Look carefully on the gravel bottom and you are likely to find some cuttlefish, which will put on a fine display of pattern, colour and camouflage changes if approached gently. If you want a chance of seeing the squid, you need to return after dark and wait patiently with a powerful torch, which normally attracts a few fleeting visits. Back on the reef, by investigating the cracks and fissures you will find various species of crabs preparing to mate. Male swimming crabs and cancer crabs clutch recently moulted females to their chests to protect them while waiting until they are ready. Later the females will carry their broods until they hatch.
Spider crabs come inshore to breed as well.
You might meet small congregations of them waiting for the females to moult, which is when competition between males for partners begins. Searching for these amorous crustaceans might also reveal blennies and butterfish which have recently mated, and once again it is the poor old male that is left in the nursery protecting the eggs for a month or more until they are ready to hatch. The shanny, or common blenny, is normally shy and quite difficult to spot with his excellent camouflage, but during breeding his colour darkens to grey or black, while the lips go white and he becomes bolder in line with his parental duties. The first mild sunny days of spring soon propagate the first phytoplankton or algae bloom, which can reduce visibility and turn the waters dark green both inshore and offshore. However, as usual nature has all this planned and this bloom is timed to coincide with the hatching of the millions of larvae from the various spawnings.