A talk by Nigel Neil (Lancaster and District Heritage Group and Neil Archaeological Services) on Wednesday 14th May at 19:30 at the Lancaster Maritime Museum.

Above: The remains of the Imperatriz, wrecked in 1866, photo by Nigel Neil.

Imperatriz was on its way from Mazagan (now called El Jadida) in Morocco, to Lancaster, carrying Indian corn when it was wrecked on Saturday June 2nd 1866. The accident occurred whilst Imperatriz was being towed up the River Lune by a steam tug, and ran aground on the riverbed a few hundred yards from New Quay. Press coverage tells part of the story, and salvageable items, and the hull itself, were auctioned at New Quay on 25th June 1866, raising £166.

The outline of the ship remains visible at low tide, when silt does not cover it. Members of the Lancaster and District Heritage Group (LDHG) have undertaken desk-top survey and some field recording, but more remains to be done. Mr Neil’s talk will also touch upon some other highlights of maritime archaeology around Lancaster.

Poster and further information: The ‘Imperatriz’ – a Portuguese shipwreck on the River Lune… (PDF 329 kB)

Talk at the Lancaster Maritime Museum, Custom House, St George’s Quay, Lancaster, LA1 1RB.

£4 donation to Lancashire MCS requested – Everybody Welcome!

The City Nature challenge took place between 25th to the 28th of April this year, this was a Global challenge to record as many species in as many places as possible. As the dates coincided with a plankton sample, I decided to try and submit some species from this to the Lancashire record.

On land, Spring is really getting into its stride by late April, in the Wyre Estuary, however, Spring has been and gone! The date fell into a relatively quiet period between the big Spring bloom of Odontella regia (which this year coincided with a bloom in Asterionella glacialis due to the exceptionally sunny weather in March), and the arrival of the Summer species.

Above: Phase contrast micrograph of Cerataulina pelagica, 25th April 2025, by BK.

Though the Spring species were still present in very low numbers, most of the phytoplankton were Ceratauline pelagica, shown in the image above, which has such a thin silicate frustule that it normally breaks when sampled by netting, which can lead to gross underestimation of its numbers.

Numbers of dinoflagellates were higher than is common in the estuary; most common was Tripos fusus (the accepted names for the Ceratiaceae as a family have all changed, previously I would have recorded this as Ceratium fusus), but I also managed a photo of a very nice specimen of Tripos macroceros, which is rather less common in the estuary all together, and is shown in the micrograph below:

Above: Phase contrast micrograph of Tripos macroceros, with a central stem and two long, sweeping horns, there are a number of cells of Cerataulina pelagica to the left of the dinoflagellate.

Along with a few stragglers from the Spring bloom, I also saw a few species that will likely play a more important role in the plankton community later in the year. The most common were Guinardia delicatula and G. flaccida, but I also had my first sighting of Stephanopyxis turris (one of my favourites to try an photograph – unfortunately I did not get a good micrograph of the single individual I spotted on this occasion), and a couple of cells of Eucampia zodiacus.

In all, members of the public submitted 4295 observations to the Lancashire records, which included 1028 species! The City Nature Challenge is recorded in iNaturalist at: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2025-lancashire-uk.

If you would like to know more about plankton – with an emphasis on our studies in the Wyre Esuary – we have a one day course planned on Thursday 12th June 2025, which will cover the basics of microscopy and photomicroscopy, as well as an introduction to identifying local phyto- and zoo- plankton. Contact me by 1st June if you would like more information!

Barry Kaye, 9th May 2025

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!

Kathy McAdam
Beachwatch organiser. Lancashire MCS.

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

Kathy MacAdam

Wednesday 12^th March 2025 at 19:30

By Barry Kaye (Lancashire MCS)

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

£4 donation requested to Lancashire MCS

Everybody Welcome!

Wednesday 12^th February 2025 at 19:30

By Mandy Knott (Natural England)

Above: Photograph of a saltmarsh in Morecambe bay, looking towards Grange from Southwest, by Mandy Knott.

Mandy is a senior officer for the Nature Recovery Network team in Cheshire and Lancashire. Her talk will look at the following topics:

• Extent of Northwest saltmarshes
• What is a saltmarsh?
• Saltmarsh zonation
• The ecological and societal benefits of saltmarshes
• Threats & pressures including historic losses – challenges in managing saltmarshes (inc SSSI)
• Saltmarsh restoration
• Resources and further reading

At Lancaster Maritime Museum, Custom House, St George’s Quay, Lancaster, LA1 1RB

£4 donation requested to Lancashire MCS

Everybody Welcome!

Wednesday 8th January 2025 at 19:30

By Matthew Barnott (Flotation Energy)

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.

Wednesday 11th December 2024 at 19:30

by Lewis Bambury (Lancashire MCS)

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!

MCS Xmas Quiz 2024 285kB PDF Poster

At Lancaster Maritime Museum, Custom House, St George’s Quay, Lancaster, LA1 1RB
£4 donation requested to Lancashire MCS
Everybody Welcome!

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?

The Red Sea 303kB PDF Poster

At Lancaster Maritime Museum, Custom House, St George’s Quay, Lancaster, LA1 1RB
£4 donation requested to Lancashire MCS

Everybody Welcome!