How to find and ID part 1
This might seem straightforward and a bit basic, but over the years we and many of our volunteers have said they’ve learnt how to look at a shore whilst carrying out Shoresearch surveys. This wasn’t something they had realised they needed to learn.
Many species are not large, will hide in sand, under rocks etc and some look like algae, litter or blobs. Never sweep
across an area with your eyes and call that a search!
So here, we will briefly go through where in a patch of shore you need to search, what that might involve, with an introduction to some species that might be hiding and species you might not know are species.
You will then be tested.
Looking for species you know, but are out of sight
Plenty of intertidal animals want to keep hold of moisture when the tide is out and that dictates where you will find them.
Look carefully:
- under rocks (in the space which is revealed and under the rock itself),
- in rockpools (take time to watch first, look at the sides to see movement, angle your head to see areas hidden by glare of sky above),
- under weed (and within the fronds),
- buried in sediment (look for shapes or parts of animals such as crab eyes, molluscs shells)
- and in crevices (as before, look for shapes which will reveal part of a known animal).
These are places which are shaded or are moist for some time, even in direct sunshine and so animals don’t lose water as quickly.
Looking for species you didn’t know were species
There are some species which you might not recognise as being animals/algae at all. For now, you won’t need to be able to identify any of them. This is just to help raise your awareness as you search. Many marine animals you may not have seen because many are low shore species, not liking to be left out of seawater for very long, but many just look like a coating on the rock, a piece of algae or a lump of jelly.
Look carefully:
- on rocks (colonial animals like sponges, squirts and bryozoans can be in plain sight)
- under rocks (as above, but many prefer the moist under rock area)
- in rockpools (take time to watch first, look at the sides to see movement which looks unusual),
- under and within weed (some colonial animals attached to fronds).
As your Shoresearching continues, you will slowly be introduced to more.
Finding camouflaged species
Many animals will themselves be covered, see-through or camouflaged and that can make them difficult to see. Each small patch you search is likely to be full of life, and life you can identify, but perhaps you can’t see it.
Handy hints are:
- to look at an area and then move your head or yourself to get a different angle
- never trust a well encrusted barnacle rock is not hiding some other molluscs – look for mounds/shaping
- give things time to move as you keep still; many creatures encrust themselves in order to camouflage themselves or just physically look like algae, rocks etc.
- get to know species by doing some reading before heading out, as often, knowing what’s there can help when you find it for the first time.
Shore zones
Where you are on a shore is important for several reasons. For safety reasons you will need to be able to recognise if you’re in a low shore zone, especially, as you will then know the tide will be a major factor on the time you can spend there before you will need to move up.
Shore zones are helpful to secure an ID often. Although you use the ID of some species to know where you are in the first place, you can use the ones which are fairly straightforward. NB – wildlife doesn’t stick to text books, so don’t rely on the shore height for ID alone.
For some of the surveys, you will need to be able to keep within a particular shore height or note when you’ve moved from one to another.
High or Upper shore is the highest point on the shore at which marine species can live. This is the part of the shore which only gets covered at high tide each day. The species here must be adapted to being immersed in sea water, but also to being exposed to the air for long periods of time.
The high/upper shore has:
- short-growing algae species (see channel wrack and spiral wrack)
- if toothed topshells are present on the shore, they will be in this area as well as rough periwinkles and limpets
- this is the beginning of the barnacle zone and the end of the lichen zone
- as Climate Change impacts further, many more areas will lose this zone or find it living life out on man-made sea defences
Mid shore is the area of the shore which still demands that species be adapted to exposure to air. The species here, however, are in seawater for much more of the tidal cycle and many pools and lying seaweed don’t have time to dry out before the tide returns, providing a safe haven for many species. This is the area where much more marine life can begin to be found and is often an area used by some species to breed or live their early lives.
The mid shore has:
- several different species of wracks which help to indicate you’re in the mid shore region (see bladder wrack and egg wrack)
- on wave exposed shores, many wracks will find it hard to keep a hold, so the mid shore zone is covered in barnacles and a few limpets
- many different species of molluscs and crustaceans live in this zone, but they also live lower down, so can only be used to tell mid from high shore.
- beware patches of the mid shore in the upper shore and also low shore in the mid shore area, if you have different heights of rocky shore
Low shore experiences exposure to air only briefly each day and for the lower areas of this zone, only on very low “spring” tides. The majority of the species here can adapt to environmental conditions which are much more stable and many more species live here, since much of their time in spent is sea water.
The Low shore has:
- red seaweeds such as irish moss and the pink encrusting algae
- on more sheltered shores you can continue to use a wrack algae to define your shore, this time serrated wrack
- on wave exposed shores many wracks will find it hard to keep a hold, so thong weed might be more common
- a high biodiversity of many other species, but especially filter feeders such as sponges, squirts and bryozoans
- the beginning of the kelp zone at lowest tide point.
For a recap of the shore zones, together with a description of the various types of shores watch this excerpt from Shoresearch training.
Staying safe on the shore
Whether you’re coming out on a group Shoresearch Cymru survey, or carrying out a self-led one, you will need to follow some safety rules to keep you, others and the species you’re surveying safe while you’re out on shore.
p.s. these are handy for any trip to the shore
research the shore you’ll be going to (safety info etc)
familiarise yourself with the risk assessment
check tides (ideally falling tide)
check sunrise + setting times (leave before/arrive after dark)
check weather (not moving much while surveying)
check sea state
check any beach entrance signs (up-to-date information is often on these)
keep an eye on the conditions at all times and be ready to call it a day.
ensure someone knows where you are going and when you’re expecting to return and let them know who to call, if they don’t hear you’re back.
take a fully charged mobile.
check you have the right equipment
familiarise yourself with the Seashore code
be aware to avoid promoting any sensitive species/sites on your Social media etc.
The next section is the quiz. Click to begin the quiz, the questions will appear below. For the fill-in-the-gaps questions, make sure you spell the same way as the word/phrase in the list, but don’t worry about using capitals or not. If you get any one question wrong within each quiz page, the you will be marked as wrong for the whole page. Answers will appear one you’ve finished each question.
You will be tested on what you’ve learnt so far using the reading and video info. Don’t worry too much, as once you’ve been out on the shore, the ID features you’ve learnt about will make more sense and after a couple of visits you should feel more confident about your ID.
Good luck!