Shoresearch Cornwall Another amazing year! Thanks to all our volunteers all across the county! With exiting discoveries, engag- ing films being made (thanks Tom!) and loads of great days on the coast, exploring new places, scrambling over rocks and for the first time coasteering to get to hard to reach places! Thanks to all who have got in- volved! How lucky are we to live in Cornwall? Annual newsletter December 2016 Suckers for Cornwall! All photos by Matt Slater except where labelled Just some of our fabulous volunteers!! Adele, Aurora, Meg, Patty, Miguel, Emma and Tom. Prisk Cove Welcome to our newsletter! It has been a privilege to spend another great year showing people some amazing places and beautiful ani- mals, my eyesight is getting worse but luckily we have a new crop of enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers who spot tiny but beautiful things like the orange lined sea slug above Polycera quadralineata (found at Fowey by Meg), the beautiful pink anemone Sagartia spp, right, found in a shallow pool at Polzeath by Carole Fellows and the tiny hairy crab found by Dazza Trent. I look forward to an- other great year in 2017! Matt Slater, Marine Awareness Officer , CWT Amazing marine life
Transcript
Shoresearch Cornwall
Another amazing year! Thanks to all our volunteers all across the county! With exiting discoveries, engag-ing films being made (thanks Tom!) and loads of great days on the coast, exploring new places, scrambling over rocks and for the first time coasteering to get to hard to reach places! Thanks to all who have got in-volved! How lucky are we to live in Cornwall?
Annual newsletter December 2016
Suckers for Cornwall!
All photos by Matt Slater except where labelled
Just some of our fabulous volunteers!!
Adele, Aurora, Meg, Patty, Miguel, Emma and Tom. Prisk Cove
Welcome to our
newsletter!
It has been a privilege to spend another great year showing people some amazing places and beautiful ani-mals, my eyesight is getting worse but luckily we have a new crop of enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers who spot tiny but beautiful things like the orange lined sea slug above Polycera quadralineata (found at Fowey by Meg), the beautiful pink anemone Sagartia spp, right, found in a shallow pool at Polzeath by Carole Fellows and the tiny hairy crab found by Dazza Trent. I look forward to an-other great year in 2017! Matt Slater, Marine Awareness Officer , CWT
Amazing marine life
Shoresearch is a user- friendly and fun method of exploring the shore and recording the species and habitats found there. Cornwall Wildlife Trust provide Shoresearch training at specific events and on each survey. Volunteers are welcome to come along to organised events but are also en-couraged to carry out their own Shoresearch surveys and to send in their findings.
We use 4 different survey methods. Not all are used at
every survey but we always try to incorporate a walkover
survey which is the best fun!
Timed Species Search. 20 minute search of an area of
shore looking for a small number of key species. Using
photo cards. This method creates useful, comparable data.
(sent to Marine Biology Association Shore Thing project)
Walkover Survey. A targeted, informal search of an
area of the shore with particular interest (usually the
lower shore). All findings get recorded.
Biotope Transect Survey. This is carried out when
monitoring over a long time scale. We take a tape meas-
ure and walking from the low water to high water mark
we record the position of biological zones across the
shore.
Quadrat survey. 50cm2 quadrats are
used to survey each biotope along the
transect.
What happens on a survey? Who can take part?
What is Shoresearch?
Survey Methods
The information collected is vital for Cornwall Wildlife Trust’s marine conservation work. The data is submitted to the Envi-ronmental Records Centre for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (ERCCIS) and from there it is shared to the National Biodiver-sity Gateway. The information helps us monitor change on the shore and provides biological information to counter potential threats. It has been particularly useful in gathering information on areas being considered as Marine Conservation Zones by the government in recent years and will be vital in monitoring these areas in future.
All photos by Matt Slater except where labelled
What Should we bring?
Independent surveying
What happens to the information collected?
Anyone and everyone. If you are keen to learn and happy to give up a few hours of your time you are welcome. Prior knowledge of marine life is not necessary, but it is still great for those that do already have a good level of knowledge. The shore can be slippery and hard to access so you do need to be fit and mobile to take part. We also ask that under 18’s are accompanied by an adult.
We meet up either on the beach or nearby and after an informal briefing we go down onto the shore. We will carry out one or more of the survey methods (see below) and have plenty of time for rummaging and exploring the shore. Everything we find is photographed and if it can’t be identified in situ it can be done at a later date. At the end of the survey we will usually have a sit down and talk about what was found and make sure all the recording forms are properly filled in.
You need to bring sensible rockpooling footwear and cloth-ing. No flip flops or bare feet! Wellies or wetsuit boots are best. Bear in mind it can get cold if it’s a windy or wet day, and it can get very hot if the sun is out! Bring food.. big low tides usually happen at lunchtime! Bring sun screen, a sun hat and some drinking water. If you have one a digital camera is very useful (even better if it is waterproof and has a GPS capability) many smart phones are ideal! I always try to bring some cake to share too. Shore-searching is sociable!
Once trained you are welcome to carry out your own sur-veys. The instructions are available online and you can always contact us for help! This is particularly suitable for students who want to carry out a project or build up volunteer hours. And it is great for local marine group volunteers. Don’t forget though that the shore can be dangerous. Always check the forecast and the tides. And never survey alone. And please upload your data to the Seasearch recording group at www.orks.org.uk Share your photos and news with us via our FACEBOOK Page @ Shoresearch Cornwall
Event
Number
of
Species
Castle Beach,
Falmouth SAC 118
Polridmouth
near Fowey 128
Trenow,
Mounts Bay
MCZ
148
Mousehole 55
Whipsiderry,
Newquay 120
Lundy Bay,
near Polzeath 55
Port Gaverne 105
Gazzle,
Newquay MCZ 81
Cowrie Reef
Polzeath 72
Trevaunance
Cove, St Agnes 140
Prisk Cove,
Helford SAC 159
Hannafore
Point, Looe
MCZ
151
Cowrie Reef
Polzeath 181
Readymoney
Cove 172
Total Records 1685
Main Taxa Groups Number of
species
algae 46
Lichen 3
Flowering plants 1
Sponge (Porifera) 9
Sea mats (Bryozoa) 9
Cnidarian (Anemones etc) 17
Worms 12
Molluscs 34
Crustaceans 30
Insects - bristletail
(Archaeognatha) 2
Springtail (Collembola) 1
Echinoderms (starfish etc) 10
Ascidians (Seasquirts) 6
car1lagenous fish (sharks and
rays) 2
bony fish (Teleosts) 12
Grand Total 219
This year we carried out thirteen or-ganised Shoresearch surveys and 2 training days. A total of 1462 records were uploaded to www.orks.org.uk by our lovely volunteer Laura Guy! Well done Laura. A total of 219 species were recorded with the highest diversity being logged on the September survey at Cowrie Reef, Polzeath during Shoresearch Week. We have continued to monitor the spread of non native species such as orange tipped seasquirt Corella eu-mota and harpoon weed Asparagopsis armata, both of which seem to be in-creasing their range. The arrival of a new warm water species Clibanarius may be due to climate change. We recorded no Alaria esculenta dabberlocks seaweeds this year – a cool water species whose range is moving north.
All photos by Matt Slater except where labelled
Have you been on our recording website ORKS yet? If not you should have a go. It’s really easy to use and not only allows you to quickly upload your species rec-ords and photos safe in the knowledge they are in the most useful place for future con-servation efforts but you can browse everyone else's info too, its addictive! A neat feature of the system are the re-cording group pages –we have already set up a Shoresearch group so you can put your records in there! Many of our local marine conservation groups have their own recording group and anyone can set one up. It is a great way to show off how amazing the marine life is in your area! Look out for much more training on ORKs in 2017. We are also going to make it far more easy for people to do their own independ-ent surveys and upload the data ….watch this space .. any questions email [email protected]
Outcomes and Achievements; 2015
Our Extreme-Eco Marine events were awesome! Fom coasteering to Stand up Paddle boarding it was great to see our shores from a different per-spective! At the Gazzle on Newquay’s Towan headland we went coastering with local legend Karl Fice-Thompson of Newquay activity centre. The caves there are insane and full of life! Over 70 species were recorded in this important part of Newquay and the Gannel Marine Conservation Zone. At another event we were shown some secret spots near Port Gaverne by Ecosteering experts Ben Spicer and Hugo Brown of Cornish Rock Tors who wanted us to check a cave out that they have discovered home to a colony of scarlet and gold cup corals Balanophyllia regia. Tom bravely documented it by filming them in freezing cold dark water! We also had a leisurely cruise down the Helford estuary led by Loz Smith of Ocean High stand up paddle boarding! A great way to enjoy the wildlife! We love the mega sup, which can carry up to six people!
‘Extreme Eco’
Karl FT photo DECP
hydromotion media
Arron Parsons Newquay Activity Centre
All photos by Matt Slater except where labelled
Undisputed highlight of the year was the re-discovery of the warm water her-mit crab Clibanarius erythropus which has recolonised Cornwall following a forty year absence. The first specimen found this century was spotted by Alan Rowland on our Shoresearch survey at Castle beach, Falmouth in March. Since then we have been finding them all around the coast! It is a genuine re-colonisation! Shoresearch volunteer and Springwatch Presenter Gillian Burke did a great job of presenting the story of this re colonisation on national TV. The crab was named by BBC Springwatch viewers as the ‘St Pirans Crab’. As Chris Packham says “Like the patron saint of Cornwall he came from overseas and lived like a hermit”. This species was always rare in Cornwall and the first UK record was made by CWT trustee Nick Tregenza who found them in rock-pools at Mousehole in 1961 when he was a teenager. They sadly disappeared after the Torrey Canyon oil disaster in 1967… Now they are back having most likely drifted here as tiny larvae all the way from Brittany or the Channel Islands where they are abundant. Many records have been made in Mounts Bay, Falmouth, Fowey, Looe, on the North Coast at Porthmear and Trevone and they have even appeared in Devon at Wembury.
This years volunteer of the year is Tom Daguerre of Hydro Motion Media. Tom has given up hours and hours of his time volunteering for Cornwall Wildlife trusts Shoresearch and Seasearch projects this year and he has put his incredible photography and videog-raphy skills to good use producing a series of 12 short films released over National Marine week promoting our local marine life! The films have gained internation-al recognition and are absolutely amazing. If you have-n’t seen them please visit his website www.hydromotionmedia.com We are all looking forward to working with Tom loads more next year! Look out for him in a rockpool near you! How he stays still for so long is a mystery still!
New kid on the block
the St Pirans Crab!
Volunteer of the year Talking
Crabs
CRUSTACEAN NEWS
Matt Slater led a joint ERCCIS and Shoresearch training day, an introduc-tion to crustaceans in September. Matt said “It was great to focus in and talk about a family of ani-
mals I am really passionate about!” We were lucky to have a load of specimens provided by local prawn fisherman Ned Bailey and a great venue ,thanks toFalmouth Marine school. A field trip to Matt’s childhood shore Swanpool beach topped the day off – crab central! It was great using quality microscopes to get a closeup view of some of our favourites!
No. 1 found by Alan Rowlands
All photos by Matt Slater except where labelled
� Matt Slater, Shoresearch Cornwall, Five Acres, Allet, Truro, Cornwall, TR4 9DJ
Get interactive with Shoresearch Cornwall via our facebook page @shoresearchcornwall
2017 Shoresearch
Volunteer Coordinator
Meet Adele ! Adele Morgan is an
applied marine Zoology graduate
from Cornwall College Newquay
who has a real passion for rock-
pools. Adele will be helping out in
2017 with organisation of surveys,
training and data input and further
developing our public reach via social media! Adele
wants to hear from you if you find any thing cool on
the shore! We are really looking forward to working
with Adele and offering volunteers a very busy pro-
gramme for 2017!
Its Your Shore; look after it!
Lundy Bay Bioblitz, brilliantly organised by Sarah Stevens and the North Cornwall National Trust team was a great opportunity for Shoresearchers to get involved in a 24 hour scramble to record as many species as possible on the shore and on land! One of the highlights was the night rockpooling where in a large pool we found a full sized common lobster, six beautiful blue striped squat lobsters and three leopard spotted gobies!
Under a licence from Natural England Matt Slater and
Tom Daguerre have been monitoring giant gobies Cobitus
cobitus during Shoresearch surveys. Using fish traps
loaned by Cornwall College Newquay we made 16 rec-
ords of this protected and nationally rare species in 2016.
Tom even managed to film their natural behaviour. Please
let us know if you see any giant gobies, or suitable habitat,
we will come and investigate!
All photos by Matt Slater except where labelled
Since 2008 we have been working to support a network of
local marine volunteer groups all around Cornwall’s coast.
Wherever you are there is a group near you. The Your
Shore Network of marine conservation groups achieve so
much its amazing, and you can get involved! Our new Your
Shore Beach Rangers project delivered with the help of
Cornwall College and funding from the Big Lottery Fund is
