A local historian gave Coastwise members a comprehensive overview of Bideford’s marine connections, starting with a survey of the estuary with its two ‘pills’, or side valleys. Peter Christie has a long history of civic service to Bideford, in a number of posts, including Mayor and Councillor, and he is also a very knowledgeable historian, with several books to his name.
On Friday Coastwise members attended a microscope workshop, using Ilfracombe Dive Club's excellent clubhouse in Ropery Row.6
It's very convenient for specimen collection on Cheyne Beach, and the covered snooker table makes an excellent surface for up to 12 microscopes.
As usual, picking out what's going on with feeders and fighters in the specimen dishes is so entertaining that identification of finds sometimes takes a back seat, but on the R are a Sea Spider (Achelia echinata possibly), a Keel Worm emerging, and Sea Mat, a bryozoan.
Simon Dart of the Environment Agency made time out of a busy schedule to give Coastwise members a really interesting overview of flood management in North Devon.
Poking around on beaches has been the obsession (her word !) of Gudrun Limbrick, who runs the Beach Stuff blog and website (www.beachstuff.uk).
Despite the Scandinavian name, she was brought up in Birmingham by local parents, who overcame the disadvantage of being as far from the sea as possible in this country by going to a beach as often as possible.
On 9 November Imogen Napper gave us an outstanding talk entitled Fantastic Plastic? about plastic pollution in the sea, particularly microplastics. . As a PhD student in Professor Richard Thompsons’ Plymouth University research team she has played a key part in identifying the contribution of microbeads and microfibers to this growing problem.
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