Yorkshire beaches

We all love a good day at the beach. Sunshine, bucket and spade, Ice cream, fish ‘n’ chips, sand between our toes. Forget our worries and just relax, especially here in Yorkshire where we are blessed with a great variety of beaches and coastal experiences.  I took the opportunity to join YWT Marine Pollution Officer Ana Cowie to get closer to two very different beaches, one Iconic and the other, a bit of a secret. My partner, Andrea, also decided to join me for this one. Our task was to join the shoresearch volunteering team to help spot and identify as many different plants and animals as possible at low tide. 

Filey Brigg Sheltered

Firstly to Filey, Miles of sand, an unspoilt seafront that’s safe for kids to play on with the Brigg on the North side. For those not familiar with Filey, the Brigg is a long stony strip of stone and pools at the base of the cliff on the North side of FIley beach.  It extends beyonds the cliff and into the North sea. It’s a popular, if often slippery walk. Filey Brigg used to be classed as a single location, but it has now been divided into two as there are two distinct habitats. On the Sheltered (Filey Beach) side we see gentle waves and a gently sloped sandy beach leading to rocky areas, again sloping gently. The exposed side, to the north, is much rockier and subject to stronger waves, so the species found there can be quite different. Indeed, creatures such as periwinkles that may be seen on both sides of the Brigg could actually be different species, that have recently divided to take advantage of the differing conditions. Evolution is happening right now under our noses on the beaches of Yorkshire.

Our target for the day was on the sheltered side, directly accessible from the beach. We were doing a “Bioblitz” style of shoresarch. This allows volunteers to survey as much of the area as possible and record all the species found.

A supermoon had brought exceptionally low tides, so this was a perfect time for volunteers to gather and comb the beach for a species count at the lowest extent of the tide. The rocky shelf seen at low tide that day would be under a metre of water on a normal low tide. Quite a large group gathered and spread out over the beach. I expected to be meeting a lot of Filey locals, but this was not the case. Most had travelled a fair distance. One volunteer had even come from Selby, where I live - I could have given him a lift!
 

We started our search, recording everything we found as we went to meet the sea just before low tide. By recording, I don’t just mean writing “Crab” or “Seaweed” on a piece of paper, I mean taking pictures to allow Ana to identify our findings to the lowest possible level of taxonomy. Taxonomy is the classification used to group all living creatures. The top level is “Life”, the second level is “Animals” or “Plants” with further subdivisions through 9 levels. Ideally we would like to identify at the lowest “Species'' level on the scale. Whilst this might seem daunting, we were blessed not only with Ana’s knowledge but also with fellow volunteer Emma’s vast experience which extended to Latin names. Our main tools were cameras, buckets and white trays that could be used to photograph difficult subjects against a neutral background. We started out by finding barnacles and limpets, several different types of seaweed, sandworm casts and a few small crabs.

 As we searched close to the low tide point the findings got more and more exciting. A mating pair of Velvet swimming crabs, a butterfish, a scorpion fish (playing dead), more mating velvet swimming crabs. Any new find was photographed, and Ana made sure it was shared with as many volunteers as possible. Sharing the finds is important to allow us to be able to identify finds in the future.

We found a snake pipefish! The pipefish is the closest thing to a seahorse we could find - like the seahorse, the male carries the young.

I never thought I’d see one of these, nor did I expect to see a lobster in the wild, but we saw two types, my first the blue striped squat lobster.

Then we found the more familiar common Lobster. We actually found a few of these, I had never seen one on a beach before...

For me though, the greatest thrill was finding starfish - a single common starfish was found. The first I’d seen for several years. Is it just me, or are starfish becoming less common than they once were on beaches in Yorkshire? I’ll be coming back to this in part 2 of my blog. 

Additionally, I was delighted to find two tiny brittle starfish myself. Here’s one sat on a razor-clam shell posing for the camera. 
 

At the tide’s lowest ebb, Ana made sure everyone knew it had turned so we could make our way safely back, still recording finds .As the team was spread out, I was lucky to get four of them together for a team picture.

Later, Ana told me more about the surveys and their purpose. There is a big task to do and we need more volunteers to take part. We need to recruit, train and grow the numbers for this enjoyable and rewarding project. It really is a privilege to go beachcombing with an expert like Ana (I must add that many of the other volunteers are rather expert too). You leave the beach with a great sense of connection and understanding. You can still go for chips and ice cream afterwards, as we did in Filey. Also, you can do this whatever the weather. So, please come forward.

In the next part of the blog, I’ll tell you about our secret beach and the inspiration and concern that getting this close to nature brings. Starfish will get a mention too.

Shoresearch is The Wildlife Trusts' national citizen science survey of the intertidal shore, the exciting world of extremes where the sea meets the land. It's a great way to explore your local coast, learn more about the wildlife found there and add to our understanding of this important habitat.

Volunteers are trained to identify and record the wildlife on shores across the UK. The data collected by this project helps experts to monitor our fragile sea life and better understand the effects of pollution, climate change and invasive alien species. Shoresearch data has been key to designating many of our Marine Conservation Zones. If you'd like to find out more about our amazing marine team then follow this link here