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Marine Life & Conservation

Summer of Surprises!

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summer

The summer season is now coming to an end here at Wembury Marine Centre, but what a year it’s been! This season we have opened our doors to almost 25,000 visitors, worked with 2500 school and college students and engaged with 2000 members of the public through our marine outreach programme.

Our regular Rockpool Safaris are a firm favourite for families and this season we have found some amazingly weird and wonderful species. Here is my top five for 2016:

St Piran’s hermit crab, Clibanarius erythropus

Back in August, one of our long term volunteers John Hepburn found what he thought to be a ‘normal’ Common hermit crab on one of our public rockpool safaris. Upon closer inspection he realised it looked a bit different, but being colour blind he couldn’t really tell. He took a few close up pictures and when we had a look on the computer back in the Centre, we realised this was no normal hermit crab! It turned out to be the St Piran’s Hermit Crab, Clibanarius erythropus, which hadn’t been recorded in Devon for more than 30 years! St Piran’s hermit crabs are different to the Common hermit crab, Pagurus bernhardus, in that they have distinctly red legs and claws and red eye stalks with black and white eyes. It is thought that the hermit crabs (along with the dog whelk shells they often live in) were heavily affected by the Torrey Canyon oil spill back in the late 60s, which wiped out much of their population. Our find made the national news and we have since found quite a few more individuals. Let’s hope they have made a comeback and are here to stay!

Giant goby, Gobius cobitis

In the UK, the giant goby is usually only found along the coast of south-west England between Wembury and the Isles of Scilly, and in the Channel Islands. This large goby, reaching a maximum length of 27cm, is quite a rare find in Britain because here they are on the northern edge of their natural range, although climate change may see them move further north in the future. These large intertidal fish are usually found in sheltered rockpools higher up on the shore. Given their rarity and the fact that they are vulnerable to human disturbance and trampling, giant gobies are now a protected species and you must have a licence to handle them! They can be easily confused with other goby species, so as soon as we’d taken a picture of this one in our tub and realised it might be a Giant goby, we put it straight back where we found it, as we do with all our creatures on our rockpool safaris!

summer

Giant goby. Credit: Devon Wildlife Trust

Common lobster, Homarus gammarus

Again it was volunteer John who found the first Common lobster ever to be spotted on a Wembury rockpool safari! Trying out his new weighted camera, he left it in our favourite large rockpool for the duration of our safari and when he got home and looked over the footage, he found the young lobster excavating a burrow! Common lobsters are very rare to find in rockpools, usually preferring the relative safety of deeper waters. They can grow to a maximum size of 75cm but the one we found was probably about 25cm max. Common lobsters have been over exploited commercially in British waters and their numbers greatly reduced. Our Mr lobster (we don’t actually know if he’s male or female!) has been seen poking his claws out numerous times throughout the season and was still there today on our penultimate rockpool safari of the year, so let’s hope he’s found himself a safe haven! PS: interesting fact about lobsters – they don’t ever slow down, weaken or lose fertility with age as they have a special enzyme which repairs DNA sequences. So theoretically, they could live forever if it wasn’t for fishing, disease or being preyed upon!

summer

Common Lobster. Credit: John Hepburn

Stalked jellyfish, Lucernariopsis campanulata

These tiny upside-down jellyfish are extremely hard to spot and so often completely missed when rockpooling. Stalked jellyfish usually attach themselves to the ends of fronds of seaweed or seagrass and float around in the water catching bits of plankton. The one we found had attached itself to a beautiful piece of sea lettuce. This species in particular can grow up to 5cm tall but is usually found much smaller and its colour varies from a uniform red to green to brown.  It has eight arms with about 45 tentacles on each arm and is an absolute delight to find when you’re least expecting it!

Bloody henry starfish, Henricia oculata

It wouldn’t be right to talk about rockpooling at Wembury without including at least one species of starfish! The small Cushion stars are very common here; almost every rock you turn over on the mid shore will have one stuck to its underneath, but they never fail to evoke the wow factor, from little ones right up to grandparents. The much larger Spiny starfish are fairly common here too and one of my absolute favourite finds on a rockpool safari. But one species we weren’t expecting to find was the Bloody henry starfish! Arguably one of the most striking and beautiful of all of the UK’s starfish, it gets its name from its deep red, pink or purple colouring. Usually preferring deeper water, this species would be much more likely to be spotted by a diver rather than a young rock pooler, but our ‘extreme rockpool safari’ on a brilliant low spring tide back in April saw us rambling further out on to the rocky reef than we’d usually go, and our efforts were repaid with a young girl and her family discovering this treasure!

All in all it was a wonderful summer of surprises for us here at Wembury Marine Centre.  If you’d like to see more of the weird and wonderful marine life we’ve found this year then head to our Facebook page: www.faceboom.com/wemburymarine.

Coral Smith lives in South Devon in the UK and works as Marine Education Officer for Devon Wildlife Trust. Based at Wembury Marine Centre near Plymouth, Coral’s work involves promoting marine conservation through schools education, public outreach and community involvement.

Marine Life & Conservation

Make Every Dive Count

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The Shark Trust Great Shark Snapshot is back for its 4th year! And this time the Shark Trust are asking you to Make Every Dive Count!

The last week of July will see the return of the Shark Trust’s citizen science initiative: The Great Shark Snapshot. It encourages divers and snorkellers, all around the world, to record the sharks and rays that they see. This year it takes place between the 19th and 27th July. Get ready to dive in!

The event is back for its 4th year, and it is happening in “Shark Month”, more commonly known as July! To coincide with a series of events that celebrate all things shark and ray, including Shark Week and the 50th anniversary of Jaws.

Divers, clubs, centres, charter boats and liveaboards are all encouraged to show their support by organising dives and events throughout the week. As well as gathering vital data, the event will provide a chance to celebrate the incredible shark and ray species that live in our ocean.

Information about the species and numbers of sharks and rays the participants find over the week will be added to the Shark Trust’s Shark Log. This global shark census will, over time, allow shark scientists to build a picture of species distribution and any changes that occur

Caroline Robertson-Brown, Marketing Manager at the Shark Trust said “It is great to see this popular citizen science event back for its 4th year. We are asking divers to Make Every Dive Count this year. To identify. Count and Record every shark, ray and eggcase they see during the week-long event. To organise dives especially to take part. Whether you are diving your local dive site, or on a trip of a lifetime, we want divers to join in on the Great Shark Snapshot in July.”

It is easy to join in. Just go diving between 19th and 27th July and record every shark, ray, skate or eggcase that you and your dive group sees. If possible, take photos and some video footage too. Then make sure that you record your sightings on the Shark Trust Shark Log recordings website or by using the Shark Trust app.

This year we have created a digital guide that puts all the information you need in one handy online guide. Which can be downloaded from the website.

The Great Shark Snapshot is a way for divers to get together, go diving, and do something to help shark conservation. Why not dive in?

Find out more here: www.sharktrust.org/snapshot

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The Ocean Cleanup Launches 30 Cities Program to Cut Ocean Plastic Pollution from Rivers by One Third by 2030

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The Ocean Cleanup

The Ocean Cleanup, the international non-profit with the mission to rid the world’s oceans of plastic, has announced, at the UN Ocean Conference (UNOC), its plan to rapidly expand its work to intercept and remove ocean-bound plastic pollution.

The 30 Cities Program will scale the organization’s proven Interceptor™ solutions across 30 key cities in Asia and the Americas, aiming to eliminate up to one third of all plastic flowing from the world’s rivers into the ocean before the end of the decade.

This evolution follows five years of learning through pioneering deployments across 20 of the world’s most polluting rivers and represents a key next step in the organization’s mission and the global fight against ocean plastic pollution.

The Ocean Cleanup

With the 30 Cities Program, The Ocean Cleanup will transition from single river deployments to citywide solutions, tackling the main plastic emitting waterways within each selected city. This follows a key learning from deployments in Kingston, Jamaica, which showed it is possible to scale faster when projects encompass whole cities, as the same set of partners can be involved with all deployments.

To date, The Ocean Cleanup has already prevented 29 million kilograms of trash from reaching the ocean. The organization currently intercepts an estimated 1–3 percent of global river-borne plastic emissions. With the first 20 river deployments close to being fully operational, it is now poised to reduce the plastic pollution flowing into the ocean from rivers by up to a third.

“When we take on an entire city, instead of individual rivers, we can scale faster, reduce costs, and maximize impact,” said Boyan Slat, Founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup. “Our analysis shows that strategically deploying Interceptors across just 30 carefully chosen cities can stop up to a third of river plastic pollution worldwide. This is the next big leap toward our ultimate goal of a 90  percent reduction in global ocean plastic pollution.”

City-by-city: a Faster Path to Scaling

Using the latest scientific modeling and on the ground experience, The Ocean Cleanup identified 30 major plastic polluting coastal cities which include:

Panama City, Panama – First deployment to go live in the coming months.
Mumbai, India – Mapping of all waterways completed; preparations for first deployments underway.

Furthermore, the organization is developing plans to expand on its existing work to all polluting rivers in:

• Manila, Philippines; Montego Bay, Jamaica; Jakarta, Indonesia; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Bangkok, Thailand and Los Angeles, U.S.A.

Other cities will be announced once the necessary partnerships and agreements are in place. Planning and fundraising activities are underway for all 30 cities. To realize these ambitious plans, the organization is currently also expanding its engineering and operational capacity.

Data Driven Restoration at Scale

Before Interceptors are deployed, each city project begins with an intensive analysis phase. Aerial drones, AI-powered image analysis, and GPS-tagged “dummy” plastics are used to chart every visible waterway and track how waste moves from streets to sea. These real-time insights guide optimal Interceptor placement and provide a public baseline against which progress can be measured.

Alongside intercepting new plastic, the 30 Cities Program will also remove debris from nearby coasts, mangroves, and coral reefs. This twin-track approach—shutting off the tap while clearing the legacy pollution—enables The Ocean Cleanup to achieve long-term impact, which includes the restoration of fish nursery habitats, boosting coastal tourism, and strengthening of natural storm surge defenses for local communities. Alongside local partners, the organization also advocates for improvements in waste management and awareness raising amongst communities.

The Ocean Cleanup

Completing the First 20 Rivers

While laying the foundation for the 30 Cities Program, The Ocean Cleanup is also nearing completion of its first 20 river projects. The next landmark achievement—expected as soon as the second half of this year—is in the western Caribbean, where the team aims to resolve the plastic pollution problem in the Gulf of Honduras by intercepting the trash feeding into this body of water.

A Stepping Stone Toward a 90  Percent Reduction

The 30 Cities Program represents the first major scaling step in The Ocean Cleanup’s journey to eliminate 90 percent of floating ocean plastic pollution. In parallel, efforts are continuing to remove plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Whilst extraction operations are currently on hiatus, work to deploy cutting edge technologies to map the “hotspots”, or areas of intense plastic accumulation, in order to make future extractions more efficient and economical, is ongoing.

By combining river interception and coastal cleanup with its offshore cleanup systems targeting legacy pollution that’s already in the ocean, the organization is charting a path to turn off the tap and mop up the mess.

The Ocean Cleanup

About The Ocean Cleanup

The Ocean Cleanup is a nonprofit organization that develops and scales technologies to rid the oceans of plastic. By conducting extensive research, engineering scalable solutions, and partnering with governments, industry, and like-minded organizations, The Ocean Cleanup is working to stop plastic inflow via rivers and remove legacy plastic already polluting the oceans. As of June 2025, the non-profit has collected over 28 million kilograms (62 million pounds) of trash from aquatic ecosystems around the world. Founded in 2013 by Boyan Slat, The Ocean Cleanup now employs a multi-disciplined team of approximately 200 people. The organization is headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, with international operations in 10 countries. For more information, visit www.theoceancleanup.com.

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