......says retired mental health nurse Mike Puleston !
Mike has been working with the Marine Biological Association on barnacles and their identification, and the reason for his frustration is that there are many different varieties - it is thought over 1000 worldwide - and identifying them requires noting tiny differences.
Barnacles have been around a long time; they have been found in the Burgess Shales of British Columbia, laid down 500M years ago.
Adeline Gladieux and Sarah Jordon of the UNESCO North Devon Biosphere Reserve team talked to Coastwise members about a Bio-Cultural Heritage Tourism project which is in progress.
The objective is to understand the impact of tourism on the local environment, and come up with plans to mitigate any impacts, consistent with the Biosphere's philosophy of encouraging a balance between mankind and the environment.
We look to our seafood to be tasty and nutritious, but Karl Dean of Cefas (Centre for Environmental Fisheries and Aquaculture Science) showed Coastwise members how, without constant monitoring, it can be seriously unhealthy.
He divided his talk into three parts, firstly Cefas itself, secondly problems with shellfish, and, thirdly a puzzling case study of poisoned dogs on East Anglian beaches illustrating Cefas' roles in diagnosis and prevention.
.......to the Autumn 2019 programme of talks, but it was expertly managed to last just 15 minutes.
A number of members then gave short talks on their own topic. Glenis Beardsley gave a harrowing account of her trip to Skomer, although fortunately that was just the boat trip.
She described and illustrated the vivid island flora and fauna (puufins and chough pictured R, courtesy of John and Glenis Beardsley).
Coastwise held its annual photo competition, this year dedicated to the memory of Chris Mandry, whose excellent talks and underwater pictures gave members such pleasure.
The joint winners are pictured (R). The Spiny Starfish is by Janice Whittington, and the other is of a Lundy puffin approaching its burrow.
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