Terri and I dove off the wharf at the beginning of January for these brachiopods at about 27m on the wall that is right at the wharf. The depth drops away very quickly to 300m plus within a 1/2km.

They are benthic organisms that are attached by a pedicle so they have to be cut off the rocks they are attached to. I declined to do that as I didn’t want to wreck the animal so I searched for them and when I found some I would call Terri over to do the honors – I found one bunch of about 5.

They defend themselves chemically from many predators and also are protected by their shells. There aren’t many of them and the ones we were taking were about 80 years old. Their shells are similar to growth rings in trees with growth lines and they can tell us historic information about climatic events in the last few decades.

Brachiopods are also called lamp shells because they resemble early Roman oil lamps. Brachiopods occur in all oceans and, though no longer numerous, were once one of the most abundant forms of life.