Brighton Science Festival

Last Saturday I took a display to the Brighton Science Festival with the Friends of Shoreham Beach Local Nature Reserve. This was a joint display depicting various aspects of the Nature reserve and local dolphin and whale sightings for the Sea Watch Foundation (for whom I am the Sussex Co-ordinator). As Sussex country recorder for Sea Mammals and Sussex Regional Coordinator for the Sea Watch Foundation (SWF) I represented the SWF with a display about Sussex whale and dolphin sightings. As a member of the management group for Shoreham Beach LNR I helped represent (with the help of members of FoSB) the nature reserve.

The Friends of Shoreham Beach (FoSB) display explained why Shoreham Beach had been made a Nature Reserve (because of its rare vegetated shingle habitat) and the work of the FoSB.

The FoSB display also included an exhibit about marine litter. This consisted of a variety of litter items cast ashore by the tide which were tied to a piece of fishing net (also marine litter). Each label had a tag with information about how long it takes each item to biodegrade.
There was also a display that I had worked on (based on te outraech work I had done with local schools earlier in the year) which depicted elements of coastal geography.
This looked at how the local coastline was formed and how it is shapeed by natural forces. This included how chalk and flint were formed and how the shingle beaches contain flint scoured from the chalk and deposited on the coast after the last ice age. Some are the result of more recent coastal erosion. The display also looked at vegeated shingle; the animals that are attacted by this habitat, how the plants have adapted to live in this harsh environment and the threats this habitat faces. These was also information about strandline objects and some examples that could be handled.

The main focus of the Sea Watch Foundation display was a life sized bottlenose dolphin, the species most frequently seen along the Sussex coastline.


Infomation about local dolphin sightings (including pictures) were displayed down the left side of the display while the right side provided information about dolphin natural history. There were also some fact quiz questions.

The remainder of the display looked at the science of studying dolphins and whales focusing on photo-identification (recognising individual whales or dolphins) , DNA sampling and satellite tagging whales to study migrations and populations. We also displayed a dolphin skull, sperm whale tooth, baleen killer whale vwertebrae (all on loan from the local Booth Museum of Natural History in Brighton. The event was well attended and there was a lot of interest and divese questions.

Wading birds, pebbles and hagstones

Took a trip to the Shoreham beach yesterday with my daughter to collect some pebbles for a coastal display that I will be running for the Brighton Science Festival on Saturday 23rd February. I started at the footbridge, crossing the River Adur. The tide was on its way out and there was a lot of bird activity. Apart from the various gulls, a large flock of grey plover were feeding on a small island of estuary and mussels.

On the mud flats on the far side of the river there were several redshank feeding. Redshark have relatively long legs and stride over the soft mud probbing every now and then with their long beaks. The display will be mainly about the Shoreham Beach Local Nature Reserve and will also be run by the Friends of Shoreham Beach (FoSB).

This is an exciting new nature reserve established in June 2006 and which I have been very pleased to have the opportunity to be involved with both as a member of the management group and as a honary member of FoSB.The beach is comprised of a large shingle spit, formed as the result of several centuries of wave action and westerly deposition of the shingle - Longshore Drift. Above the tide line, where the shingle is stable, is vegetated shingle, a rare habitat for the UK and worldwide. The shingle plants die back during the winter ready for a dramatic transformation in the spring when the plants will burst back into life.

Anyway, more about the shingle. People often this that the shingle is boring but it is infact very interesting. 98% of the pebbles are flint washed into the English Channel at the end of the last ice age or have been left behind as the chalk coast eroded in more recent times.

In amongst the flint are various other pebbles from inland also washed down when the ice thawed. There are also pebbles left over from the large rocks used as ships ballast from the 13th Century until about the 18th Century.

Pebbles with holes, like the one above, are known as hagstones. They were once worn to protect the wearer from witches. They were also tied around the neck of cattle to prevent witches from riding them off to their secret meetings. Large pebbles with holes were tied at the bow of fishing boats to protect them from witchcraft.

Beachcombing

After the recent stormy weather its the idea time for a spot of beach combing. While the timber washed ashore has been a major news item, there is far more of interest to look for amongst the seaweed and other debris. Here are a few of my finds.

The beach is covered in numerous cream coloured balls that resemble bubble wrap and are often mistaken for sponges. These are the egg mass of the common whelk, often referred to as sea wash balls as they were used by early sailors to wash. Each of the smaller capsules contains thousands of eggs, but only about 10 hatch the remaining are eaten by their siblings. This may seem wasteful, but in fact the few that do hatch have had a hearty meal and increase their chances of survival. Several female whelks will often lay their eggs together creating quite large egg masses. When cast up after a storm, the whelk egg masses may still contain viable eggs.

The occasional weathered and empty common whelk shell are also present amongst the seaweed. Most are broken to some degree, making the intricate internal structure visible. This one was intact. These whelks are carnivorous, feeding on marine worms and other molluscs such as bivalves (which have two halves to their shell). Whelks can use the edge of their own shell to prize open bivalve shells to feed on them. Common whelks also feed on dead animals, which they locate by smell using their siphon. They wave the siphon back and forth to detect where the smell of food is coming from. Empty shells such as this one are sometimes used as a temporary home by hermit crabs as these crabs have no protective shell on their abdomen.

These dark coloured egg cases belong to rays, a relative of sharks. In contrast to the whelk eggs, these egg cases contain a single embryo. The capsules hatch after 5 or more months (depending on the species). Several UK species of ray have greatly declined over the last few decades. The Shark Trust are collecting records of ray egg cases on the beach to help locate nursery grounds to better protect UK species so they have a chance to recover. If you find a ray egg case the records should be sent to the Shark Trust, http://www.eggcase.org/
A couple of years ago I worked with Brighton based River Ocean Foundation as Education Coordinator for a project called Ocean 2. As part of this project I worked on a strandline exhibition that was set up at the Booth Museum of Natural History also in Brighton. The exhibition was made up of various displays that focused around the seashore strandline. These included a replica beach, the forces that created the strandline, scavengers, myths and folklore, beach object identification, amazing eggs, marine litter, stranded sea mammals and more. When the exhibition came to an end, River Ocean Foundation created a website including images of the exhibits and all the original text I wrote for the exhibition.
To find out more about the strandline you can visit the website at http://www.riverocean.org.uk/ocean/exhibition/digibooth/Strandlinehome.htm

More timber pics

More pictures of timber, this time on the Shoreham Beach local Nature Reserve. Pictures sent to me by John Bradshaw, Chairman of the Shoreham Beach Local Nature Reserve

Update of the last few days

I had not intended to start this blog for another month or two, but due to events it seemed a good time to start. This first blog will bring things up to date.

6th January 2008

Common Seal

A common seal was spotted in the River Ouse near Lewes in East Sussex on 6th January. It’s not unusual for seals to be spotted off Sussex in the winter months but only occasionally do they venture upriver. As Sussex county recorder for sea mammals I do receive a few seal sightings each year usually common seals occasionally the larger grey seal.

Mostly they are fit and healthy but cause alarm to passers by who are not used to seeing this appealing mammal up close, especially if it hauled out on the beach. Its quite possible that these visits to rivers come about when the seals are following fish. I have had reports of seals in both the River Ouse and Arun. However, on the river Adur seals do not appear to venture far up river.

20th January

Timber on the beach

Thousands of tons of untreated saw timber from Scandinavia was sitting on the deck of the vessel Ice Prince when she hit rough weather off Portland Bill in Dorset last week. Her cargo shifted and she listed to 40 degrees off the coast, before drifting east and sinking on Tuesday. Twenty crew had to be rescued by helicopter and lifeboat. Tons of wood has washed up along the Sussex coastline. This picture is just a tiny part of the timber washed ashore over many miles of coastline.

21st January
Dead Dolphin

On a sadder note, I received a call on Monday morning (21st January) about a dead dolphin washed up with the timber next to the Brighton Marina. The dolphin was quite badly damaged but appeared to be a bottlenose dolphin, the species that usually visits Sussex coastal waters in the summer months. It is quite likely that the two incidents were not linked. Currently the dolphin is being analysed by the Natural History Museum in London (who by law must be contacted regarding all stranded whales, dolphin or porpoise). It is hoped that their report will shed more light onto how the dolphin may have died.