Mega Shoresearch Weekend 2014 longrock Marine day

The first event of our Mega Shoresearch weekend was a survey and public event at Long Rock near Penzance.

Here an extensive reef of Mylor slate lies just outside the current boundary of the Mounts Bay Proposed Marine Conservation Zone. We were joined by Local marine expert David Fewick and Rob Seabold of Natural England as well as a host of keen volunteers and the slippery rocks of this impressive reef were surveyed! 

Holes bored in Mylor slate by Piddocks - photo by Margaret Gardener

The slate is bored in many places by burrowing bivalves called Pidocks, themselves a rare speices to find on our coasts which have very particular geological requirements! Just to the West of the reef lies a fantastic eel grass bed which although taking a beating by our winter gales is still hanging on in there! 

the tide rapidly came in and sadly I didnt make it out to the piddock holes so will definately need to visit again soon! 

Cat worm Nephtys hombergi  found in mud

Cat worm Nephtys hombergi  Proboscis extended - Fearsome! 

Thin Tellins were common in the mud

Despite a windy and wet afternoon we werent deterred and thanks to a fantastic new waterproof heavy duty gazebo, and the loan of Lawrence Smiths fantastic luxury gas bbq we were able to feed and water all the shoresearch volunteers and our PANACHE seasearch divers who carried out an evening shoredive near the causeway. 

Sarah and the food!!  - thanks to Loz  from Ocean high Paddleboarding for lending us his EPIC GAS Barbecue! 

PANACHE Shoresearch and Seasearchers at Mounts bay

Stand up Paddle Board reccie of Marazion eel grass beds with Ocean High

I was privileged to have the opportunity yesterday to try out a totally new method of marine surveying. Laurence Smith of Ocean High, Marazion took me on a Stand Up Paddle board (SUP) exploration of the shallow lagoon to the East of the St Michael's Mount Causeway. This is a terrific method of exploring the shallow waters  and we are hoping to go back to accurately map the eel grass beds found there.
From the high vantage point of a SUP board you can see down into the water and on a clear day like this one it meant we had a fantastic view as we glided over the surface. A video camera mounted beneath Loz'z board allowed us to capture video as we traveled. A GPS was used to record the position of the outer edges of the eel grass beds in this site.

It was a fantastic survey and we now know that a SUP is a good platform for this kind of work. As the wind started to pick up and ruffle the surface of the water I got in and snorkeled and was able to ground truth our survey area. Interestingly we found what appears to be evidence of storm damage sustained by the eel grass this winter. In many areas you can see exposed rhizomes from the eel grass and a clear step is evident where sand has been removed probably taking with it eel grass plants themselves.

Damage where the sand has been removed by storms - root like rhizomes are now exposed at the edge of the remaining eel grass rhizome matt. 

Healthy eel grass Zostera marina.

Loz and the Mount 

Hairy sand weed looking like coral - Cladostephus spongiosus

Leucernaryopsis cruxmelitensis Stalked jelly fish found on Ulva lactuca sea lettuce

A SUPs eye view of the lagoon - note large rainbow wrack plants, Sargassum muticum and Bifurcaria bifurcata in foreground. 

Juvenile ballan wrasse - bright green to help them camoflague against the eel grass and sea lettuce

Fantastic Marazion yeilds strange surprises!

The weather stayed fine for our Marazion Marine day yesterday and a large group of shoresearchers turned out for what proved to be another epic day on the shore!
We had a great turnout of families for the public rockpool ramble and, who could fail to be impressed by the beautiful eel grass beds and colorful seaweeds and anemones we found?
People were amazed at the variety of crabs found on the shore - edible crabs, velvet crabs, shore crabs, Montagu's crabs, long horned porcelain crabs, broad clawed porcelain crabs, hermit crabs and squat lobsters were all in abundance!

The water clarity was amazing at the edge of the eel grass beds (which we were careful not to walk on!)
And living among seaweeds were found yet more stalked jellyfish Lecernaryopsis cruxmelitensis.
David Fenwick found an incredibly rare double headed stalked jellyfish.A Siamese twin version of the Maltese cross species.

Thanks to all the volunteers who came along - most got the chance to see a stalked jellyfish and all enjoyed exploring a fantastic shore.

Rare to see a s legged cushion starfish! 

A beautiful gem anemone found by Tim Caulfield

Water clarity in the shallows around the edge of the eel grass bed was astoundingly good 

A five bearded rockling with a very unusual forked barbel

A beautiful day on the Shore

Zoe at the shorelab

Red sponge found in an upper shore pool

Call to Action for MCZs

It was a fantastic turnout at last weeks Shoresearch training evening. Thanks to all those who came from all ends of the county. A total of 27 volunteers attended, including a number of new recruits, several experienced VMCA committee members and volunteers, several marine scientists, local marine lecturers and even staff from Natural England.

It is really great that so many people want to get involved with the Shoresearch programme. I think it bodes well for the year to came and hope that we get a good set of results. Collecting good quality verifiable records of rare shore species will be vital as this summer will be last chance we have to provide much needed data to back up the next tranche of MCZs.  We need a coherent network of Marine Conservation zones around our coast for the long term benefit of our valuable marine habitat and we only have until September to do this so this is a real call for action! 

Sites we need to get data for are Mounts bay rMCZ, Lands End rMCZ, Newquay and Gannel Estuary rMCZ , Hartland point to Tintagel rMCZ, and St Ives Bay.
It is important that we get out and survey as much as we can in these areas this year as the data collected will be really useful in arguing the case for these zones will be vital to ensure that we get a cohesive network of MCZs throughout our waters.

Keep looking out for core species and don't forget that there are a few more species not included that will be really significant if you find them: these are;

• Eel grass (live, not washed up on the beach)
• Stalked Jellyfish - you must take good macro photos and get GPS positioning to go with the photos.
• Giant Goby for more information on these see my earlier post.
• Peacocks tail sea weed,
• Maerl beds,
• Honeycomb worm reefs,
• Under boulder communities (boulders are classed as rocks larger than 25cm diameter and there must be several encrusting species - ascidians, sponges, bryozoans, keel worms etc living beneath the rocks. Please take lots of photos,
• Couches goby, 
• Gooseneck barnacle Pollicepes pollicepes 
• European Eel,
• Native oyster,
• Mussel beds  -where mussels grow on soft substrates and themselves create a new habitat

Don't forget carrying out a survey is easy and if you can't make many of the organised survey dates you are encouraged to go out and carry out your own shoresearch. All you need is a digital camera, a recording sheet (which can be downloaded here) and a GPS or GPS enabled smart phone.
Please remember though to keep safe on the shore and follow the sea shore code!

Send your data and photos in to me at matt.slater@cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk

Don't forget you can also use the Shoresearch Cornwall dropbox - just drop me an email and I will send you an invite!

Giant goby 

Shoresearch Hannafore point Looe 22nd September 2013