Ed the Bear at Adur River Festival 2016

My buddy Steve took me and a display to River fest on 27th August. FoSB’s Julia Fowles assisted on the stand in the morning. River Fest took place on Coronation Green on the edge of the river Adur giving a perfect location for the event.

Shoreham beach is connected to the River Adur in many ways; in fact it was formed by the sea, coastal processes, and the river. The have both been tied together by maritime history and there are also many natural connections between Shoreham beach, the sea, river estuary and the river.

So, where better to raise awareness and celebrate this than River Fest.

The display stand was tailored especially for this event and explained various topics. ‘Why Shoreham Beach is Special’ – focusing on the role of the nature reserve and the rare vegetated shingle habitat.

‘Why the Ocean is important’ focused on the benefits we all receive from the ocean (freshwater, 50% of our oxygen, 15% of our food and much more included how the ocean creates and moderates our climate and weather.

This linked well to another display panel ‘Global Problems – Local Consequences’ focused on rising sea temperature and how melting ice and expanding oceans (as water heats up) linked to the local consequence of local sea defence work and the current river defence development.

This panel also focused on plastic pollution – including micro plastics which are injected by marine life including plankton. 

This also included our display about plastic pollution and a micro plastic activity.

To help raise awareness of global issues we shared my adventures Ed the Bear visiting scientists around the world and sharing their knowledge with schools and also the public.

A panel explained how Shoreham Beach had been formed over centuries by longshore drift and the river Adur using maps starting at 13^th Century to modern time.

 

This panel also explained about Shoreham’s important maritime heritage including the ship building and trade and Steve entered into the spirit of the event and the pirate theme by dressing as a pirate.

A final panel illustrated some of the birds that visit the Adur estuary and beach and also examples of the many sightings of seals and dolphins that Steve has recorded over the years – off Shoreham beach and in the river Adur, as Sussex Regional Coordinator for the Sea Watch Foundation which he has run as a volunteer since 1993.

Steve spoke to many local people and as hoped, this allowed us to connect with a different section of the local community than we usually engage with at out nature walks etc. The event was busy all day and there was a wide range of ages.  It was a great day oooh! ahhhh!

Why is Shoreham Beach So Special?

Ed the Bear helped share raise awareness of his fascinating beach which is also a local nature reserve. I organised and ran this event as part of the 10 year celebration of the Shoreham Beach Nature Reserve.

 

This event took place at the Church of the Good Shepherd Hall on Shoreham Beach and on the adjacent Shoreham Beach Local Nature Reserve with help from FoSB’s Chris Bohea.

Sadly the previous spell of hot weather broke and we had heavy rain early on in the morning and then 50 mph winds blowing along the beach. This almost certainly impacted in the number of people who turned up for this event.

However we did get a few families come along to the event and a couple of individuals and despite these conditions they were very enthusiastic.

Partly for safety reasons and partly to include as much of the original planned content, I adapted the event to accommodate the bad weather but still keep as much of the original content.

Instead of one presentation and the remainder taking pace on the beach, I ran part of the Why is Shoreham Beach Special presentation (focusing on the nature reserve, vegetated shingle habitat, wildlife and how Shoreham beach was formed and shaped by the river and coastal processes – which continue today. Plus activity about plastic pollution and micro-plastics. People then eat lunch in the hall instead of on the beach. 

After this we all went over to the beach for about 20 minutes (participant’s safety uppermost) and looked at the shingle plants and sea birds.

We collected pebbles and strandline objects and brought them back to the hall to consider what we could learn from observing them.

After a while I ran a seashore strandline quiz – including lots of pictures of the animals that the objects they had found actually came from such as cuttlefish and their eggs, dogfish and egg development sequence, rays, whelk eggs, etc.

The event finished with local and global links using Ed the Bear based at Shoreham Beach to consider how Shoreham beach is connected to the global ocean, how we benefit from the ocean (moderates our climate and weather, provides 50% of our oxygen etc) and how global issues (such as climate change and sea level rise might impact Shoreham beach and the nature reserve. Lots of images made the session very visual and also had an intriguing quiz element.

Despite the weather and the need to run more of the event inside – everyone seemed to have an enjoyable day. This event was funded by the Awards for All Heritage Lottery helping us to celebrate Shoreham Beach’s 10 years Anniversary as a Local Nature Reserve.

Ed Bear at National Whale and Dolphin Watch UK

Ed the Bear helped run a sea mammal watch at Shoreham Beach Local Nature Reserve on 30th July to encourage local people to participate in National Whale and Dolphin Watch and to raise awareness of the seals and dolphins seen locally.

National Whale and Dolphin Watch is an annual event run by the Sea Watch Foundation a scientific charity dedicated to protecting UK whales and dolphins (cetaceans) since 1993. National Whale and Dolphin Watch is a citizen science based event which is now in its 15th year.

The local event was run as a joint Sea Watch Foundation and Friends of Shoreham Beach (I have been Sussex Regional Coordinator for the Sea Watch Foundation since 1993). This joint local event was funded by the Awards for All Heritage Lottery Funding

National Whale and Dolphin Watch provides a valuable annual snapshot of sea mammal activity across the 35 UK regional groups and is part of the foundations ongoing observation programme to survey and protect UK dolphins and whales which number a surprising 29 species. http://www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk/

The Shoreham watch started unofficially at 9.30am when I arrived to set up the display stand and took the first scan of the sea with binoculars. This first record of the day recorded the sea conditions at sea state 2, with a wind force of 2-3 from the SW. Cloud cover was 7/8 and the visibility was good.

The display stand provided information about the Sea Watch Foundation and also depicted some of the local dolphin and seal sightings including examples from this year.

There was also information about threats to sea mammals and the ocean including micro plastics and over nutrification of coastal waters caused by nitrates such as from detergents and water run-off from agricultural land.

The first person arrived just before the official start time of 10.00am and soon we had a small group of dedicated watchers. At 10.30am newly enlisted Sea Watch Volunteers Hannah and Neil arrived to help with the survey.

At about 10.50am a heavy downpour forced everyone to retreat from the beach.

Afterwards, some had gone home but 10 people returned to continue the watch. Interestingly, after the storm, the visibility increased to excellent and the wind dropped to force 2 and the sea condition to sea state 1 after the storm had passed through.

During the day more people arrived to take part with the watch, some by car, some on bicycle and some on foot.

The planned children’s activities run by Steve took place later than planned because of the weather. These included measuring out the length of blue whale (30m)

We then including some of the smaller species including bottlenose dolphin (3.5m), killer whale – orca (9m), humpback whale (15m) and sperm whale which at 20 metres is the largest toothed whale.

Objects for handling included a whale vertebrate,

 


sperm whale tooth

and baleen (from filter feeding minke whale). 

An activity also focused on threats to whales and dolphins.

We also investigated some of the strandline objects washed ashore and identified what we found - including these ray egg cases

The watch continued to 12.50pm (10 minutes short of the planned time when another heavy shower rolled in.

No sea mammals were seen during the watch, (but Steve reported to the watchers that a bottlenose dolphin was spotted at Seaford the previous day). Even so, negative data is also essential as part of the snap shot. Watchers were also encouraged to observe the sea birds which included herring and black-back gulls, terns (occasionally diving for fish), flock of turnstones feeding on the shore line and the occasional cormorant.

Shoreham Beach Nature Reserve leaflets were also handed out on the day, to participants and also to passing members of the public who came over to see what we were doing. A list of future events was included as part of the display stand and interested people were encouraged to visit the FoSB website and visit the events page. People taking part said they had enjoyed the event, despite the weather.

41 people took part in the actual watch and information was shared with passers-by.

Ed the Bear shares his One Ocean message at Adur World Oceans Day

Ed the Bear took part in Adur World Oceans Day again this year. 

The display stand had been updated to include Ed the Bears travels since last year. 

All the flags in the marquee have been put up because its the Queens Birthday.

The display included information about why the oceans are so important, such as how 50% of the oxygen we breathe comes from the ocean, 15% of the food we eat, new medicines etc.

The display also highlighted the threats to the oceans and marine wildlife and also showed people Ed the Bear had met on his travels and some of the fascinating projects he had helped with, such as recuing sea turtles and restoring a damaged coral reef.
There are also a demonstration about the dangers of Ocean Acidification.

And also an activity to learn about plastics in the ocean. The children had to get as much food (rice) without catching the plastic (red lentils). A plastic bottle filled with water and bits of plastic illustrated how plastic pollutes the entire water column.

This year we also brought a small aquarium tank with some rock pool animals.

A USB microscope cam showed the animals close up and in detail on a TV monitor.

This included shore crabs

Sea anemones

A live cockle

And my favourite, barnacles.

Ed also looked around the other exhibits which included a stand by Friends of Shoreham Beach - from the beach Ed the Bear comes from.

The display had pictures of the rare vegetated shingle plants and wildlife. There was also a display about plastic pollution.

There was also a display of local marine life in aquarium display tanks.

Ed the bear came eye to eye with some live lobsters and edible crabs.

Other displays included the brackish Wide Water lagoon, a mixture of salt and freshwater


There were lots of interested visitors, many of them families with children. They were amazed at Ed the Bears travels and saddened by what humans are doing to the ocean.


It was a fantastic day