The first MCS Celebration event for Beachwatch Organisers happened on Zoom on Monday 28th April, hosted by Claire Trotman,Beachwatch Officer. This was essentially a “thank you” from National MCS to all the people around the country who organise beach cleans/ cleans around estuaries etc. It was good to put faces to names and to see the enthusiasm which the staff at National MCS have for their work. Beachwatch is 30 years old and is a great example of Citizen Science.
The speakers emphasised the value of the data collected through our beach cleans and surveys which is used to inform campaigning for changes in legislation. Here is how it works:
The data is analysed by Greg Wannell, MCS data analyst.
Reports are created which are used for briefings to politicians from our parliaments (not Tynwald).
Government launches a consultation and uses the data to demonstrate the need for change and new legislation.
Examples of changes which have been influenced by MCS data include:
Removal of plastic from wet wipes (effective from June this year I believe)
Charge for plastic bags which has resulted in a huge reduction in use.
Deposit return scheme for bottles .
Ban on disposable vapes -from 1st June this year.
Feedback to government is also very important when these changes make a positive difference. This can include inviting MP’s and local councillors to take part in a beach cleans.
Some information from last year as follows:
1,200 surveys sent in between January and December last year.
17,000 kg litter removed by our cleans.
Evidence that plastic litter has unfortunately increased.
The Celebration Event included a very enjoyable quiz and some of the answers were interesting, for examples:
It is estimated that individual adults each generate approximately 99kg plastic waste each year in the UK. (This underlines the importance of recycling)
It is estimated that there are more micro-plastics in the ocean than stars in our galaxy.
70% our our oxygen is produced by marine plants.
In the United States most items of litter collected by beach cleans are in the form of food wrappers.
The Great British Beach Clean will take place this year between 19th and 28th September. The date for ours will be on the website and in our newsletters. Please join us!
Wednesday 9th April 19:30: by Mark Woombs and Barry Kaye PLUS group AGM by Kathy MacAdam.
Last year I showed a probable relationship between plankton blooms in the Wyre Estuary and the number of hours of sunlight, and I speculated that better weather in Spring this year might see a repeat of the Odontella bloom that characterised the early parts of 2022 and 2023, but was completely absent in 2024. We have certainly had good weather this Spring, so we will see how this has impacted our local phytoplankton in this talk!
Part of my research has been looking at local Met Office records, to quantify what weather we should expect at different times of the year, and how much this varies. This turned up some interesting results – if you thought that the best of the weather was now in the Spring, and our Summers are not as good as they were in your childhood, then, (depending on how old you are!) there might be some truth in this:
Above: Average hours of sunlight per month between 1908 and 2025, compared with 2000-2025 from data published by the Met Office for Bradford. The data show that there is more sun in Spring, but less in our traditional Summer. The graphs overlay a micrograph of a cell of the phytoplankton Odontella regia, which may be impacted by the changes.
Above: Photomicrograph of Porcellidium sp. by Mark Woombs
The meeting will start with a brief AGM hosted by Kathy. This will be followed by two short talks rounding up plankton studies in the Wyre Estuary over the last 12 months. Mark will look at how to get their ‘best side’ when photographing zooplankton, while I will attempt to shed more light on the question of whether phytoplankton respond to the weather (and how to measure these changes).
At Lancaster Maritime Museum, Custom House, St George’s Quay, Lancaster, LA1 1RB £4 donation requested to Lancashire MCS Everybody Welcome!
Beach Clean at Half Moon Bay, Heysham on 8th March 2025, report by Kathy MacAdam.
Many thanks to everyone who joined us on a lovely March morning on the beach at Half Moon Bay. There were no obvious signs of the oil spillage from a couple of weeks ago and the beach was exceptionally clean. I think we have local litter-picking groups to thank for that.
Above: The materials collected are dominated by plastics, followed by sanitary waste.
As usual, we split into two groups to clean and survey approximately 100 metres on each side of the steps. The group which cleaned/surveyed the left side (HMB) collected 0.55kg. 39.58% of this was plastic pieces and averaged 48 items of all litter types per 100 metres.
The group for the right side (HMB2) collected 1.12kg of which, 80.91% was plastics. The average of all litter types was 309 items per 100 metres.
Above: It was not possible to work out where many of the bits of rubbish we found came from, but the largest identifiable segment came from members of the public dropping sweet wrappers and similar casual littering.
As the small plastic pieces are so dangerous for marine life, birds etc the two groups did a good job that morning.
I hope you can join us again for the next clean and survey which will be on July 9th at 7.00 pm
Above: An Egyptian warship at the Battle of the Delta, 1175 BCE. Sketch based on the carved relief from the mortuary temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu, Egypt (BK 2025).
This talk will follow the development of warships from the earliest times – the first recorded naval battle in the late Bronze Age, through the developments in the classical period – the ‘trireme’ and all that! Finally we’ll look at how sailing warships gave way to the first ironclads after the Industrial Revolution.
At Lancaster Maritime Museum, Custom House, St George’s Quay, Lancaster, LA1 1RB
Photograph of Matt and a floating offshore wind power installation, 2024.
Offshore Wind is one of the fastest growing industries worldwide. Many nations have set ambitious targets for rapid build out of large-scale offshore wind projects in an effort to accelerate the decarbonisation of their electricity supply.
This talk will discuss the challenges and opportunities that these projects represent on a global scale, their impact in the context of the local marine environment and an overview of the technology involved in achieving our targets sustainably.
This meeting wil be conducted online only – further details in our Newsletter.
Above: 2024 MCS Christmas quiz, background photo SS Carnatic by Lewis Bambury.
Pit your wits against our quizmaster over a range of general knowledge topics – a chance to unwind from Christmas Shopping and other seasonal stresses!
A talk by Mark Woombs (Lancashire MCS) on Wednesday 9th October 2024 at 19:30
The Red Sea is unique. Its diverse reefs are in stark contrast to the severe desert landscape. Many of the species found there are endemic, that is they occur nowhere else on our planet. The Red Sea has so far proven resistant to coral bleaching due to the corals higher temperature tolerance. Is this still the case or are things about to change?
Our third annual visit to Conger Rock was on Saturday 21st September, the early morning start being made very much more bearable by the rare appearance of some sunshine! Our walks are nice social occasions, but also allow us to check on the state of the honeycomb worm reefs which can grow to be substantial structures close to extreme low water.
The photo above by Lewis shows one of the honeycomb worm reefs with Conger Rock, and other members of the group, in the background. The reefs close to Conger Rock were rather smaller than on previous years, few being more than 10cm tall. More substantial reefs, up to 40cm tall were present closer to the the extreme low water mark.
The reefs are relatively short-lived structures – probably reaching a maximum size, with a height over half a meter, and extending for many tens of meters, after four or five years growth. After this time the rate of erosion from winter storms starts to dominate over the slow growth of the reef, perhaps as the founding worm population gets older, or simply that the larger reef size becomes unstable in the face of winter storms.
We held our annual GBBC at Half Moon Bay, Heysham as usual on the 22nd September. We had a great turn out of volunteers and many thanks to everyone who came.
Over the last few years, we have found the beach quite clean and volumes of litter have been low. This time, the beach was exceptionally clean and we cleaned away in total 0.9 kg. (0.4kg & 0.5kg from the two surveyed areas. The weight was greatly enhanced by bagged dog-poo!
As always, the greatest proportion of litter was in the form of plastic bits. Although these may seem innocuous, these little bits can be a real danger to marine life and birds. So good work from our volunteers in getting these things off the beach.
Weather-wise we were treated kindly and it was an enjoyable morning. We hope to see people again on the next beach clean on 7th December.
Kathy MacAdam
Posted: September 26th, 2024
Posted in Beach Clean
