Symsagittifera roscoffensis north coast of Herm 100910 ©RLLord 9991 smg
Guernsey commercial fisherman Clive Brown brought me a bundle of 15 mm diameter rope that he found at sea suspended from a float.  He removed the float and brought me the wound up rope, which was encrusted with bryozoans and had mussels and scallops attached to it.  I unwound the rope and found four of these scaleworms, family aphroditidae, living inside the rope windings.  

Clive brought me the rope on February 4, 2008.  I unravelled it and took photographs that afternoon of the species living inside the rope with a Canon A640 digital camera with an off-camera epoque flash using white reflectors over a black background.
File No. 040208 2865
©RLLord
fishinfo@guernsey.net
scaleworm from rope CB 040208 2842 smg
scaleworm from rope CB 040208 2869 smg
scaleworm from rope CB 040208 2867 smg
This long bootlace ribbon worm, Lineus longissimus, was moving rapidly along the side of a pontoon attached to the fish quay in St. Peter Port harbour, Guernsey when I spotted it.  I was only able to see a small portion of its length but what I saw was several metres long.  Photographed on the 21 September 2007.
File No. 210907 1162
©RLLord
fishinfo@guernsey.net
scale worm Harmothoe impar 29-661 smg
Recreational angler Andy Marquis who owns the Fishing Guernsey website ( http://www.fishing-guernsey.co.uk/ ) was digging for bait in Belle Greve Bay, Guernsey on February 17, 2007.  He kindly gave me a number of polychaetes and sipunculids to photograph.  This image shows the head of a catworm, Nephtys sp. (either Nephtys caeca or Nephtys hombergi)  that he gave me.
File No. 170207 3-879 
©RLLord
fishinfo@guernsey.net
This beautiful scaleworm, Alentia gelatinosa, turned up in one of Clive Brown's crab pots in about 50 fathoms of water off the south coast of Guernsey.  The same species is found also on the Guernsey shore under boulders and cobbles and in tide pools.  It swims quickly in a slinky manner undulating its body from side to side.  It is the largest scaleworm found on the Guernsey shore reaching a length of 6 to 7 cm.  It is not abundant but it is seen regularly. The scales or elytra overlap and cover the dorsal surface of the body.  They are easily shed if the animal is handled.  The worm has a soft gelatinous appearance.  It can be brown or grey.  

It does not appear in the Collins Pocket Guide Sea Shore of Britain & Northern Europe by Peter Hayward, Tony Nelson-Smith and Chris Shields.  I identified this species from a French sea shore guide.  

Clive Brown gave this scaleworm for me to photograph on 16 April, 2003.
File No. 160403 12-657 
©RLLord
fishinfo@guernsey.net
Symsagittifera roscoffensis north coast of Herm 100910 ©RLLord 9991 smg
Symsagittifera roscoffensis north coast of Herm 100910 ©RLLord 9991 smg
Symsagittifera roscoffensis north coast of Herm 100910 ©RLLord 9991 smg
See photo in original gallery.