Rare sea snail found in Manx waters

Thu, 16 Jan 2020

A rare sea snail has been recorded in Isle of Man waters for the first time in 181 years.

The grooved top shell snail was inadvertently caught on camera by divers who were studying the carbon-reducing plant eel grass in the Langness Marine Nature Reserve at Fort Island Gully.

It is thought to be the first time the tiny snail, which has a distinctive corkscrew shell, has been found alive in Manx waters since 1838, when it was last recorded by the Manx marine biologist, Edward Forbes.

The new find confirms the most-northerly distribution of the living snail in the British Isles, as many historical records referred only to empty shells.