Sue's Photographs.
A nice view as you walk down to the bay.
Just some of the rubbish we collected!
The beasts.
Team GG - rodeo stars.
Stand your ground….
A job well done…!
Mark's Photographs.
Stormy Seas
The day's "catch".
Carrie's Photographs.
With rain showers on the way there and on the return journey, plus very strong wind blowing, it was all very different to last Wednesday's record breaking temperature. Don't you just love the British weather? We visit this site just once a year to do a recorded litter pick. This is where we collect all the litter and rubbish we can find on the beach and then record exactly what every item is. The data is then correlated by Mark before being sent on to for inclusion in a national survey. The difficult task of hopping around the rocks was made even more arduous this time because of the strong wind blowing from the sea. Trying to stand on loose rock, holding a bin bag, litter picker and clipboard is never easy but when the bin bag becomes a very effective sail it is doubly difficult! With Team GG spread out along the shore line the "finds" soon started piling up (included the inevitable toilet seat !) and many bags were soon filled (see photographs). Such was the strength of the wind, it was blowing the sea spume right up to the high water mark and beyond - and that was at low tide! Having picked the beach clean and recorded the results, Mark informed us that we had one further task to complete before leaving. This area is grazed by a herd of cows and we had been asked to help move them from one pasture to another. With the Team strung out along the hillside, the NT Ranger drove the cows down to us - all we had to do was stand our ground and funnel them through the open gate. Fortunately, it all went off very well although there were a few "concerned" faces when the herd cantered down towards them! Well……now it is official - Team GG really are a bunch of cowboys (and cowgirls)..!
And….for those involved in the round-up….try this link! Movie Music (don't forget to turn up your sound!)
Carrie's Nature Find.
This week's find is a rock with what look like tiny holes, but in actual fact they are very small sea creatures from a long time ago who have burrowed into the rock, died off and the outline of their bodies can been seen. This particular rock shows all the little fossils very clearly.
A Note From Mark.
Firstly thanks to the National Trust for their assistance and sponsoring today. Also to the IW Council and Brighstone Landscaping. To the CPRE IW and also to the Marine Conservation Society who are the organisation which uses our survey data to lobby government and industry in order to prevent marine pollution. Nationally this was the picture for 2014's many surveys. (Click link to see) Today the pieces of plastic of various sizes also made our highest total of finds on our survey.
A little rant. Plastic rope from fishing nets sadly remain a real problem too. I have taken a photo of the offending green cord, found in hundreds today, which is often cut away from tangled gear on boats to drift away, unfortunately sea birds, mammals etc may well ingest these, fish continue to get entangled in drifting fragments of nets and after many decades (perhaps centuries, nobody knows) they break-down and further micro fragments of plastic enter the food chain. The challenge to the fishing industry is to be more responsible, obviously accidents happen but it is crucial that deliberate discarding net fragments overboard is stopped.
Please look here for details of sustainable Good Fish Guide.
Many thanks,
Mark
Many thanks to Sue, Carrie and Mark for their contributions this week.
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