Crabs, Pasties and Rain!
On our fifth Blue Recovery Beach Day we had periods of cloud and rain but that didn’t stop us from getting out there to explore some rock pools.
The Princess Pavilion once again provided us with some delicious pasties and some much needed shelter at the end of the day, as well as serving as a fantastic venue for our second ‘See Our Shore’ event.
After everyone arrived and got signed up to the project, Dr. Ben Holt gave an introductory talk before we headed down to the beach with a specific theme for this week – Crabs!
This week our Rock Pool Families received their brand new ‘Beach Day Activity Booklets – put together by some of our amazing volunteers and staff. Our children’s activity booklet is full of fun, educational activities to guide budding Rock Pool Explorers on some great adventures. With each beach day having a different focus, they can explore every inch of Falmouth’s rocky shore & learn along the way. This month, it was all about crabs.
At the Beach
We split into our two groups of families and Citizen Scientists and after finishing a superb lunch from the Pavilion, we set off! This week, the Citizen Scientists journeyed all the way down to Castle Beach whilst our families headed to Gyllynvase beach.
Our rock pool families began their activity booklets by starting on the high shore of Gylly beach. After 20 minutes of counting every crab we could find, we ventured further to the mid shore and then went even further again until we reached the sea. Our ‘Counting Crabs’ activity was a fantastic introduction to the world of science and scientific methods.
Over on Castle Beach, our adult citizen scientists carried out a true crab abundance survey on the high and mid shores.
Despite this month being crab centric, we still looked out for other different exciting marine wildlife!
See Our Shore
This Saturday was our second ‘See Our Shore’ event where we had many people come up and visit our famous Mobile Rock Pool for a ‘close up’ of some of the fascinating creatures we had hiding and lurking under the water and rocks.
However, after some time, the weather did take a turn! There was a huge downpour and we quickly had to seek shelter in the Pavilion where we enjoyed some Sea Shanty festivities.
Once the rain had wandered off, we headed back out to pack away the Mobile Rock Pool and return the creatures home to the beach.
A big thank you to all of our participants who came along this week despite the drizzly weather – it was a fantastic day!
Thank you also to our team for helping to make this Beach Day a success!
