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Basking sharks
Loads of you reported sightings of the UK's largest fish, the basking shark. Blackpuddingonnabike caught this incredible picture of a basking shark breaching the water just offshore from the Isle of Skye. Amazing!

You also saw basking sharks around the Isle of Mull, Whiterocks Portrush in Nothern Ireland and Plymouth (thanks to Justwandering, Opalcutter and Julia Swayne).

Dolphins and porpoises

Other large sea creatures have also been spotted. Ryan Wallace and Tracey Tonkin both sighted pods of dolphins cruising along the coastline; Ryan whilst on a trip to the Moray Firth on the tip of Scotland, and Tracy at Marazion down on in Cornwall

Smaller creatures of the sea

Labsmad discovered this strange looking creature in the rock pools around Westward Ho. It's a type of sea slug called a . These little fellows are herbivores and the type of sea weed that they eat is believed to effect their colouration. This particular sea hare has probably had a diet of sea lettuce giving it a green appearance.

Harrietsweetharriet has found time to hit the rock pools and has found an amazing community of , , , , and these mating sea hares. We're jealous!

On first inspection sea slugs might not be the most exciting creatures. Looks can fool though. The sea slug is in fact a hermaphrodite and hermaphrodites have rather interesting mating rituals. An individual is unable to fertilise itself, instead it must form a mating chain with other sea slugs acting as both a male and female to its prospective partners. Harrietsweetharriet, you may have interrupted something!

Thank you to Joanna for sending in this beautiful picture of our favourite UK fish species. Its name can cause some confusion (it certainly did this morning in our office) as it has many of them, including .

This small-spotted catshark is one of the species responsible for producing the that are commonly washed up on beaches around the UK. Many of you have spotted discarded mermaid's purses on beaches, including at Perranporth and Hunstanton (thanks Sheena and Maddy for those).

You can learn a lot about the creatures of the sea by what has been washed ashore. Whilst walking along Jacob's Ladder beach in Sidmouth, thewildlifecrew spotted a cowrie shell. This is the discarded home of a gastropod (sea snail to you and me), which is usually associated with warmer tropical climates. However, this shell is most likely to be from a British species of cowrie, .

Seashell asked why you might find thousands of dead starfish washed up on a beach after a storm. A bit of a tricky one! feed on mussel beds so if these mussel communities are displaced naturally, or through dredging or a pollution event they may move into shallow waters looking for food. Once in these shallower depths the wave action from the storm is more likely to dislodge them and wash them onto the beach. It's sad to see but it does provide a well needed food source for our seabird community.

Medmans took this picture of tadpoles in a rock pool whilst on a walk in Budle Bay, Northumberland.

We think that there are two possible explanations for this juxtaposed animal environment. These juveniles could be tadpoles if the water is rainwater or has a relatively low salinity as tadpoles do not survive in high salinity environments. Or if the rock pool is intertidal, they could be juvenile . Before they grow their characteristic spiny dorsal fins they resemble tadpoles. From the picture, though, our money is on tadpoles in rainwater.

A big thank you to everyone who let us know about sightings over the years. if you haven't seen on keep an eye out for its distinctive disc-shaped body and pointy fins... it's a pretty magical experience.

If you need a hand identifying your mystical marine finds the has a very good ID picture database, covering the most commonly seen sealife, or post them to and ask the community to help with your identification.

As a closing thought I thought I'd share Fillerya's images with you. This picture has had all of us in the office scratching our heads. On a recent trip to the beach Fillerya found this interesting creature.

Does anyone have an idea of what it could be? Let us know below and if you see any more strange creatures of the sea please tell us right here.