2006

Adur Flood Plain

Chalk Downs

Coastal Fringe

Intertidal (Seashore)

River Adur Estuary

Lancing Nature Blogspot

Sea (off Sussex)

Town & Gardens

Widewater Lagoon

Garden Bird List 2006

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Overview
 
 

Link to the Sussex Marine Life Reports for 2008

21 November 2007
A Great Crested Grebe on the surface of the sea repeatedly dived as the tide came in at the far western end of Southwick Beach just inshore from the concrete sea defences.
 
14 September 2007
An Edible Crab, Cancer pagurus, landed at Shoreham, Sussex, and caught in the Selsey area of West Sussex, weighed 3.9 kg and measured 270 mm across its carapace. This is the largest crab on record from Sussex and as big as they get anywhere. 

9 September 2007

4 September 2007
A young male Bottle-nosed Dolphin Tursiops truncatus, called "George" followed a boat into the River Adur and stayed for most of the day until coaxed back out to sea by Shoreham inshore lifeboat before it could stranded on the low neap tide. 
This particular Bottle-nosed Dolphin habitually enters English Channel harbours, but for all of last year was found around the French coast. 

27 August 2007
I saw three Triggerfish, Balistes capriscus, while diving the Palace Pier at Brighton, Sussex.  They were patrolling an area to the west of the main body of the pier, some 200 metres out to sea, in 9 metres at high tide.  I was very excited…until I found your website and realized that they are not so much an oddity as a fixture in British waters!

20 August 2007 
An Almaco Jack, Seriola rivoliana, was caught by an angler from a boat at the entrance to Chichester Harbour, Sussex.This southern fish is rarely caught in British seas and was probably the very first one recorded and identified (by Dr. William Smith-Vaniz) in the seas off Sussex. 

23 August 2007
On an overcast day, when the breeze had died down, the sea south of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Lancing (eastern boundary) as flat calm with no rollers on the neap tide. Nine terns hovered above the sea and all of them repeatedly dived in to feed on what were probably small fish just below the surface. The upper wings were dark grey on the edges. The hesitancy of their dives made me tentatively identify these birds as Common Terns. (The Sandwich Terns seem to be dive deeper and and more positively.)

29 July 2007 
An astonishing bright red fish misnamed as the Boar Fish, Capros aper, was discovered swimming around in a pool when the tide was out on Littlehampton main beach (east of the River Arun). It was about 75 mm long, and I was able to scoop the rhomboidal fish up in a shell, before I allowed it to swim away.

8 July 2007
Whilst fishing off the weather mast at Littlehampton between 2:45 and 4:00 pm we were privileged to be escorted by two large (approx 2.5 metre = 8 ft long) dolphins. It was a
wonderful experience and all six on board our boat were spellbound, and even threw them the Mackerel we had caught for tea!!  They stayed around for about an hour and followed us as we started to head for home. 
These were most likely to be Bottle-nosed Dolphins, Tursiops truncatus.

2 June 2007
Adur was one of the UK leaders in presenting an environmental exhibition of World Oceans Day, Shoreham-by-Sea, with exhibits hosted by local experts and enthusiasts of the undersea world. Live lobsters and crabs, a rock pool aquarium, the whale and dolphin exhibition, a touch table of strandline exhibits found on the shore and other interactive displays was on display under the marquee on on Coronation Green overlooking the River Adur by the Footbridge.
 

Adur World Oceans Day was run by a committee comprising representatives of the British Marine Life Study Society, West Sussex County Council, the Sea Watch Foundation, Friends of Shoreham Beach, Friends of Widewater Lagoon and other groups, with support from Adur District Council.
 

BMLSS Hermit Crabs

24 May 2007
A shrimping expedition to Lancing Beach (just to the west of Lancing Sailing Club) on a low neap 1.9 metre tide revealed the sandy shallows and a clear sea on a calm day and the haul in 40 minutes or so using my small 60 cm push-net was about 100 Brown Shrimps Crangon crangon, small flatfish fry, one small Plaice, occasional small Solenettes and one large one, a handful of South-clawed Hermit Crabs, Diogenes pugilator, a few very small Common Hermit Crabs, Pagurus bernhardus  in Grey Topshells, one Vernal Crab, Liocarcinus vernalis, and a few of the swimming crabs Portumnus latipes.
BMLSS Crabs
BMLSS Hermit Crabs

28 April 2007
A school of over forty Harbour Porpoises, Phocoena phocoena, were seen off Sussex, at Kingmere Rocks, between two and three miles from the shore. They made an incredible amount of noise as they came up to breathe and caused commotion amongst our group of free divers. They may have been chasing Mackerel which were caught by anglers later in the day. This report of these numbers of Porpoises, which could have been as many as sixty, is almost unprecendented from off the Sussex coast in recent years.

16 April 2007

A rockpooling trip in the calm sunshine to Worthing Pier was rewarded with abundant (over a thousand in an hour) sea anemones and crab-like crustaceans notably a half a dozen Hairy Hermit Crabs, Pagurus cuanensis, one of the infrequently encountered species seen at low tide. Some of the larger Snakelocks Anemones, Anemonia viridis, were 60 mm in diameter before splitting into two separate anemones. The Daisy Anemone, Cereus pedunculatus, was common, when in some years it it is infrequent or absent. Squat Lobsters, Galathea squamifera, and Hairy Crabs, Pilumnus hirtellus, were seen under every suitable rock. 
Full Report
British Marine Life Study Society

13 April 2007
A small Common Dolphin, Delphinus delphis, spent the day swimming around the entrance of the Brighton Marina. This is unusual for Sussex as common dolphins are more deep water species and usually only occur occasionally offshore. The dolphin has now moved further east along the coast. A small group of Common Dolphins were reported off Newhaven a few weeks ago and so it is likely to be from this group.

27 March 2007
When I got back from work this evening we went for a walk over at Ofham near Lewes. You will never believe this but we saw a Seal in the River Ouse. It was about 7.00 pm. The Seal swam along for about five seconds with his head on the surface not unlike a medium size dog. He then disappeared and surfaced again 30 metres on. He repeated this about four times when we lost sight of him. About 15 minutes later we saw him again, this time travelling in the opposite direction.

March 2007
Fishermen out of Shoreham Harbour continue to capture a handful of the Short-snouted Seahorses, Hippocampus hippocampus, in the nets on every trip out. They were all returned to the sea.
BMLSS Seahorses

8 March 2007
A decomposed dolphin was washed up at Elmer Sands, West Sussex. It measured approximately 2.1 metres long. Steve Savage (Sea Watch Foundation) identified it as probably a Common Dolphin, Delphinus delphis.

24 February 2007
A dead Gannet, a dead Puffin, and other sea birds, together with miscellaneous cargo debris were discovered washed up on Shoreham Beach. These two sea birds are not usually washed ashore in Sussex in such a fresh condition.
 

22 February 2007   7:30 pm
The ITV Meridian documentary programme "River Walks" with Charlie Dimmick features the River Adur.

The Cloud Nine TV company with Charlie Dimmick filmed on 15 June 2006 on Lancing beach (at the Shoreham end near Widewater), referred to as Shoreham-by-Sea, featured shrimping with Peter Talbot-Elsden (British Marine Life Study Society).

18 February 2007
About thirty Sea Mice (a large polychaete worm), Aphrodite aculeata, were washed up on Camber Sands (near Rye, East Sussex) about two hours after the high spring tide.

A 12 metres long motor yacht caught fire two miles off Shoreham on a calm sea and the smoke rose vertically as there was little to no wind.

28 January 2007

13 January 2007
A Triggerfish, Balistes capriscus, was found dead at Splash Point, Seaford, East
Sussex. It was about 30 cm long with its dorsal and pectoral fins rotted away, leaving the two
dorsal fin spines but otherwise intact. Seaford Bay faces south west: there has been an almost continuous period of high winds and heavy seas since before Christmas 2006.

1 January 2007

Common Starfish on the chalk bedrock at Seaford
Photograph by Wednesday Livingstone

31 December 2006
A dead Triggerfish, Balistes capriscus, was discovered on Rottingdean beach east of Brighton amongst dozens of dead Starfish, Asteria rubens. 

30 December 2006
Thousands of dead Common Starfish, Asteria rubens were found on Seaford Head beach, East Sussex, and in amongst the rocks as the tide receded.

Link to the Sussex Marine Life Reports for 2006

Marine Life of Sussex 2005

Sussex Sea Fisheries District Committee

Adur Coastal 2007