluster anemones Parazoanthus axinellae ©Paul Naylor/Marinephoto 
Red sea fingers Alcyonium glomeratum © Paul Kay 
A male red band fish emerging from its burrow. It is only the males which have electric blue-coloured fins. Halfway Wall Bay, July 1987 © Robert Irving|
Author(s) |
Year |
Title (+ volume & page numbers) |
|---|---|---|
|
Hiscock, K. |
1975 |
General Introduction. 25, 16-19 |
|
Hiscock, K. |
1975 |
Coelenterata. 25, 20-32 |
|
George J.D. |
1975 |
Polychaeta (marine bristlworms). 25, 33-48 |
|
Hayward, P.J. |
1977 |
Bryozoa. 27, 16-34 |
|
King, P.E. |
1977 |
Pycnogonida (sea spiders). 27, 35-37 |
|
Brown, G.H. & Hunnam, P.J. |
1977 |
Opisthobranchia. 27, 37-47 |
|
Lane, D.J.W. |
1977 |
Crustacea: Amphipoda. 27, 52-63 |
|
Pullin, R.S.V. |
1978 |
Pisces (fishes). 28, 45-54 |
|
Tyler, P.A. |
1979 |
Echinodermata. 29, 34-37 |
|
Picton, B.E. |
1979 |
Prosobranchia. 29, 38-45 |
|
Townley, M. & King, P.E. |
1980 |
Ichthyoplankton (fish plankton). 30, 49-55 |
|
Atkinson, R.J.A. & Schembri, P.J. |
1981 |
Crustacea: Euphausiacea and Decapoda. 31, 35-63 |
|
Wilson, J.G. |
1982 |
Bivalvia. 32, 29-37 |
|
Hiscock, K., Stone, S.M.K. & George, J.D. |
1984 |
Porifera (sponges): a preliminary study. 34, 16-35 |
The above studies showed Lundy’s marine habitats and communities to be of very high scientific interest, with many of the species present in abundance being rarely encountered elsewhere in the British Isles. The presence of a number of colourful Mediterranean-Atlantic species, such as the yellow cluster anemone Parazoanthus axinellae, red sea fingers Alcyonium glomeratum, the sunset cup coral Leptopsammia pruvoti and the pink sea fan Eunicella verrucosa, were viewed as being of particular importance.
Another species which was studied in detail during the mid-1970s was the red band fish Cepola rubescens (now renamed C. macrophthalma) by Dr James Atkinson and Dr Roger Pullin, marine biologists from the University of Liverpool. This eel-like fish, which grows to 60-70 cm in length and lives in vertical burrows in muddy sediments, was found to be present off the east coast of Lundy in remarkably high numbers (an estimated total of about 16,000 individuals), following novel use of a towed video camera. As the fish is normally found within seabeds deeper than 70 m in depth (from where it is occasionally brought up in demersal trawls, though too deep for air-diving scientists), little was known of its burrowing habit or of its ecology (see Atkinson & Pullin, 1976 & 1977).
Resin castes were made of a number of the fish’s burrows, which were found to have an enlarged chamber at the base of a vertical shaft. The upper portions of the shaft were often intersected by burrows of other organisms such as the angular crab Goneplax rhomboides and the burrowing shrimp Upogebia stellata.
Later searches for these fishes and their burrows in Quarry Bay and Halfway Wall Bay during the mid-1980s were in vain and it appeared that the whole population had vanished. The reasons why this might have happened were unclear (Irving, 1989). However, during the summer of 1987 a small number of occupied burrows were rediscovered, suggesting a possible return of the fishes. Since then, red band fish numbers at Lundy have remained low with occasional sightings being made by divers from time to time.
A group of Marine Conservation Society volunteer divers who participated in a week-long ‘conservation break’ at Lundy in July 1997 © Robert Irving 
The potato crisps bryozoan (formerly known as Ross coral) Pentapora foliacea is the largest species of bryozoan found in British waters. It is very brittle and susceptible to any kind of abrasion. © Dan Bolt 
Divers can contribute useful information about species and habitats simply by taking underwater photographs during their dives and sharing them with the island’s Conservation Team © Paul NaylorCut-backs in funding and the use of volunteer recorders
The usefulness of obtaining trustworthy scientific evidence by utilising the enthusiasm of trained, knowledgeable volunteers has been appreciated by those undertaking terrestrial nature conservation projects for many years. Cut-backs on funding from English Nature/Natural England in the early 1990s led to Robert Irving organising a number of annual, week-long, volunteer diving working parties to undertake conservation work from a liveaboard vessel between 1995 and 2001 (see Irving & Northen, 2004).
The projects undertaken by these groups included:
- Studies of the pink sea fan Eunicella verrucosa (size structure; condition; presence of the nudibranch Candiella odhneri and the anemone Amphianthus dohrnii)
- Studies of the sunset cup coral (distribution of populations; ‘colonisation’ by barnacles and phoronid worms; re-photographing the Knoll Pins ‘cave’)
- Assessing the density of ‘delicate’ species (Pentapora, Eunicella and various erect sponge species) in near-shore areas off the east coast
- Deployment and annual recovery of data (temperature) loggers
- Checking the maximum depth of kelp Laminaria hyperborea and red algae at various sites
- Describing the seabed topography and benthic communities to the north of Gannets’ Rock
- Searches for the red band fish Cepola macrophthalma and the mantis shrimp Rissoides desmaresti
Local dive clubs and other divers from the North Devon coast have also taken an active role in the on-going management of the MPA. While visiting the island’s waters on a much more frequent basis (although only for a day at a time), divers from both the Ilfracombe and North Devon BSAC and from Appledore SAC have helped clear litter from the seabed in the Landing Bay, count scallops off the east coast, clear the invasive wireweed Sargassum muticum from around the jetty, and assist with the deployment and recovery of the temperature loggers.
In more recent years, volunteer divers have been used to help with photographic surveys of the MPA’s Protected Wrecks; and for those wishing to stay on land, in searching for the presence of non-native species on the shores around the south-east of the island.
