Mantis Shrimp in Swanage Bay

16 Aug 2008

This photo of mantis shrimps was taken from a smooth hound (a small shark) caught in Swanage Bay. Mantis shrimps are rarely recorded in the UK, though probably not as rare as this suggests. The first sighting by divers was in North Wales in 1999 and there have been reports from Lyme Bay (from a fishing boat) and one was washed up after storms in Hampshire. They live in u-shaped burrows in muddy seabed - the burrows are probably all that a diver would see.

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