DWT's Coral Smith helped Coastwise members to understand the dangers of invasive or alien species on our shores. 'Invasive' means with human assistance, which might mean spreading in ships' ballast water, on nets or through the aquarium trade.

Coral works for the Devon Wildlife Trust and is an accomplishes and knowledgeable communicator on marine matters.

The threat has beenrecognised and roughly quantified, and management plans drawn up - four for the country, with the SW area stretching from Hampshire to Cornwall.

.....mainly because Coastwise invited it !

Coastwise invited the Festival to include Heather Buttivant's book "Rock Pool - Extraordinary Encounters Between the Tides", some having been privileged to read it in draft form and been delighted by it. 

The Festival agreed and kindly encouraged us to take the opportunity to publicise our activities which we did, with Heather's help, and the whole event was a great success for us thanks to Liesje Birchenough's excellent organisation.

Who knew seaweed-pressing could be so much fun?  Clearly many Victorian women did, and it was the growing interest in these collectors that prompted member and seaweed expert Sarah Hotchkiss to lead a special and very successful Coastwise Seaweed Pressing workshop on 3 June.
 
Sarah’s love for seaweed, honed during happy years working in South Australia’s State Herbarium, had led her to visit Devon museum collections, which include those of notable Victorian collector, Barnstaple-born, Mrs Amelia Griffiths.
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