Scavenge for your hols
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| • SHORELINE treasure to be found in East
Devon – ray eggcases and whelk eggmasses are often found
along the strandline. Photograph by G Black |
By James Chubb
East Devon Education Ranger
Now the weather has got back to something resembling a ‘typical’
August climate, people are flocking back to the beach. But after
you’ve built the 50th sandcastle, what is there to do to entertain
children – especially when the tide is in?
When you are faced with a tiny ribbon of sand, don’t despair,
organise a seashore strandline scavenge and see what wonderful jetsam
you can find.
Now, before we go any further, it is worth remembering that you
should always supervise children when searching the strandline,
as there is always the possibility that something dangerous might
be washed up on the shore – whether man-made or natural, a
stranded jellyfish can still sting and discarded fish hooks can
give a nasty cut.
But, these warnings aside, walking the strandline is a way of exploring
a totally alien world to us, that of the pelagic, drifting communities
of the open ocean.
The perfect conditions for blowing treasures onto the beach are
sustained south-westerly winds and the best way to search is to
walk slowly along the strandline, scanning among the kelp and weed
for special shells, and other natural wonders.
Look for a tiny creature that looks like a glass bottle bottom with
a tiny fin. This is a by-the-wind sailor, a harmless tiny animal
related to jellyfish and sea anemones. Notice how the sail grows
diagonally across the body – half the population have a left-handed
sail and half are right-handed, ensuring that the two populations
move in opposite directions across the world’s open seas.
These are animals that drift in the open ocean, filter feeding using
their short, thread-like tentacles. After some storms beaches may
become swamped with these little animals and, if you do find one
or more, you should contact the Devon Biodiversity Record Centre
at the Devon Wildlife Trust.
There is another artefact that you need to report if found. The
mermaid’s purse is a shark eggcase (rather than a cash wallet)
normally the washed-up eggcase of a dogfish. These dogfish cases
are brown when fresh, turning black over time, with long tendrils
on the corners, which curl like corkscrews. The tendrils are used
to tie the egg onto kelp fronds just offshore, and they often break
in stormy weather and if you are really lucky you may find a case
with the developing dogfish still inside.
However, conservationists working for the Shark Trust are surveying
the British coast for the egg cases of skates and rays, the flattened
sharks that were once common in our waters. Rather than the eggcase
being rectangular with frizzy tendrils, ray cases are squarer and
have stiff and straight pointed corners.
Now, if you find a skate eggcase you will be in no doubt what you
have found, as they are huge. They can reach 25 centimetres in length,
and are noticeably longer than they are wide. If you find one of
these, drop everything you are doing on the beach and report it
as sadly these are being washed up less and less as skate become
rarer in the sea.
This is why the Great Eggcase Hunt, organised by the Shark Trust,
is so exciting, as it is a way that we can all get involved in really
important conservation work, without having to alter our holiday
plans!
But aside from a skate case, there are seven or eight other species
that you may find, all of which have individual characteristics
that make them identifiable. A guide to each species is available
as a link from the Countryside Service website at the District Council,
www.eastdevon.gov.uk/countryside.
Rays are themselves a fascinating group of fish. They are bottom
feeders, their flattened bodies giving them a low profile to keep
them out of the way of bigger fish. They are part of the shark family,
which means they have no bony bones, just a basic skeleton of cartilage.
Sharks are a very primitive fish, evolving millions of years before
the first bony fish made a fin-stroke.
The skin of a shark is covered in spiny teeth-like projections,
which in the bigger species can be frightfully sharp, however films
like Jaws have given the family a feared reputation they largely
don’t deserve. Most sharks are small, harmless fish that feed
on molluscs and crustaceans living in the seabed and are of no danger
to people.
Anyway, back to our scavenger hunt. Look out for sponges, not the
bright yellow ones you get from Halfords for washing the car, but
small grey natural sponges that sometimes get washed ashore from
the reefs just off the East Devon coast. Also growing on these reefs
is a rare and protected coral, called the pink sea fan.
This beautiful pink coral can sometimes be washed in, but you need
to know what you’re looking for to spot it among the twigs
and seaweed. The coral grows over an inner scaffold of brown hardened
tissue, which is the bit that you sometimes find on the beach.
Confusingly, though, this part looks exactly like a worn silver
birch twig, so keep you eyes peeled and have a closer look at all
pieces of stick. If they have a noticeable round bulb at their base,
the chances are they’re a coral.
Finally, there is one treasure that you may find on a Devon beach
that has travelled hundreds of miles to wash up here. Mary’s
bean, or the crucifixion bean, is a brown or black lozenge that
looks like a giant draughts piece with a cross-shaped depression
on one side.
It is a seed from a tropical vine which grows over shallow seas
and lagoons and uses the ocean as its means of seed dispersal.
There is a great deal of nautical folklore tied up with this little
seed, so much so that when it was found it was often set in silver
and handed down through generations as a talisman.
There is so much you may find washed up on the strandline. All you
need is a little practice to get your eye in and a great deal of
luck.
You’ve got as much chance of finding a treasure as any of the
experts, and if you do find something noteworthy there are a lot
of organisations that want to know, so get out on the beach whatever
the weather and start scanning!
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Previous Articles by James Chubb
Have fun for free!
East Devon Education Ranger James
Chubb describes how young naturalists can monitor moths
at home and describes some of the beautiful species in our
local area.>>
East Devon Education
Ranger James Chubb
gives us a tour of pebblebed heaths: a collection of heathland
commons stretching from East Budleigh north towards Woodbury
and Aylesbeare>>
East Devon Education
Ranger James Chubb
explores rockpools and looks at some of the living natural
history that can be found along the Jurassic Coast,
>>
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