Giant goby

This impressive species can be identified by its chunky head, small eyes, and olive-brown colour swathed in a dark, blotchy pattern. Giant gobies can also change their colour at will depending on their mood and environment, offering excellent camouflage.

Imagine lifting a rock on the sandy shallows of Porth Hellick, expecting to find a crab or an anemone, but instead a shadow the size of your forearm darts through the water at the speed of light. At first the giant size of the goby is a shock—there are few rockpool creatures that grow that large—but once it settles, it becomes possible to admire the goby’s unusual salt and pepper scales and slightly confused expression, its small eyes unnervingly rotating in every direction.

Very little is known about the behaviour of giant gobies, since they spend most of their time tucked away in tight crevices, but it is suspected that females can lay up to 12,000 eggs in these crevices which males will then guard attentively.