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Study of the animals, their remains and other life washed up on strandline
The extent that the tide
will move up the shore will be marked with a strandline of seaweeds and
other debris on the shingle and some of the rocky beaches. If this strandline
is not present, the limit of the rising tide has to be deduced from the
position of the Barnacles and Limpets on the
rock. These animals need to immerse themselves in seawater to feed, but
can go for days without feeding when the tide does not come up far enough.
When the tide goes out the Acorn Barnacle closes its limestone plates,
and the Limpet clamps its shell hard down on to the rock to keep in the
moisture until the next high tide.
Can you identify the remains of this animal that is occasionally washed up on the strandline in Sussex?Answers to:
EMail Glaucus@hotmail.com
Seashells Washed Up at BrightonChildren can collect seashells washed in by the tide and deposited on the strandline. The two halves of mussel shells are the commonest; they are dark blue on the outside with a pearly white interior. However, on southern coasts the creamy-white slipper limpets are also easy to find, their white slipper-like shells contrasting with the darker pebbles. In an hour or so the diligent searcher should be able to find a handful of different marine snails.
Beachcombers (or strandliners) can arrange their shell collection on a computer scanner and transfer the shells directly to an image (see the Strandline Quiz). I would be pleased to receive well arranged collections by EMail as *.JPG images (under 100K in size, scan in at 100 dpi) EMail:Glaucus@hotmail.com. Please include full details of when and where the shells, remains etc. were discovered.
26
March 2008
After
a recent bout of northerlies in North Wales I took the dog for a walk down
on Red Wharf Bay
on Anglesey and found
all sorts of things washed up. Much of the material was deposited across
the entire intertidal to the east of the bay, but more concentrated on
the strandline towards the west.
Brittlestars
(various species) were particularly abundant on the upper shore, with patches
a couple of inches (or more) thick. Common
Starfish,
Asterias
rubens, were also very abundant, as a rough guess at 5-10
per square metre. Species such as the Sand
Starfish Astropecten
irregularis, Heart UrchinEchinocardium
cordatum, Dead Men's FingersAlcyonium
digitatum, Masked Crabs,
Corystes
spp., and various sipunculids (Peanut Worms)
were also washed up in considerable numbers, as were various shark
and ray eggcases, a couple of which I
brought back to ID. Of the more unusual species, I found three Angular
Crabs, Goneplax rhomboides, a small
Conger Eel
(approx. 50 cm long) and a dead Chough,
Pyrrhocorax
pyrrhocorax.
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Over Easter, after some heavy storms with snow blowing in off the North Sea, I discovered hundreds of thousands of Razorfish, Ensis sp. (a bivalve mollusc), hundreds of Common Starfish, Asterias rubens, lots of Sunstars, Crossaster papposus, and Brittlestars washed up on the sands of Holkham Beach.
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Hundreds of the sea cucumber Thyone fusus, many exuding their guts and gonads as a response to the stress, were discovered washed dead on up on the shore Newborough in North Wales (only a few nautical miles from Dinas Dinlle).
4 February 2008
After the recent storm there was a mass stranding on Lancing Beach east at low tide. I braved the chill westerly breeze and found the usual 'Mermaid's Purses' Dogfish Eggcases (including three with embryos seen inside), Ray Eggcases, orange and white sponges, Whelk shells and eggcases Buccinum, and also hundreds of dead sea anemones, including dead and alive Snakelocks Anemones, Anemonia viridis. and larger Dahlia Anemones, Urticina felina.
23
January 2008
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Two 'Mermaid's Purses', containing the eggs or young of the Lesser-spotted Dogfish, Scyliorhinus canicula, were found lying amongst the timber and seaweed debris on the strandline of Shoreham Beach.
22
January 2008
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A dead
Short-snouted
Seahorse,
Hippocampus
hippocampus, was discovered by Craig
Vernoit on Brighton
Beach just to the east of Brighton
Marina amongst tonnes of timber
from the Greek-registered Ice Prince.
BMLSS
Seahorses
21
January 2008
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Timber
from the Greek-registered Ice Prince,
which sank about 26 miles (42 km) off Dorset after a storm on 15
January 2008, began getting washed up on Worthing
Beach in the evening of 18 January 2008
and
and tonnes of pine planks littered the
Sussex
beaches from 20 January 2008. The
usual debris was on the
strandline including
the eggcase of an Undulate Ray, Raja
undulata. It measured 67 mm long and 48
mm wide.
A
Bottle-nosed
Dolphin, Tursiops truncatus,
was
washed up dead west of Brighton Marina.
BMLSS
Eggcases
BMLSS
Whales & Dolphins (by Steve Savage)
Adur
Coastal 2008
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BBC
News Reports:
Stranding
Oiled
Birds
Oil
Slick
4 January
2007
Both
species of Violet Sea Snail, three
Janthina
janthina and one Janthina
pallida with the cuttlebones
of all three species of cuttlefish
were discovered on the beach at Perranporth, Cornwall, (SW
75). The species were the Common
Cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis,the
Elegant
Cuttlefish,
Sepia elegans,and
Obigny's
Cuttlefish,Sepia
orbignyana.
2 January
2007
At
Gwithian beach, Cornwall, (SW
54), 15 Violet
Sea Snails,
Janthina, with three
dead Triggerfish,
Balistes capriscus,
and one Nightlight Jellyfish, Pelagia
noctilica, were discovered on the strandline.
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Three Violet Sea Snails, Janthina, were discovered on Marazion beach in south Cornwall.
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A scour of the strandline between Sennen and Gwenver on the west coast of Cornwall near Land's End discovered about fifty Violet Sea Snails, Janthina, seven dead Triggerfish, Balistes capriscus. and one Gulfweed Crab, Planes minutus, on a polystrene float covered with Goose Barnacles, and two Ray egg cases.
17
December 2006
Twenty
Violet
Sea Snails,
Janthina, were discovered
along the beach at Woolacombe,
North Devon. Most were about 10 mm in size, and some were still alive with
their bubble rafts and "inked" when placed in a bucket. They were
washed in with tiny (max 12 mm) By-the-Wind Sailors, Velella
velella, Buoy Barnacles,
Dosima
fascicularis, and a small 15 cm Triggerfish,
Balistes
capriscus.
16
December 2006
A
badly decomposed Leatherback Turtle,
Dermochelys
coriacea, was washed ashore on Selsey
beach, West Sussex. There was much remaining of this large turtle, but
the distinctive outer shell and at least one flipper is seen in the photograph
by Justin Atkinson.
It is extremely unusual for a turtle up this far east up the English Channel on the northern coast.
13
December 2006
The
gales of the preceding week also brought in the remains of a Leatherback
Turtle,
Dermochelys coriacea, on
to at Widemouth
Bay near Bude in north Cornwall.
12
& 13 December 2006
On
the shore at Upton
Towans (near Hayle), Cornwall, three Gulfweed
Crabs, Planes minutus, (also known as the Floating Crab and
Columbus Crab) were discovered living among
Goose
Barnacle bases on a polystyrene float;
and on the second day at Perranporth
six of these tiny crabs were found on a plastic barrel and one on a plastic
float.
1
- 9 December 2006
The
prevailing winds of autumn and the recent gales have washed more unusual
pelagic animals on to the shore (with the millions
of By-the-wind Sailors, Velella velella,
and multiple thousands of Goose Barnacles,
Lepas
anatifera) notably the small (size
of a 10 pence piece) pelagic Columbus Crabs,
Planes
minutus, with five discovered on the Dorset
coast at Southbourne (near Bournemouth)
and a further 15 at Hengistbury
Head, Dorset. The latter was discovered inside a large shipworm-riddled,
Teredo,
pole in cavities created by the tiny burrowing mollusc.
The Columbus Crabs were
found with the Goose Barnacles
and there are clues that the buoys, wooden pallets, fish boxes etc. have
been floating around the Atlantic Ocean for two years or more and are American
in origin.
29
November 2006
About
a hundred small Goose Barnacles, Lepas
anatifera, were seen washed up attached
to a broken plastic fish box on the strandline of Shoreham Beach (Ferry
Road access) after the recent southerly gales.
This is the first time I have seen them washed at Shoreham in over 25 years, but I expect they have been washed up and unrecorded before on frequent occasions.
26
November 2006
Thousands
of By-the-wind
Sailors, Velella velella, are washed
up on Welsh beaches, notably a narrow but continuous line of Velella
velella washed up on the high tide mark at Borthwen,
Rhoscolyn, Anglesey (southern end of Ynys Cybi - Holy Island), north
Wales (Ian
Wright); literally thousands stranded
on a small bay at the Mumbles, Swansea (Jess
Pitman); a swarm amounting to about two
hundred were washed up on Porthllysgi beach off the coast of St.
Davids in south west Wales (Eleri
Davies); thousands, if not millions, of
By-the-wind Sailors washed up on a beach at Criccieth
(on the southern coast of the Lleyn Peninsula), Gwynedd, north Wales (Eilir
Daniels); and an armada, a thick layer
of jellyfish about a metre thick on the strandline in both directions at
Cefn
Sidan Beach at Pembrey, south west Wales (Bella).
BMLSS
Velella
2 November
2006
After
a period of warm southerly and south-westerly winds, the weather changed.
Strong colder winds came from the north-east and an easterly direction.
By-the-wind
Sailors, Velella velella, entered St. Peter Port harbour on
Guernsey's east coast, driven in by the wind. Commercial fisherman
Clive
Brown called to tell me that about 25 Velella
velella were washed up on the shore near his dinghy in the harbour.
I went down to the Albert marina and I was able to collect four Velella
velella by reaching out from a pontoon. This
picture shows one of them mirrored by the water's surface:
Velella
Report
& Photograph by Richard
Lord (Guernsey)
Sealord
Photography
25
October 2006
I
was approximately 5 to 6 miles west of the Casquettes, off Alderney, Channel
Islands, and I saw about ten Velella velella being blown
past our boat in a few minutes.
13 - 14 August 2006
Buoy
Barnacles on White Park Bay beach (north
Antrim)
Photograph
by Dave Harrison
Large numbers of Buoy Barnacles, Dosima fascicularis, were found stranded on the north coast beaches of Northern Ireland, e.g. Portstewart Strand and White Park Bay (County Antrim). There were at least six of these batches seen on the White Park Bay beach during the walk
Buoy
Barnacles are
attached to floats that they had secreted that have a texture like that
of expanding foam.
3 - 7 August 2006
Buoy
Barnacles from Connemara
Photograph
by Alison
Thousands of the stalked Buoy Barnacles, Dosima fascicularis, are washed ashore on the beaches of Connemara, County Galway, south-west Ireland. They were stranded all along the west coast of Ireland.
29 June 2006
I found this animal washed up on Blackpool beach, Lancashire. It was so interesting I photographed it. It was unfortunately dead or I would not have disturbed it. It was wet as I washed off dried sand which revealed its beautiful colours.
| The Runner Crab (or Square Crab), Goneplax rhomboides, is an offshore crab of muddy areas which is occasionally washed up on dead on the strandline. The crab (with a missing claw) in the photograph by Ade Jupp was found washed up at Hythe, Kent, on 24 December 2005. |  |
c.
8 April 2005
Part
of a fish skeleton was discovered on the strandline
on Shoreham Beach, Sussex, as shown in the
photograph. There were at least half a dozen of these skulls of various
sizes.
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The skeleton has not been positively identified, but the best guess is that it is a skull of the Lesser Spotted Dogfish, Scyliorhinus canicula.
13
January 2005
Hundreds
of Sea Cucumbers
were amongst the wreck of animal remains discovered on the Dinas
Dinlle beach west of Llanwrog (south-west of Caernarfon), north-west
Wales.
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They were scattered all over the strandline and shore with other remains including the common Mermaid's Purses (egg cases of the Dogfish) and the decaying carcass of a dead Seal. Sea Cucumbers are an unusual invertebrate washed up between the tides. They were on the sandy shore adjacent to the Iron Age hill fort.
The sea cucumber looks like Thyone fusus can be found as far north as Norway grows up to 20 cm.
Sea
Cucumbers; General Information - 1
Sea
Cucumbers; General Information - 2
9 October
2004
A
visit to three shores in northern Cornwall brought the first report of
a Violet Snail,
Janthina
janthina, with the recent spate of
By-the-wind
Sailors,
Velella
velella, strandings. Two shells, one
alive and one dead, discovered by Julie Hatcher
(Kimmeridge Bay Marine Nature Reserve) on
Widemouth Bay beach, near Bude. The strandline
was covered in the white skeleton shells of Velella
several centimetres thick.
Not
only the shell but the soft body of the Violet
Snail is also a violet colour. This gastropod
feeds of on Velella and
secretes a mucus bubble-raft to keep in buoyant. Another animal (a crustacean)
that secretes a polystyrene-like raft to keep it afloat is the Buoy
Barnacle,
Dosima
fascicularis, which were present in their
hundreds and were still be swept in on to the beach to strand and die.
These were more numerous than at least two species of
Goose
Barnacles, the commonest was Lepas
anatifera and the other smaller one washed up was the Duck
Barnacle,
Lepas pectinata. These
two barnacles are always attached to floating debris and are not pelagic,
but sessile animals when adult and they become stranded on the shore when
the object they attach themselves to becomes dislodged and floats away.
21-23 September 2004
First
strandings on Velella on the sandy beach at Polzeath, Cornwall
Photograph
by Jonathan Smith
A huge
mass
stranding of By-the-wind
Sailors,
Velella velella, occurred
all along the north Cornish coast from Sennen
Cove (near land's End) up to Polzeath (near Padstow) and beyond. (As
the gull flies this is a distance of 25 miles and with all the coves and
inlets the shoreline is over double this.) Coming in on the top of the
tide, there were hundreds of millions* of them, all large, the largest
I found was 85 mm, and all them were intact.
Tens
of thousands of Goose Barnacles, Lepas anatifera, were washed
up along the strandline.
(*
Numbers not calculated. At Gwithian they formed a band 10 metres wide on
the shore and stretching for over a mile. The photograph understates the
extent of the stranding.)
14-21
March 2004
A
full skeleton of a small 120 cm cetacean was
discovered on the shore at
Low Newton, in Northumberland, north-east England.
Full
Report
27
May 2002
"Millions"
of Velella
velella, the By-the Wind Sailor
were
discovered by Nick Darke on
Porthcothan Beach, Cornwall. They are freshly dead, the float having the
animals or at least fragments of the soft tissue, still present. They are
probably all along the north coast, especially at Perranporth, so I will
be interested to have an idea of the maximum density per sq. metre. The
last really big incursion was in June/July
1981 when Rennie Bere
counted 150 to 200 per sq. metre, as they came in on the tide (i.e. not
heaped up in catchment areas) and he estimated 100,000 for the stretch
of shore at Bude.
Many
By-the
Wind Sailor were also discovered washed
up further east on the shore at Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset.
Largest Stranding on Record
c.
14 March 2002
After
a sustained period of north-easterly gales, there was amassive
stranding of marine animals and weed on the Yorkshire shore (north-east
England) between Fraisethorpe and Barmston (East Yorks: Holderness).
The most noticeable of the animals washed up were hundreds of thousands
of starfish mostly of the Common
Starfish, Asteria rubens, but
other species were present. The list of interesting animals washed up included
decapod
crustaceans
including Lobsters that were still alive,
crabs
etc., a wide variety of fish, sea
anemones,
polychaete worms, molluscs
including octopuses,
porpoises,
seals
and tonnes of seaweed. This is the largest stranding
recording on these web pages.
Two species are involved, mainly the Common Cuttle, Sepia officinalis, and the uncommon Sepia orbignyana (5%) which is smaller and has a pink tinge. The cuttlebones of Sepia orbignyana have longer apical spines (Matt Stribley). A range of sizes of the Common Cuttle have been seen and they are complete, with for example, no teeth marks to indicate that they have been eaten.
There
seems to be a lot of both cuttlefishes and squids
around this year.
The
Cuttlefish probably could have died naturally after spawning, but there
were a large numbers of smaller cuttlebones from reduced sized (juvenile?)
specimens.
You
have to be very careful with the identification of the two cuttlebones.
It is the angle of the spine that is important and you will have to go
to Matt Stribley's site below to see the small detail. In old specimens
of Sepia officinalis the cartilage
on the outside of the cuttlebone can break away and then the shape will
resemble that of Sepia orbignyana.
Cornwall
Wildlife Trust web pages
Cuttlefish
File (BMLSS)
Cuttlefish
Pages (Matt Stribley)
Photograph
by Steve Savage (Sea Watch Foundation)
Click
on the flipper for a close-up
Two
badly decomposed Dolphins were washed up on Shoreham
Beach, Sussex. They were badly decomposed but were probably Common
Dolphins, Delphinus delphis. A Porpoise, just over a
metre long, was washed at nearby Worthing.
Sussex
Dolphins
BMLSS
Cetacea
Sussex
Sea Watch Foundation News 2001
9 February
2002
After
a week of gales, the Mantis Shrimp illustrated
was discovered on the tideline at Calshot Spit, Hampshire. It is probably
Rissoides
desmaresti.
12
February 2002
After
a few days of gales, I discovered my first Goose
Barnacles, Lepas anatifera,on the Gower peninsular, south
Wales, storm shore at Llangenith, after 25 years of searching the strandline.
These are the barnacles in the photograph on the right and they varied
in length rom 25 mm length down to small baby ones of 5 mm - 8 mm.
August
2002
We found four of these big
blue jellyfish, Rhizostoma
octopus, in August washed up on the shoreline of the
River Teign between Newton Abbot and Teignmouth in Devon. My husband has
size 9 feet, so you can tell they were pretty big!
c.
11 June 2003
On
the beach from Sutton-on-Sea up to Mablethorpe, East Lindsey (Easy Yorkshire),
we noticed thousands of dead starfish
ranging from 3-10 cm in size, along with large numbers of dead crabs and
some small shellfish. The starfish were almost certainly the Common
Starfish, Asterias rubens.
23
June 2003
There
was a mass stranding of 500+ Mauve
Stingers (small jellyfish), Pelagia
noctiluca, at Porthcothan, Cornwall.This is the most unusual of
the British species of pelagic jellyfish to wash up, but large swarms occur
in years of abundance.
Despite
being a small jellyfish, it has a reputation as a stinger,
in the Mediterranean.
Amongst
the Sea Rocket, Orache etc, on the strandline, aPeanut
Plant has taken root.
Masked Crabs, Corystes cassivelaunus, are found often found washed up on the sandy areas of the beach.
Barnacle
Page
Beachcombing
Image Folder (Smart Groups)
Caribbean
(Seeds from the)
Cornish
Fish Strandings
Cuttlefish
& Cuttlebones
Fraisethorpe
and Barmston: largest mass stranding on record
Jellyfish
Page
Mermaid's
Purse
Oil
Spills Page
Portuguese
Man o'War, Physalia physalis, and the By-the-wind Sailor, Velella
velella
Spirula
Torbay
(Mass Stranding in)
UK
Conchology Smart Group
Velella
(Mass Stranding 2002 of this jellyfish-like animal)
A
Good Introduction
The Seashore Naturalist's
Handbook
Leslie Jackman
ISBN 0 600 36447 X
This book may be hard to
obtain, although it should be available through the Library system.
Flintman
on Flint (Link)
Hanover
Point, Isle of Wight
Longshore
Drift
Molluscs
page
Orford
Ness: Coastal Ecology of a Shingle Bank (excellent references)
Seashore
Page
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