THANET COAST SEASHORE SAFARI

Rockpooling fun

How many fascinating creatures can you find? The challenge What next? This booklet will help you explore and identify some of the Let us know what you have found by recording these coastal and marine life found around the North East on our Shorelife Recording Form for around the NE Kent Marine Protected Area. coast. Take two or three images of any unusual finds, or The area is internationally and nationally important for things you are not sure about. The form can be found at: wintering birds and marine life. The Thanet coast provides a thanetcoast.org.uk great opportunity for you to explore the chalk reef, rockpools and sandy beaches for its fascinating rockpool and shore life. Good luck and have fun!

How many shorelife creatures can you find or see? Site name: Use this pocket guide to help you explore and mark your finds as:

Rockpooling

✓ Marine life that you see alive date: ✗ Empty shells, dead things and drift (washed ashore) Your name:

Take photos or draw pictures of anything interesting you find or cannot identify.

2 3 Rockpooling Strandline When the tide is in, you can still find interesting clues of marine responsibly life washed up and left by the high tide at the top of the ● Walk very carefully: Rocks and seaweed may be shore along the ‘strandline’. This includes detached seaweed, very sharp or slippery; and rockpools are ‘home’ to shells, egg cases, pieces of animals and unsightly beach litter. our shorelife Whelk egg ● Never pull wildlife or seaweed off the rocks/reef.  cases If they become unattached, then they may not survive! ● When looking under rocks or seaweed, always carefully return them back to their original position. White weed This is their home that you’re turning upside down!  Hornwrack ● If using a tub, ensure you have some clean seawater to look at marine creatures you find, and always Cuttlefish bone return them to the same rockpool afterwards. ● Try not to have more than one crab in any tub, and keep other wildlife safe in a separate tub Finger bryozoan otherwise they might fight, eat or injure each other! ● Take care handling stones, shells and barnacles or Cuttlefish eggs searching as there are many sharp surfaces around. Pic needed ● Wash and clean your hands after rockpooling. Pic needed Mermaid’s Please take care observing living glove creatures. Do not hurt or damage The strandline is a great place for coastal birds us or take us away from our home! - please give us space to feed and rest.

4 5 Mermaid's purses Bristle worms These are the eggcases of skate and rays found on the Look for the homes of these soft segmented worms - strandline. You can find out how to identify and record the made of calcium (chalk), within sand, or from sand grains. species on The Shark Trust website www.sharktrust.org Keel worm Dogfish eggcase (found on rocks) (horns are very curly)

Sand mason worm (seen poking out of sand) Skate or ray eggcase (horns are straight or curved) Spiral worm (found on seaweed) Jellyfish Jellyfish can get washed ashore. Never touch it with bare hands and seek medical help for severe stings. You can Lug worm take a picture and identify the species later online and (found within send your record to MCS’s national jellyfish survey. sand) www.mcsuk.org/sightings SHORE FACT 1 TIDES Jellyfish The tidal cycle is the biggest factor affecting life on the shore and results from a combination of the earth’s rotation and the sun and moon’s gravitational pull on the sea. This gives around two high and two low tides a day - but the rhythm varies daily, 6 as does the amount of shore that is exposed. 7 Flat Common top shell oyster Molluscs: Snails & shells

Molluscs often have a hard shell covering their soft bodies - some have one shell (and are grazers and carnivores) and some have two (bivalves - the filter feeders). Some molluscs have Grey no visible shell at all such as sea slugs, cuttlefish and squid. top shell

Common Edible limpet winkle

Pacific oyster Common mussel Common whelk Flat winkle Dog whelk Rough winkle Slipper limpet

Chiton

Piddock Netted dog whelk What shells can you spot? 8 9 Splash zone Horn wrack S

Mermaid’s Whelk egg cases The rocky shore purse HIGHEST TIDES The chalk rocky shore provides a perfect surface for living things to attach to and hide in. The wind, waves Spiral wrack and tides help to shape the shore, whilst sunlight, Common temperature, salinity and competition between Keel worm Sand Rocks & mason limpet creatures also helps to determine what and where life crevices worm is found here. Chiton Rough Lug worm winkle Bladder wrack Sea lettuce Common Barnacles mussel Shore crab Spiral Rockpools Prawn worm & gullies Dog Edible whelk Beadlet sea winkle Seaweed anenome Hermit crab Flat winkle Wireweed Pepper dulse Topshell Shanny Pacific oyster Sand goby Saw wrack Velvet swimming Sea urchin Porcelain crab Common starfish crab Sugar kelp Brittle star Common whelk LOWEST TIDES Piddock Slipper S limpet Edible crab Oar weed 10 11 Squat Crustaceans lobster Most crustaceans have hard external skeletons and jointed legs. These include crabs, lobsters, squat lobsters, prawns, Pic needed shrimps and barnacles

Shore crab Brush clawed (Asian) crab ???

Velvet Barnacles swimming Edible  crab crab

Pic needed Brown Prawn shrimp

SHORE FACT 2 Growing up!

Long clawed Crustaceans grow by shedding or moulting their hard outer porcelain crab exoskeleton and expanding by another 1/3rd of their size each time. They hide until it hardens again, so they may Broad clawed dont’ get eaten. So if you find a crab that porcelain crab Hermit looks dead, but much lighter, you may have crab an empty shell - and it may be alive elsewhere!

12 13 Seaweed Starfish and sea urchin Marine algae tend to be green, brown or red. They get their Stars of the sea: covered in a spiny skin. energy from sunlight and absorb nutrients straight from the sea. They do not have roots, but attach themselves to the Sea urchin Common reef (‘holdfast’). starfish Spiral wrack or gut weed Sea lettuce (need pic if so)

Bladder Brittle star wrack

Saw wrack Anenomes and sponges Anemones are animal flowers of the sea with tiny stinging Carrageen cells to catch prey. Sponges are multi-celled soft animal with a surface of openings.

need a pic Breadcrumb sponge Wireweed Pepper need a better dulse sponge pic

Oar weed Sugar kelp Beadlet sea anenome 14 15 Fish Shore fish have internal bones, gills for breathing, fins and tails Other finds for swimming, and some have adapted to living on the coast. List, describe or draw anything else you see or find: Sand goby

Shanny

Five-bearded rockling

need a pic Long-spined Scorpion fish

need a pic Butterfish

SHORE FACT 3 GEOLOGY The white chalk cliffs and reef are made of billions of shells of tiny animals and algae that lived in the sea over 85 million years ago. The chalk is easily worn away by the tides but still provides a home for animals to drill into or settle on, and If you’re lucky you can also for seaweeds to hold on to grow. find fossils on the shore. 16 17

Stay safe! Find out more ● Check tides - to avoid getting cut-off by an incoming ● Thanetcoast.org.uk tide. It is best to visit on an outgoing tide. The Thanet Coast Project runs events, including scavenger ● Check the weather and wear appropriate clothing hunts and seashore safaris that can help you explore further. (e.g windproofs/waterproofs if windy/wet; or protection School or organised groups can get online advice and use from the sun). a notification form for their trips or beach cleans. There is ● Wear appropriate footwear (e.g Wellington boots or an online educational toolkit for schools, and also family something with good ankle support). Coastal Explorer ‘Tracker packs’ and Coastal Community Beach Huts available for hire. ● Know your location - read bay information signs, check for lifeguard cover, know where to find The coastal warden/guardian scheme trains local volunteers emergency services, and avoid any local hazards. to help with marine conservation projects, and adopt a beach to look after.

● Kentwildlifetrust.org.uk Useful numbers The Kent Wildlife Trust runs regular Shoresearch Surveys of marine life around Kent’s coast as part of the local marine ● Emergencies: 999 conservation work programme. ● Non-emergencies (Police): 101 ● Environment Agency (shoreline pollution): 0800 807060 ● HM Coastguard (Dover): 01304 210008 ● Kent and Essex IFCA: 01843 585310 ● Stranded mammals (BDMLR): 01825 765546 ● Thanet Council: 01843 577000

18 19 Rockpooling map 6 5 7 2 3 4 1 Westgate-on-Sea 8 Birchington-on-Sea 9 A28 10 11 Sarre A253 A299 12 Cliffsend A256 13 Sandwich and 1. Reculver Country Park 8. Joss Bay 2. Minnis Bay (east) 9. Stone Bay 3. West Bay, Westgate 10.Louisa Bay 4. St Mildred’s Bay 11. Dumpton Gap 5. Nayland Rock, Margate 12.Ramsgate Eastcliff 6. Walpole Bay 13.Ramsgate Western 7. Botany Bay Undercliff

Illustrations ©The Wildlife Trusts ©TCP/4-2020