16 1 Making a record and then Sending your record to where they will be useful for conservation etc.

Some of the recording groups use their own record sheets to assist recorders. A version is available from www.rECOrd-lrc.co.uk

The following information is required for every recording trip Liverpool Bay Marine Recording Partnership

 Your name  Date of the observation  Where it was found e.g. Crosby Beach.  List of the you saw A guide to Life on Sandy Shores

The following information is very useful, but not essential between

 A note if any species was particularly common Colwyn Bay and Fleetwood

 A note if any species were observed alive, or, recently dead, e.g. shells with body parts still inside. written by Ian Wallace,  Map grid references World Museum Liverpool

The records should be sent to your recording group guide concept Kathryn Turner, Organiser, if you have one, or to the appropriate Fylde Coast Marine Life Project Local Record Centre — which is where all the recording groups send their collated records. Images mainly from World Museum Liverpool, and Kathryn Turner North Wales to Cofnod see www.cofnod.org.uk Wirral to rECOrd [email protected] Liverpool to Southport to Merseyside Biobank see www.merseysidebiobank.org.uk Fylde to LERN see http://www.lancspartners.org/lern/ 2 15 This booklet aims to enable the identification of the Not in this guide? common larger marine life found on the beaches between Colwyn Bay in the south and Fleetwood in the north. If you think you have found something not illustrated in this guide, or you want you identifications checked then It is aimed at groups and individuals who are taking part World Museum is keen to help you. in biological recording. Send a photograph by email or (post) to Additional notes to assist with the identification of difficult species and rarer species have been prepared and are available on-line [email protected] from the Liverpool Bay Marine Recording Partnership pages, one of the hosted groups on the rECOrd web site. If it is something that will not rot, such as a shell, we www.record-lrc.co.uk would encourage you to keep examples as voucher

specimens and get them to the Natural History Centre, Limitations to use World Museum, William Brown Street, Liverpool, who will This booklet does not include dead fish, birds or mammals be able to check your identifications before returning your If used away from the area of coverage you are quite likely to encounter specimens, but phone first 0151 207 0001 to check species that are not in this guide. someone who knows about shells will be on duty in the The booklet is for sandy shores it does not cover species found museum to receive your finds. exclusively on hard rocks, breakwaters, sea walls, marine lakes and in rock pools.

Health and Safety The greatest danger is being cut off by a rising tide so you are strongly recom- mended to only investigate on a falling tide. There are quick sands and also sand-covered soft mud, so if you start sinking in — retreat.

Three species of Jellyfish, (Lion’s Mane, rare Blue Lion’s Mane and internal parts of the Barrel), and the Weever Fish can give painful stings and they should not be handled. Piles of marine debris may conceal sharp man- made objects.

Dead and dying life is common and presents a food-poisoning risk so clean hands with soap and water or antiseptic wipes before touching the mouth or food. Before starting, cover cuts and abrasions with ‘Elastoplast’. Ian Wallace World Museum Liverpool All local sewage is treated so sewage-related items should be rare but note that William Brown Street, LIVERPOOL dog droppings are present on many beaches. [email protected] 14 3 Equipment A Guide to Common Shells

Carrier bags, Garden trowel, Kitchen sieve, Seaside shrimping net or aquarium found cast up on beaches between equivalent, Cat-litter tray. (Hand lens good to see more of your finds) Smaller Colwyn Bay and Fleetwood bags are useful to build up a collection of durable finds. Note - Colour may vary from that shown and they may be blackened

Shells can be collected into any suitable water-proof bag e.g. Supermarket - The size given is the largest that species normally grows Carriers * indicates there are rarer species that also look a bit like this (These are covered by additional notes available from www.record-lrc.co.uk) Centimetres that are alive in the sand and in water

Animals that are buried can be revealed by digging up a trowel-full of sand plac- 1 ing it into the kitchen sieve then washing the sand through the sieve by placing it up to its rim, but not above, in water and moving it from side to side. Note that 2 this does not usually work for stiff mud.

Any net will catch animals that cannot pass through its mesh. Fine nets clog, but 3 Common Whelk Red Whelk Dog Whelk Buccinum undatum coarse nets let too much escape. A mesh of about 2 mm is good. Neptunea antiqua Nucella lapillus Up to 9 cms Up to 10 cms Up to 3.5 cms 4 (see also page 6) (see also page 6) To see your captures easily, place the contents of your net or sieve into a little water in the cat litter tray. The tray is also useful to lay out other beach finds for examination. 5

Best places to look for buried life 6

Life can be sparse in the dryer sands of the upper shore. Wet sand, for example at the edge of channels can be good but NB such areas can also be quick 7 Sting Winkle Common Winkle * Flat Winkle sands. Ocenebra erinacea Littorina littorea Littorina obtusata 8 Up to 4 cms Up to 2.5 cms Up to 1.5 cms Keeping your animals alive

9 It can be interesting to watch the animals you have dug up re-bury. This can be done on the beach or by putting them into a bowl filed with sand and water. However, release them afterwards as sandy-shore life is very difficult to keep in 10 aquaria.

..... and finally Tower Shell Wentletrap Grey Top Shell (group)

Turritella communis Epitonium clathrus Gibbula cineraria You will encounter lots of black sand under the surface, and shells that are bur- Up to 5 cms Up to 3.5 cms Up to 1.5 cms ied also go black. The black sand may smell of bad eggs or have a metallic tang. This is not pollution, but the result of natural decay processes in the sand. Necklace Shell * Common Pelican’s Foot Laver Spire Shells (group) * Up to 3.5 cms Aporrhais pespelicani Hydrobia ulvae Up to 5 cms Up to 0.5 cms 4 13 Centimetres Worms many kinds are found buried, most are small and difficult to iden- 1 tify these are some of the larger or more obvious

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3 Common Limpet Barrel Shell Icelandic Cyprine Patella vulgata Acteon tornatilis Arctica islandica Up to 4 cms Up to 1.5 cms Up to 8 cms 4 Filip Nuyttens marinespecies.org Front end Sand Mason (front end) Estuary Ragworm 5 Lugworm Arenicola marina Lanice conchilega Hediste diversicolor Up to 25 cms Up to 30 cms Up to 25 cms Very common in mud and muddy 6 sand Sand Gaper Otter Shell Blunt Gaper 7 arenaria lutraria Mya truncata Up to 8 cms Up to 10 cms Up to 6cms (see also page 6 (see also page 6) 8 Front end

9 Fromt end Front end Scoloplos armiger * Curved Razor * Cat Worms Spionid Worm (and similar) Up to 15 cms 10 Up to 15 cms Up to 15 cms Nephtys species several species Flesh-coloured worm with Up to 20 cms Small thin worms up to 5 cms prominent bristly lobes on Bean Razor Pharus legumen Up to 8 cms Very common in clean sand with two waving tentacles each segment, but no eyes

Front end Front end Front end Queen Scallop * Aequipecten opercularis Variegated Scallop Scolelepis squamata Red Threads Worm Capitella capitata Up to 6 cms Chlamys varia Oval Piddock Up to 8 cms Cirratulus cirratus Up to 10 cms (see also page 6) Bluish green body and 2 Looks a bit like a small earth- Up to 5 cms Zirfaea crispata Up to 12 cms waving tentacles worm (see also page 6) Up to 7 cms Red threads writhe Worm Tubes a few millimetres thick Tubes made from sand grains are common in sieved sand samples.

Tubes of coarse grains ,with a crown will be from young Sand Masons or a worm called Owenia. Common Oyster Foreign Oysters White Piddock * Ostrea edulis Up to 10 cms Barnea candida Tubes of very fine grains will be from Spionid Up to 10 cms. Up to 6 cms Worms or another worm called Magelona. 12 5 Centimetres

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Brown Shrimp Prawn 3 Common Mussel Striped Venus Faroe Sunset Shell * Crangon crangon (various species) Mytilus edulis Chamelea gallina Gari fervensis Up to 5 cms Up to 3 cms Up to 4 cms 4

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7 Pullet Carpet Shell * Common Cockle Prickly Cockle Mysid (various species) Eurydice pulchra Cumacean Venerupis senengalensis Cerastoderma edule Acanthocardia echinata NB 8 mms maximum size (various species) Up to 5.5 cms Up to 4 cms Up to 6 cms (fast swimmer and burrower) 1 cm maximum size 8

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Idotea Up to 2 cms 10 Lives on drifted seaweed Banded Wedge Shell Artemis Shell Peppery Furrow Shell a Sand Hopper a Sand Hopper Sea Slater Donax vittatus Dosinia species Scrobicularia plana Up to 1.5 cms Up to 2.5 cms Ligia oceanica Up to 3 cms Up to 5 cms Up to 4.5 cms Talitrus saltator Orchestia gammarellus Up to 3 cms Under debris near rocks and Hoppers live under debris stranded at the top sea walls of the beach

Rayed Trough Shell * Mactra stultorum Thick Trough Shell * Cut Trough Shell * front end Up to 5 cms Spisula solida Spisula subtruncata (less common white form on right) Up to 4 cms Up to 2.5 cms Haustorius arenarius Bathyporeia pelagica (see also page 6) Up to 1 cm Up to 5 mms Eyelesss fast burrower in Fast burrower in sand clean sand

Corophium These and Haustorius and Up to 1 cm Bathyporeia, the Hoppers and Thin Tellin * Abundant in ‘u’-shaped Corophium are all members of a Baltic Tellin Tellina tenuis burrows in mud and group of Crustacea called Macoma balthica muddy sand Ampipods Up to 2 cms Up to 2 cms White Furrow Shell * (group) Abra alba Amphipods Up to 1.5 cms Extra Notes 6 11 Common Winkles smaller than 1.5 cms might A Guide to Animals living in pools and be Rough Winkles channels on beaches, Common Necklace Shells smaller than 3 cms and buried in the sand and mud might be Alder’s Necklace Shell between Colwyn Bay and Fleetwood

At the edge of salt marshes Note - All the species shown on previous pages may become dumpy Laver Spire Shells stranded in pools and channels. These pages show species Common Whelk (LEFT) has widely might be Dun Sentinels which live there naturally separated transverse ridges and longitu- Assiminaea grayana dinal ridges at top of shell. Red Whelk (RIGHT) has fine transverse ridges and no regular longitudinal ridge- Beach-worn Otters look like Sand Gapers

Queen Scallop has square shoulders and two‘ears’ Otter Front and back equally round Bottom flattened Goby (Sand & Common) Variegated Scallop has Pomatoschistus species Lesser Weever sloping shoulders and one Echiicthys vipera ear Shanny Sand Gaper WARNING STINGS BADLY Lipophrys pholis (NB beware ears can get One end more

knocked off) pointy than other Young Flatfish Bottom rounded The Great Scallop () has two ears and very wide ridges. (Usually on our beaches from a discarded Young Otter Shells sea-food meal) are very thin-shelled and fragile Pipefish

The radiating grooves and serrated shell Most shells come from animals living off- edge of the Wedge shore, or at very low tide. Shell are un- 1 mistakeable Living buried higher up the beach are 1. Baltic and Thin Tellins, Hans De Blauwe 2. Common Cockles , marnespecies.org 3. Peppery Furrow Shells RayedTrough Shells (white form) are similar to Baltic Tellin 4. Laver Spire Shells 2 Sea Gooseberry (LEFT) has a Thick Trough Shells. Pleurobrachia much fatter shell pileus Rayed Trough Shell(TOP) is shiny and quite than the (These beautiful fragile with a sharp edge Thin Tellin animals can be very Thick Trough Shell (BOTTOM) is dull, and (RIGHT) 3 common) strong with a rounded, often chipped, edge

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BEWARE Whitish bivalves Shore Crab smaller than 1 cm are Carcinus maenas usually difficult to identify Larger crabs are green but younger crabs may be pale brown to dark brown and marbled 10 7 A Guide to Animals (other than shells) and Seaweeds, found cast up on beaches between Colwyn Bay and Fleetwood

Note - Colour may vary from that shown - This guide does not cover dead fish, birds, or mammals * indicates there are rarer species that also look a bit like this (These are covered by additional sheets available from www.record-lrc.co.uk )

Bladder Wrack* Note that Hybrids Spiral Wrack* Channelled Wrack Fucus vesiculosus are very common Fucus spiralis Pelvetia canaliculata

Masked Crab * (female) Hermit Crab (in a shell) Edible Crab Corystes cassivelaunus Pagurus bernhardus Long claws of male shown to right

Toothed Wrack Sargassum Weed Knotted Wrack Fucus serratus Ascophyllum nodosum Sea Oak Sargassum muticum Halidrys siliquosa

Smooth Swimming Crab * Shore Crab paddle-shaped back leg Velvet Fidlder Macropipus holsatus of Swimming Crabs (left) Carcinus maenas (colour always pinky-white) pointy back leg of Shore (NB colour very Liocarcinus puber Crab (right) variable) (many patches of very short fine bristles)

Polysiphonia Growing on Sea Mermaid’s Oak (also grows 1 2 3 4 5 Purple Laver Tresses on Knotted Wrack) Kelp Porphyra umbiicalis Chorda filum Laminaria species Things on shells and rocks (1) Barnacles (2) Sea Mat (highly magnified) (3) Worm tubes (4) Hermit Crab Hydroid Hydractinia echinata (inset highly magnified) (5) Bivalve shell bored by predatory Necklace Shell

1 2 3 Cuttle Bone Masses of single celled More things on rocks and shells (1) Piddock borings Sepia officinalis Sea Lettuce Gutweed Irish Moss Diatoms stain the sand (2) Holes made by Boring Sponge Cliona celata (magnified) (pecked by birds) Ulva lactuca Ulva intestinalis Chondrus crispus surface brown (3) Slots made by Boring Worm Polydora (magnified) 8 9

Lugworm (cast and feeding Cone Worm tubes Sand Mason (Tubes) Lanice conchilega Arenicola marina hole) Pectinaria species (RIGHT on beach when worm is alive) Common Whelk Egg Cases * Scoloplos armiger Necklace Shell Buccinum undatum worm egg cocoons egg ribbon (worms live buried in the sand)

Sea Mouse (RIGHT is underside) Tree Sponge Aphrodita aculeata Common Sand Star Haliclona Asterias rubens irregularis Horn Wrack * Dead-man’s Fingers (inset detail of arm) (inset detail of arm) Flustra foliacea Alcyonium digitatum

Sand Brittle Star * Heart Urchin (de-spined test) Purple-tipped Urchin Mud Fingers (Ophiura species Echinocardium cordatum * (test with a few spines) Alcyonidium parasiticum Hydroid Roll (three common and distinctive constituents below) (dried specimen below) (right picture with spines) Psammechinus miliaris

Magnified section below Hans De Blauwe

Sea Goose- Lion’s Mane Jelly Compass Jelly Moon Jelly Barrel Jelly berry (about 2cms) Cyanea capillata Chrysaora Aurelia Rhizostoma Herring-bone Hydroid Sea Fir * Spiral Hydroid Pleurobrachia WARNING STINGS hyoscella aurita pulmo Abietinaria abietina Sertularia argentea Hydrallmania falcata pileus

Reef Worm (detached reef piece) Sabellaria alveolata (inset appearance of Honeycomb Worm of live reef surface) Thornback Ray egg-case Cuckoo Ray egg case * Dogfish egg-case (2 species) * Breadcrumb Sponge Sabellaria alveolata Raja clavata Leucoraja naevus Halichondria Detached pieces and intact reef on right and close-up