On a recent Cornwall Wildlife Trust survey of marine life on their Looe Island Nature Reserve, marine experts discovered a rare species lurking within the island’s rockpools.

The giant goby is the largest species of goby to be found in UK waters growing to a 27cm maximum length.

Giant gobies are warm water marine fish which range from the Mediterranean, along the Atlantic coasts of Spain and France and north as far as the South West of England.

Giant gobies are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside act 1981 so it is illegal to disturb them without a Natural England Licence. Matt Slater, marine awareness oOfficer for Cornwall Wildlife holds a licence to humanely capture and study this species.   

He said: ‘We have carried out surveys in lots of locations around Cornwall and I am starting to be pretty good at thinking like a goby and predicting where they are likely to be, but it is still a real thrill to discover a new population of them in a new site.’

Giant gobies have never been recorded before on Looe Island. In one pool two small giant gobies were found and in another pool one giant was discovered measuring 23cm (9 inches) in length.

Giant gobies are chunky, robust fish and are members of a large family of rockpool fishes all having distinctive, fat rubbery lips, tiny scales and two dorsal fins. Gobies are well adapted to life on the shore and the giant goby can be distinguished by its size and its fleshy, lobed pelvic fin which is used as a suction pad.

The annual Looe Island survey is carried out in August by a range of local naturalists, Cornwall Wildlife Trust staff and volunteers from Looe Marine Conservation Group.

As well as carrying out a fish survey of rockpools other surveys were completed by Cornwall Seal Group.