Category

Water Life

Location

Isle of Mull

Gear

Canon EOS R5, RF100mm F2.8 L MACRO IS USM

Description

In the miniature world of the plankton, this sea gooseberry (Pleurobrachia pileus) uses its tentacles to catch its prey which consists of copepods and other plankton. It is a comb jelly less than 12 mm long and was found in plankton collected from the sea off the Isle of Mull. It swims by beating the longitudinal rows of bioluminescent cilia along its body. The two long tentacles are armed with special sticky cells (colloblasts) used to ensnare its prey and they can be retracted. The sea gooseberry was placed in a Petri dish and shot with a hand-held 100mm macro lens with a flash illuminating it from below. It was tricky 'persuading' it to move away from the sides of the dish. This had to be done very carefully as the colloblasts are extremely fragile and easily destroyed.

Photographer

Claire Waring

Social Media

Instagram: @wildwaring

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