Seascapes

Intertidal Interactive Officer

Well, just over 500 children can say ‘YES!’ to both those questions, as they took part in the SeaScapes Intertidal Interactive Project activities and events this summer. For some of those children it was the first time they’d been to the beach, and it gave them an opportunity to feel the texture of seaweed and giggle as shore crabs ran across their open palms.

Between May and September, more than 700 people joined the SeaScapes team on the Tyne to Tees coastline to explore and discover our natural heritage and wildlife: • There were weekly Beach Tots sessions at South Shields, where toddlers and their adults enjoyed sensory learning activities using sand, pebbles, seaweed and shells. • Almost 400 school pupils participated in our North Sea

Explorer workshops, learning about our coastal heritage and surveying the rocky shore habitats at Whitburn,

Hendon, Seaham, Hawthorn Hive, and Hartlepool headland. • A new group of young volunteers, called the Beach

Rangers, aged 14-18, met up monthly at Roker Pier.

The Rangers carried out beach cleans and rocky shore surveys, learning all about the marine life that lives in our coastal habitats and taking action to help protect it. • Children weren’t the only ones to have fun, as there were many chances for adults to get involved too. There were walks and talks on coastal wildlife and geology, as well as volunteering opportunities. • Our new volunteers received training from the SeaWatch

Foundation, in how to identify cetaceans (whales and dolphins) and carry out surveys. So far, 29 surveys have been submitted, with many sightings of bottlenose dolphins and harbour porpoises! • SeaScapes also worked with Newcastle University’s Dove

Marine Lab to deliver training in surveying methods for our new Intertidal Survey volunteers, who will help us identify and record the various seaweeds and rocky shore animals that live on the Tyne to Tees coastline. A whale of a time was had this summer, and there’s more to come as the SeaScapes Intertidal Interactive Project will be delivered over the next three years. During autumn and winter, the Beach Rangers will continue to meet monthly, and there will be snorkelling lessons for school children in local swimming pools. For adults and families there will be more walks and talks, some online and some outdoor, where you can learn about shorebirds, seals, cetaceans and more – visit www.durhamwt.com/events for further information.

If you would like to become an Intertidal Interactive Project volunteer please email dkealoha@durhamwt.co.uk for more details, and join other volunteers surveying shorebirds, coastal plants and invertebrates, cetaceans and intertidal species. Full information on SeaScapes can be found at

Follow us: