Class 4 Rock Pool Ramble

Class 4 have spent the day on the beaches at Woolacombe today, making the most of the fabulous weather!

We started off the morning with the National Trust rangers doing a rock-pool ramble at Combesgate Beach which has amazing pools to explore. It was great to have the rangers there to tell us all about the wildlife that can be found on the rocky shore and how it has adapted to live in such challenging conditions. Did you know limpets (the cows of the beach) can live for 50 years and that they all return to their home ‘scar’ on the exact same spot every time the tide goes out? We also found out about the ‘lions’ of the rock-pools – dogwelks – who have a pretty gory way of eating their prey…

Before lunch we did a 10 min beach clean, linking to all of the work we have been doing on marine litter this term. As you can see from our pictures, from just a small 30m stretch of what looks like a fairly clean beach we found a shocking amount of litter. Some of the items included: a plastic truck, 2 flip flops, 2 disposable BBQs, 2 beer bottles, a fishing box, the inside of a washing machine, a pair of goggles as well as items that we know are a particular problem such as the remains of helium balloons and plastic circles that can get caught around marine animals’ necks.