Giant goby resting on the seabed, next to a rock

Field trip 05 / 05

Ría de Arousa

Galicia, Spain

2026

Field notes

For years I've spent my summers on the Ría de Arousa. With a camera I can take underwater, I go snorkelling around different spots of the estuary to see which animals I come across.

Almost everything here lives in the water: fish, crabs, cuttlefish… But there's also the odd land animal that I found right on the coast, next to the beach.

Photographs 9

Marbled rock crab hiding in a rock crevice — *Pachygrapsus marmoratus* · Marbled rock crab see on iNaturalist

Juvenile cuttlefish camouflaged on the sand, eating a fish — *Sepia officinalis* · Common cuttlefish see on iNaturalist

Common eagle ray swimming over the sandy bottom — *Myliobatis aquila* · Common eagle ray see on iNaturalist

Grey wrasse swimming under a rock — *Symphodus cinereus* · Grey wrasse see on iNaturalist

Green crab among the blades of a seagrass meadow — *Carcinus maenas* · European green crab see on iNaturalist

Painted gobies on the sandy bottom — *Pomatoschistus pictus* · Painted goby see on iNaturalist

Barnacles covering the rock, with a small snail and a green seaweed — *Chthamalus montagui* · Montagu's stellate barnacle see on iNaturalist

Backlit spider on its web, among the trees by the shore — Araneae · Spider see on iNaturalist