Thursday 19 December 2013

Merry Christmas!

Looking back over the year we have had  a fantastic time and I am really proud that we have managed to survey so much of our Cornish Coastline. With the announcement last month of the designation of 27 MCZs in the UK we should be proud that the surveying we have carried out provided so much data to support this decision by the government!

This Monday we had a fantastic Marine Quiz night at the Driftwood spars st Agnes which was a chance to thank many of the Shoresearchers for their hard efforts over the year.
This was the second year that Niki Clear and myself have run the quiz and it is getting bigger and better and much sillier every year! If you missed it make sure you come along next year!

lots of highlights on facebook for you to see!

Im really exited about continuing to run the PANACHE Shoresearch programme next year and look forward to seeing you all soon and of course welcoming new volunteers to the programme, please spread the word.

See you in 2014

Tuesday 10 December 2013

2014 training dates and event dates announced!

Dear Shoresearchers

As you all know 2014 will be the second year of Shoresearch Cornwall and the final year of the PANACHE project. I have been working on a programme of (mainly) FREE training events, surveys and public events that covers as much of Cornwall’s coast as possible yet focuses on areas that will be included in the next tranche of MCZs. Please find attached the full list (Please note that this is a Draft list – any changes will be announced via email – some extra details will be added but at least you have the dates so you can hopefully plan to come along to lots of them!!)

This winter I am holding 2 evening training sessions at Allet (near Truro) at the Cornwall Wildlife Trust headquarters. These training sessions will be on;
·        Wednesday 29th January and
·        Wednesday the 12th February. These sessions will train you how to lead rockpooling and other events for your local Marine Conservation group and will be an introduction to the Shoresearch method of shore surveying, – this will be useful to VMCA marine volunteers, eco-coasteering leaders, and to those who want to get involved in this vital survey method.  Please see attachment for more details on timings etc

  • Sunday 2nd February there will be a whole day of Rockpool training. This is a beginner’s level training day being held at Par in conjunction with Friends of Par beach who we hope will be leading Rockpool rambles on their beach next summer. This will be an introduction to rocky shore marine life with lots of practical advice on how to lead rockpooling events for the public that really engage and inspire people! In the morning I will be giving a presentation and going over methods and important information in the morning for approx one and a half hours and then we will go down on the shore at Spit par beach where there are fantastic tubeworm colonies and a wealth of marine life. Again this is open to new Shoresearch volunteers, members of local marine groups and for anyone who is keen to lead Rockpooling events and eco-coasteering.


  • Saturday February 8th is the Third annual YOUR SHORE Conference – this year being held at The Eden Project. This is a brilliant day of updates from our fantastic marine groups from all around the coasts of Cornwall and Devon. It is a great chance to network and get new ideas for your marine conservation groups. In the afternoon we will have inspiring and engaging talks from Sue Sayer of Cornwall Seal Group and Ian McCarthy a world renowned wildlife cameraman and photographer who has worked for the BBC natural history unit on many fantastic projects, he lives in Fowey and has a real passion for Cornwall’s marine life so he will share his enthusiasm with us all!   The Your Shore project is being funded by Panache and Shoresearch volunteers are welcome to come along and take part.


  • Sunday 2nd March I am leading a full day of Rocky shore training at Newquay College, this will be an intermediate level course aimed at VMCA volunteers, Shoresearchers and eco-coasteering leaders. We will have talks and presentations at Cornwall College lab in the morning, a rockpooling session at South Fistral beach and a follow up lab session and debrief at the college. There will be a small cost for this course TBC.
For those who are keen to get up to Looe and for Looe locals, Heather Buttivant has kindly offered to carry out Shoresearch surveys at her survey/training days this winter – dates are included on the attached list – please contact Heather for more details on where and when to meet etc her email is h.buttivant@gmail.com

Through the summer there will be a total of 9 PANCHE public marine events taking place. At most of these there will be a public Rockpooling event running parallel with a Shoresearch survey being carried out by our volunteers. We will be setting up a Shore Lab and will be trying to really raise the profile of our local marine environment and our Marine Protected areas. See attached list for more detail.

This summer I will also be visiting a number of Fish festivals around the county to promote the work of the CWT marine team and our local marine groups. We will also be raising the profile of our new Cornwall Good Fish Guide project. It would be fantastic to have the support of volunteers to help us man our stalls / engaging activities at these events! (I’m sure the crab cracks a walnut trick will be being used!) 

Also this year we will have four Shoresearch survey days where we go to more inaccessible sites and hold volunteer only surveys which will also double up as further training for our team!

In September we will once again be visiting each of Cornwall's VMCAs in turn carrying out a shore search survey and fully making the most of the equinoxial spring tides which this year are superb!

It should be a fantastic year

Maybe see you at the very silly Marine QUIZ night next Monday 16th December that Niki Clear and I are hosting at the Driftwood spars 7pm 

Merry Christmas to you all 

Matt 

  

Monday 2 December 2013

Shoresearch en Francais


Last week all the partners of the PANACHE project got together for a meeting in Boulougne-Sur-Mer in Normady. It was a good opportunity to report how well the Shoresarch programme is going here in Cornwall. Information is now coming in from all along the British coast and hopefully our French counterparts will be carrying out more surveys like ours in the future too! 
Highlight of the meeting was a field trip out on the shore to La Pointe de la Creche. At first sight this coast did not look very exiting but out on this rocky point - we found a good range of species including a couple we don't find in Cornwall!

This was so exiting - found in the mortar cracks on the outer breakwater - a graspid crab most likely an invasive species - graspids are very agile little crabs found on the shore in (usually) much warmer climes. Although it certainly looks like Hemigraspus sanguinea as we weren't able to pull it out from its lair we were not able to get proper closeup look so it may be the closely related Hemigraspus takanoi (from japan), which has furry claws. Hemigraspus sanguinea was first found in Europe in 1999 and it is now fairly widely distributed along the channel coast but has yet to arrive in The Uk. Boulogne is only 20 miles or so from Dover so it could arrive any time! 
 Hermit crab fight - the big one wants the other ones shell maybe? - Darwins barnacle in foreground




Darwins barnacle - Eliminus modestus was common on the site particularly on mussel shells

Nice pale juvenile shore crab Carcinus maenas- shame they loose these markings as they grow up! 
False Irish Moss, Mastocarpus stellatus was common on the site
Bryony Chapman of Kent Wildlife Trust is pretty sure that this is Caulacanthus okamurae, an invasive species that looks very similar to many other small branching red seaweeds, this was common on this site attached to barnacles 
Bunnys ears, Lomentaria articulatum
Hydroids Dynamena pumila

Our french marine biologist guide assured us this was a species only found here -Gelidium pusillum - var. pulvinatum Bryony from Kent Wildlife trust has taken a specimen to show to the Natural History Museum.





Close up of the seaweed

Our Local marine biologist guide Alain Richard was really helpful - communication was easy if you stuck to scientific names! 

Can anyone guess what this is?? Answers on a postcard ....

These barnacles - Semibalanus balanoides (thank you to Alain Richard and Frances Kerckhof for helping with the identification) had grown really large and were everywhere. 

in a pool we found several leathery sea squirts Styela Clava - an invasive species from Korea
Beautiful view back to the city of Boulogne-Sur-Mer