Annual General Misery.....

....is what AGM stands for doesn't it ?

Not for Coastwise members, who appeared quite happy to listen to Chair Liesje Birchenough give her report for the year. All over in 10 minutes !

More interestingly, members heard three short talks, from Emily Willoughby, who is the Biosphere Reserve's Coordinator for the Nature Recovery Plan, and the Pledge for Nature project. These aim to involve lots of N Devon residents in more awareness of their natural surroundings, and to improve them.

Secondly, Dr Pip Jollands and Nicola Millo presented on overview of the INNSHORE Surveys (Invasive non-native species) that Coastwise members have carried out as a citizen science project over the last year.

Examples of rapidly-spreading INNS are Darwin's Barnacle, Pom Pom Weed, and the Creeping Sea Squirt. Coastwise may undertake more specific work to try and quantify this spread.

Finally, Dr Stan Coates, late of the Geological Survey, talked about his research into signs of the great flood of 1610, which devastated large areas surrounding the Bristol Channel.

He showed the effects of rising sea levels in the last 11K years - the Holocene Period - with Mesolithic remains at Westward Ho! now submerged except a low tides.

Probable sedimentary evidence of the flood is visible in the soil strata at Braunton Burrows.