Science name: Ocypode quadrata. This sand-coloured crab with white claws is familiar to all who visit sandy beaches as it scurries about foraging for food at the tideline. It lives in holes on the beach and creates its burrow by the constant digging motion of...

A highly conspicuous worm with red gills and toxic white bristles on each segment. It feeds on the soft tissue of corals and sea anemones and is readily observed on reef rubble in shallow water, under stones, and on the coral reef. Though slow moving...

The genus Caulerpa belongs to the Chlorophyta (green algae) of which twelve species have been recorded for Trinidad and Tobago. Members of the genus consist of one cell only with many nuclei, making them among the largest single cells in the world. They are characterized...

Science name: Cocos nucifera A common sight along the seashore worldwide, the slender, leaning trunk grows to a height of 25m. The leaves arise in a crown at the top, each leaf approximately 5m in length with many leaflets. The flowers grow among the leaves...

Science name: Cerithium lutusom Menke. Small beautifully sculptured ceriths occur in clusters and inhabit a range of habitats from intertidal areas to coral reefs. You may also like

Fire Coral is associated with coral reefs where it occupies shallow water down to the deep reef. It forms colonies that look like coral but despite the name they are actually not true corals. They are more closely related to stinging hydroids and jellyfish. Fire...

Science name: Zoanthus sociatus Ellis. Grows in dense, connected, mat-like colonies of greenish or bluish polyps with short, blunt tentacles. They are usually found attached to rocks just below the low-tide mark and are easy to observe in the shallow water of the reef flat....

Lepas anserifera Another type of barnacle that is commonly found attached to floating debris washed up on beaches, driftwood, and ship hulls is the Goose-neck barnacle. It has a long, fleshy stalk ending in a flat body formed of several connected calcareous plates. Barnacles feed...

Science name: Fissurella nodosa Snails with a characteristic hole at the apex, which feed by rasping microscopic plants off rock surfaces with the radula, a file-like tongue. You may also like

Science name: Ipomoea pes-caprae White Morning Glory Science name: Ipomoea imperati (Vahl) Griseb. A creeping, perennial vine with showy flowers, it is one of the most widely distributed drought and salt-tolerant plants on sandy beaches. The pioneering species grows just above the high tide line...

Science name: Grapsus grapsus A swift, little crab with a flattened body and sharp claws on the ends of its legs to help it hold on as it dashes over the rocks. Difficult to approach, the crab will retreat to a rock crevice at the...

Science name: Gorgonia The dried-out cream-coloured skeleton of Sea Fans seen in the strandline on beaches does no justice to the beauty of live colonies of this ‘soft coral’ of the reefs. Soft corals, referred to as gorgonians, lack a hard, rigid, permanent skeleton. They...