Proof that Marine Community engagement works!

Through Cornwall Wildlife Trusts Your shore Project , and PANACHE project huge numbers of adults and children have been educated about the wonderful marine life around our coasts.

John Hepburn (from the Wembury Voluntary Marine Conservation Area) recently wrote in to to provide us with an example of how our marine events are raising the awareness of Cornwall's youngsters!

Do people learn at the VMCAs?
 The simple answer is yes, as the following story shows.
 The Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter Trust takes disabled children day sailing from Mayflower Marina in Plymouth in the Tamar and Sound in “Cornubia,” a Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter, restored and recreated as a classic yacht.  The day’s not just about sailing – only enough for them to work together to the best of their capabilities to improve their confidence and team-working ability.  The day’s also about learning about the marine environment and maritime activities.  The children start the day looking at life on the pontoons using a microscope connected to a TV, which is also used later in the day to examine plankton which they have trawled for.  They also get a guide to help them spot and record the marine life they may see.  In order to demonstrate that people are learning during the day they answer two questions at the beginning of the day, and again at the end:  “On a scale of 1 – 9, how much do you think you know about the ocean and what lives in it?” and, “How much do you think you know about what people do with the ocean?”
 Doubletrees School in Par (www.doubletrees.cornwall.sch.uk) caters for those with severe and complex learning difficulties.  With funding from the West Cornwall Youth Trust (http://westcornwallyouthtrust.org) they are able to send several groups a year on these trips. Last year one group’s reply to the first question at the beginning of the day was two 9s, an 8 and a 7.  “Wow, where did you guys learn so much?”  “We’ve been to Polzeath, we learnt about everything there.”  So there you have it – proof that Polzeath works!
As a footnote, at the end of the day, the student with 7 went up to an 8.  One of the teachers, who also assessed herself as a 7, went down to 5, having learnt that she didn’t know as much as she thought she did!

Doubletrees students deploy the plankton net! - Photo John Hepburn 

Brittlestar larvae and Calanus copepods were found! Photo - John Hepburn

Honeycomb reefs of St Austell Bay

This winter has been unbelievable - Massive gales and high tides have been battering Cornwall's coast relentlessly since Christmas.  This weekend saw some of the highest tides of the winter and It looked like the Shoresearch Rockpool ramble leaders training day would be a total washout!
Fortunately on Sunday morning we woke to the first sunny day of the year (more or less) and we had a cracking time down on the shore at Spit beach near Par!
It was great to have such a good turnout of lovely people all keen to learn and to gain the skills needed to share their enthusiasm with the public.A total of 22 volunteers took part and they traveled from all over the county, from Polzeath, Fowey, Looe, St Agnes, the Roseland and we also had sevenlocals who are members of the Friends of Par beach. After a couple of slideshows held in Gott hall we walked down (though the floods) to the beach which is right next to Par Docks.

Happy shoresearchers! 

It was really exciting to see how alive and diverse the shore is here so close to the docks - I had heard reports but it was great to see for first hand the beautiful colonies of Honeycomb Worm - Sabellaria alveolata that cover a large area of the mid shore. these worms grow in colonies and they construct their concrete like tubes using sand. The sand they need is very specific and this rare Biodiversity Action Plan species is only found in a handful of locations around the country. The only other place in Cornwall where this species is found is along the coast between Millook and Bude on Cornwall's far north coast.

GPS proof that these rare colonies exist! 

Honeycomb worm colony closeup, Matt Slater

The beach at Spit is made up mainly of quartz sand and gravel, and mica which are waste products from the china clay processing that has been carried out for centuries in this area. It was interesting to see that the tubes were made up mainly of tiny fragments of quartz (plus some shell sand). Perhaps this is the reason why this rare species is found in this one location alone on the south coast of Cornwall?

The shore is very unusual with very few mussels and a large covering of pepper dulse Osmundia pinnatifida over the rocks.

Pepper dulse carpeting rocks, Matt Slater 

Volcano barnacles - Balanus perforatus are very common on this site.

Volcano barnacles Balanus perforatus, Matt Slater

Cystoseira tamariscifolia Rainbow wrack (photo Matt Slater )

 and in the pools we found small rainbow wracks growing as well as the beautiful false eyelash seaweed, sausage weed and young plants of Sargassum muticum.

Snakelocks anemone Photo by Margaret Gardner

There were countless hermit crabs Pagurus bernhardus, daisy anemones, snakelocks, strawberries and beadlet anemones.
We also found a young sea hare - Aplysisa punctata, and a sheep sea slug Aeolida papillosa.

It was great to see large numbers of freshly laid dog whelk eggs! and so many signs of the coming spring on such a beautiful day (amongst such heavy storms!) Including a small spotted sea hare Aplysia punctata.

Sea Hare

Thanks to all who came along and I hope to see you at the next surveys!

Cheers

Matt