Good weather encouraged a lot of people out onto the Morecambe prom to enjoy this year’s festival, with kites and music to stun or serenade! We spoke to about 150 people over the two days at our booth by the Platform, with quizes and ID practice for young and old at our dedicated mini-beach.

Exhibits included egg cases (‘mermaid’s purses’) from common members of the shark family to be found in Morecambe Bay. The star being the egg case of a ‘common skate’ – sadly now approaching extinction (there are fewer skate left than giant pandas). A reminder that while the Bay is no longer an open sewer, only though continuing efforts to conserve, protect and preserve our marine heritage will our children see evidence of these sea giants that our grandparents considered commonplace…

A big thank-you to everyone who dropped by, and all those who helped out with activities and on the stall!
Morecambe Bay Kite Festival, 16-17 July 2016

Thanks to everybody who made the recent World Oceans day at Freeport Fleetwood such a success. Trawls in Fleetwood harbour resulted in us finding and identifying nearly 50 species, many of which were available for visitors to Freeport to see, and touch – before being returned safe and unharmed on the Saturday evening! Stars of the event included a European eel, a lobster, a greater pipefish and several species of flatfish.

Catching up on a few past events, we were at the Wyre Estuary 24hr Nature Watch (Bio-Blitz) on the 6th June, with Kathy and Jane (pictured above) manning our stand. This was a fascinating event, with lots of things going on, both on land and from the sea. The marine exhibit including tanks of sea life from the estuary for people get up close to, plus plankton samples from the estuary.

The MCS had a stall at the Catch The Wind Kite Festival in Morecambe for the first time this year. The event had good weather, and there were a lot of people passing through, listening to music, or admiring the kites. We had quite a few people drop in on the stall, and I was pleased to see that many of the kites were marine themed, including an octopus and a pair of blue whales!

We are very grateful to the event organisers MoreMusic for providing us with space at this event, and to Kathy for enthusiastically manning our stand!

Above: Red (green and blue) herrings flying above the promenade at Morecambe during the kite festival, June 2015.

Wherever you are in the UK, you are only a few miles away from a true wilderness, were very little of the plant or animal life is tamed or cultivated.

If you would like to know a little more about the wilderness on your doorstep, you are cordially invited to our Marine Life ID course, where members of the local group will provide short introductions to many of the important marine groups – many of which have no terrestrial equivalent…

Marine Life ID course
By Lancashire MCS Local Area Group, with support of the Society of Biology
Saturday 18th July for 10:00 AM at Leighton Moss RSPB Reserve
Price £10
Booking essential Email: Secretary(AT)lancashiremcs.org.uk

For more details, please download our brochure.

Photo-montage: All but one of the photographs in the montage above were taken in the UK, and four were taken in Morecambe Bay. Photos by Gordon Fletcher, Barry and Jo Kaye. CLICK IMAGE FOR A LARGER VIEW!