Surveying the scene.....

........is an important task undertaken regularly by Coastwise members.

The more we know about the presence or absence of marine life on our shores, the more we can understand the natural processes at work that may be influencing the seas.

Most recently Coastwise was at Hele Bay near Ilfracombe, and the data and backing pictures will be used to update the iRecords, a system operated by the Biological Records Centre (BRC) as part of the work of the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH).

The goal of iRecord is to help bring together wildlife sightings from many sources, so that they can be checked by experts and made available to support research and decision-making, and Coastwise has been and aims to continue to be a regular contributor.

Pictures from top R, surveying at the shoreline, a sandy beach sweep (pics courtesy of Rob Jutsum), identifying red seaweeds (always a fraught process), and stumbling on a Gem.