Shore Thing

Today I drove out to the coast to take part in a joint event between the CIEEM and the Yorkshire Naturalist's Union. It was a beautiful late summer morning, and the weather stayed kind to us all day. Once we had gathered in the car park at 11am, we split into 4 groups of 4-5 people and made our way to the bay at North Landing, Flamborough.

The aim of the day was to complete a Shore Thing survey, an initiative by the Marine Biological Association. It carries out regular surveys to assess changes in the abundance, population structure and biogeographic ranges of a number of intertidal indicator species. Some of these are indicators for climate change.

The first part of the session involved quadrat surveys of upper, middle and low shoreline. I was surprised at the number of species we found in just a 0.5m quadrat. There were numerous different types of sea weed, and we also found anemones, limpets, barnacles, a lovely blue rayed limpet (middle picture), baby crabs, etc.

I was fascinated to learn about bryozoans (pictured in my hand below). These are colonial animals, a bit like coral. This one is forming a crust around a sea weed, and if you look carefully you can see the individual 'cells' and spikes. We also found some 'sea mats' growing on the long, flat strands of kelp.

The second session involved a 20 minute timed search, where we each went off to look search the shore-line and rock pools for three particular species. I didn't find any of mine, which I later found out was a good thing as most of the species we were searching for were invasives.

Given the number of species found in and around the shore, I think this specialist area is a step too far for me, though it was good fun to take part and learn a little bit more.