Beach clean, rockpools and mermaids' purses

Emma Chaplin
, 21 October 2022
Beach clean, rockpools and mermaids' purses
Identifying shark eggshell cases © Caroline Pearce

More used to working in an office and at a screen, members of the Fundraising and Communications Team were delighted to spend an afternoon at Ovingdean beach with Wild Coast Sussex Project Manager Nikki Hills, doing a beach clean, learning about what lies beneath the rockpools and doing a mini mermaid purse survey, (shark eggshell cases), to report back to the Shark Trust 

But first of all, we took a well-being paddle in the sea, feeling the sand beneath our toes, listening to the waves and resting our eyes by gazing out to the horizon. It's a splendid thing to do, even if putting socks back onto damp, pebble-dashed feet without overbalancing was a bit of a challenge for some of us. 

Paddling in the brine © Emma Chaplin
Paddling in the brine © Emma Chaplin

Then a few people looked in rockpools to spot marine treasures, whilst others collected rubbish from the beach. Bits of plastic, tin cans, ghost fishing gear and various strange other items.

When the groups met up, Nikki went through a few finds:

Irish Moss and sea mat © Emma Chaplin
Irish Moss and sea mat © Emma Chaplin
  • Two pieces of Irish Moss that are different colours (above). The one that is grey coloured has little creatures on it – it’s called a sea mat. Sea mats are a colony of individual animals called zooids.
  • We felt the texture of the discarded shell of the Velvet Swimming Crab, which indeed does feel velvety. It is also known as the Devil Crab.
Velvet Swimming (or Devil) Crab © Ryan Greaves
Velvet Swimming (or Devil) Crab © Ryan Greaves
  • Nikki told us that Limpets ‘lick’ and scrape seaweed off rock then leave a mucus trail so they can find their way back again. 
  • Barnacles are actually crustaceans and like crabs, they have legs. They also have the biggest penis (proportionally to overall size) than any other creature
  • Dog Whelks are snails that drill into mussels and Barnacles, inject enzyme, then drink it, which is an excellent fact for Halloween

Then we went in search of mermaid’s purses or shark eggshell cases, so we could report our findings to the Shark Trust.

One we spotted, the egg case from the Small-spotted Catshark is also called Huss, Nikki told us. The Huss, or Rock Salmon you get at fish and chip shops is not a fish at all, is it a shark, so is not sustainable and should be avoided. More here

It was a great afternoon at the beach. We felt better for it, we knew more and we left the shore a cleaner place. 

Leave a comment
Time Δ Debug Message - Perch Runway 3.2
1782962434.05530 [906] SELECT p.pagePath, pr.routePattern, pr.routeRegExp, p.pageTemplate, pr.routeOrder, s.settingValue AS siteOffline FROM swt_pages_staging p LEFT JOIN swt_page_routes pr ON p.pageID=pr.pageID LEFT JOIN swt_settings s ON s.settingID='siteOffline' UNION SELECT NULL AS pagePath, pr2.routePattern, pr2.routeRegExp, pr2.templatePath AS pageTemplate, pr2.routeOrder, NULL AS siteOffline FROM swt_page_routes pr2 WHERE templateID!=0 ORDER BY routeOrder ASC, pagePath ASC
1782962434.08120.0259Matched route: news/[slug:s]
1782962434.08140.0002Server address: 216.73.217.103
1782962434.08140Using master page: /templates/pages/blog/post.php
1782962434.08140Page arguments: 
Array
(
    [0] => /news/beach-clean-rockpools-and-mermaids-purses
    [s] => beach-clean-rockpools-and-mermaids-purses
    [1] => beach-clean-rockpools-and-mermaids-purses
)
1782962434.08180.0004 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782962434.08270.0009 [86] SELECT DISTINCT settingID, settingValue FROM swt_settings WHERE userID=0
1782962434.08450.0018 [1] SELECT locationID FROM swt_shop_tax_locations WHERE locationIsHome=1 LIMIT 1
1782962434.08520.0006INSERT INTO swt_shop_cart(memberID,locationID,currencyID,cartPricing,cartProperties) VALUES(NULL,'1',47,'standard','[]')
1782962434.08710.002 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22505047
1782962434.08770.0005 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22505047
1782962434.08830.0006 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_sales WHERE saleFrom<='2026-07-02 03:20:00' AND saleTo>'2026-07-02 03:20:00' AND saleActive=1 AND saleDeleted IS NULL ORDER BY saleOrder ASC
1782962434.08950.0012 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='beach-clean-rockpools-and-mermaids-purses')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-02 03:20:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 10
1782962434.09160.0021 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1782962434.09250.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postID=2909 AND postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-02 03:20:00'
1782962434.09340.0009 [13] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_sections ORDER BY sectionTitle ASC
1782962434.09410.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blogs ORDER BY blogTitle ASC
1782962434.09470.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=195 LIMIT 1
1782962434.09520.0004 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=44 LIMIT 1
1782962434.09580.0006Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782962434.0960.0002 [162] SELECT catID, catPath FROM swt_categories
1782962434.10290.0069 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-02 03:20:00' AND postSlug='beach-clean-rockpools-and-mermaids-purses'
1782962434.12360.0207Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782962434.12420.0006 [250] SELECT country, countryID FROM swt_shop_countries WHERE countryActive=1 ORDER BY country ASC
1782962434.12590.0017Using template: /templates/pages/attributes/seo.html
1782962434.12620.0003 [1] SELECT regionID, regionTemplate, regionPage, regionRev AS rev FROM swt_content_regions WHERE regionKey='Banner image' AND (regionPage='/news/post' OR regionPage='*')
1782962434.12710.0009 [nil] SELECT * FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, c.regionID, idx.pageID, c.itemJSON, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_content_index idx JOIN swt_content_items c ON idx.itemID=c.itemID AND idx.itemRev=c.itemRev AND idx.regionID=c.regionID JOIN swt_content_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev AND idx2.indexKey='_order' WHERE ((idx.regionID=104 AND idx.itemRev=0)) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev ) as tbl GROUP BY itemID, pageID, itemJSON, sortval, regionID ORDER BY sortval ASC
1782962434.12860.0015 [82] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageDepth >=0 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782962434.13180.0033 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782962434.13240.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782962434.13450.0021Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template.html
1782962434.13460 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782962434.13530.0007 [4] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782962434.13580.0005 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782962434.13790.0022 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782962434.13880.0008 [7] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782962434.13940.0006 [9] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782962434.14220.0028 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' OR pageSortPath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782962434.14310.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageHidden=0 AND pageNew=0 AND pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition
1782962434.14530.0021 [1] Using template: /templates/navigation/breadcrumbs.html
1782962434.14580.0006Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782962434.14610.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='20' LIMIT 1
1782962434.1470.0008Using template: /templates/blog/author.html
1782962434.14730.0004 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='beach-clean-rockpools-and-mermaids-purses')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-02 03:20:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 1
1782962434.15010.0027 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1782962434.15060.0006 [1] Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782962434.1540.0033Using template: /templates/blog/comment_form.html
1782962434.15510.0011 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_comments WHERE 1=1 AND postID=2909 AND commentStatus='LIVE' ORDER BY FIELD(webmentionType, 'like', 'repost', 'comment', NULL) ASC, commentDateTime ASC
1782962434.20360.0485 [0] Using template: /templates/blog/comment.html
1782962434.20380.0002Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782962434.20410.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='20' LIMIT 1
1782962434.20490.0008 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/what-we-do' OR pageSortPath='/what-we-do' LIMIT 1
1782962434.20560.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-002' LIMIT 1
1782962434.20640.0008 [7] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-002%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782962434.20860.0023 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782962434.20910.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782962434.21110.0019 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782962434.21220.0012 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1782962434.21270.0005 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1782962434.21320.0005 [38] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782962434.21560.0024 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782962434.21610.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782962434.21820.002 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782962434.2210.0028 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/visit' OR pageSortPath='/visit' LIMIT 1
1782962434.22160.0006 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-004' LIMIT 1
1782962434.2220.0004 [30] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-004%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782962434.22450.0025 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782962434.2250.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782962434.22690.0019 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782962434.22930.0024 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1782962434.230.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1782962434.23060.0006 [11] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782962434.23260.002 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782962434.23310.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782962434.2350.002 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782962434.23630.0013Request time: 0.1848
1782962434.23630Process time: 0.1846
1782962434.23630Memory: 1.6277