In October the shores visited were, Llandudno North shore east (Creigiau Rhiwledyn/Little Orme’s Head SSSI), Penmon area shore (Glannau Penmon - Biwmares SSSI and  Y Fenai a Bae Conwy / Menai Strait and Conwy Bay SAC ) and Cricieth (Glanllynnau a Glannau Pen-y-chain i Gricieth SSSI and Pen Llyn A’r Sarnau SAC) and we aimed to carry out a public have-a-go session at Porth Eirias, but instead did an ad hoc Beached! – type search of the various strandlines and shore areas. We also headed to almost both reaches of the NWWT marine team’s remit to do some on-shore Beached! training at Talacre, Flintshire and Tywyn, Gwynedd.

We carried out Walkover Surveys and Timed Species Searches this series of surveys. Number of volunteers overall – 8

Walkover Survey area sampled – 276m² of the low shore.

Timed species searches – looking for Slipper limpet 30mins; Pacific Oyster 50mins

Seasonal findings – the focus this month is on our Beached! project as the seasonal feature of a shore right now is the finding of dead growth on the strandline. Many species of algae lose fronds like trees, this time of year and animals colonies reach the end of their colonial lives, or die back and all this can create large mounds on our strandlines.

 The Shoresearch surveys have a set of timed species for which you would need to search the beach strandline (those patches of shore where the tides drops stuff its carrying) and we’re incorporating our Beached! project into this. We ask those out on shore to keep an eye out for dead and dying stuff brought up en-masse. This naturally includes reports of jellies and empty remains, but more interesting are the species “wrecks”. Species “wrecks”, or when huge - "wash outs" are when we find lots of sand dwelling (mostly) animals brought up on shore for various reasons and the more that are reported the more we’ll know the reasons for it. More about the Beached! project here.

As we mentioned jellies, we might just also mention some other washed in incomers, which were seen on West North Wales coasts late October. By-the-wind sailors/hwyl fôr (Vellela vellela) are similar to jellies, but are colonial animals, rather than individuals. They were seen by members of Tywyn Beach Guardians a few days before our Beached! training session in Tywyn and are related to portugese man-o-wars/chwysigen fôr (Physalia physalis), also seen coming up on west coast shores at a similar time. These are regular sightings, but not every year and often the former can wash up in large numbers, turning the beach strandline blue for a while.

Species feature:

A common species around our coasts Serrated wrack/gwymon danheddog (Fucus serratus) might not be commonly seen. This species of algae is one of the wracks. A species of algae which grows in the intertidal zone and therefore can be seen out of water as the tide goes out, but only at the lowest point in the tidal cycle each day, as this species is a low shore species. In fact, it‘s one of the species to look out for to know where you are on the shore in less exposed sites, at least. Interestingly, the two sexes of serrated wrack can be differentiated from late summer into autumn as “ripe” male plants of serrated wrack become orange in colour. 

The "Scorpion" spider crab/cranc heglog (Inachus dorsettensis). The speech marks are there because it can be difficult to ID these small-growing spider crabs. The scorpion spider crab is one of the species and these crabs can be found, on occasion, low on shore, but often they can be very camouflaged, as they cover themselves with sponges to help hide from predators or hide within anemone tentacles. They are one of over 60 species of crabs on the UK shores and an introduction to crab species can be had by heading to see what Crabwatch is all about. There are resources within to help ID various crab species.

The Shoresearch surveys are designed to help monitor some areas of shore by volunteers recording what they find using various types of surveys. Training is given to the volunteers who sign up to help us carry out these surveys.

We are liaising with other organisations to hone these surveys, so they become a vital tool in the help to monitor wildlife in our intertidal areas. Whilst they can also help to introduce volunteers to the species which live in this intertidal zone, the ideal is to build up some regular teams to regularly survey certain areas, building a clearer picture over the long term and in particular to keep an eye out for Invasive species and Climate change indicators.

If you would like to join us to volunteer your time at our repeated survey sites, then please get in touch. It is likely to be just one 2-3 hr session out on shore once every month at the least, as well as any time you can spare to do online training or website reading. 

Want to help with Shoresearch volunteering

Of course, feel free to help in other ways too via becoming a member, donating or buying a gift membership for someone. Thank you.

Membership     Donate