Marine wildlife spotting at Cape Cornwall will reveal all kinds of rare and wonderful water dwelling creatures
Cornwall Wildlife Trust is inviting everyone to come and help spot our wonderful marine life in an exciting sea watch event at Cape Cornwall as part of their Seaquest Southwest Project in August. The Trust, who protect Cornwall’s wildlife and wild places hope for this to be one of the biggest sea watch events to date.
In recent weeks, Cornwall Wildlife Trust marine officers have been inundated with reports of huge barrel jellyfish being sighted off our coast, which has sparked the interest of not just the press but people of all ages in our sea life. But barrel jellyfish are just the tip of the iceberg! In Cornwall we are blessed with a huge variety of wonderful marine life, from rare inshore bottlenose dolphins to the enormous fin whale and the weird and wonderful sun fish!
To celebrate this marine life, and get people out spotting it, Cornwall Wildlife Trust is organising an exciting Seaquest Southwest Sea Watch at Cape Cornwall, beside the National Coastwatch Station, on Sunday 3rd August between 10am and 1pm.
These sea watches are the perfect opportunity for people who have always wanted to know more about our Cornish marine life to come and meet the experts and learn about the animals that live around or visit our coastline," explainsTom Horton, Volunteer Seaquest Southwest Officer for Cornwall Wildlife Trust. "It is inspirational event for people of all ages to realise how special our sea is, and in turn we hope that it will encourage them to get involved in Seaquest Southwest and send in their marine sightings to Cornwall Wildlife Trust."
The Seaquest Southwest project is a marine education and recording project that has been running for over 10 years. It collects sightings of all marine creatures from the public and trained volunteers, enabling the Trust to gain and better understanding of marine life in Cornwall. The data gathered is shared and used by marine conservation decision makers and researchers, both regionally and nationally, for the better management of our seas.
You do not have to be a trained marine biologist to spot much of our large, enigmatic marine life," adds Abby Crosby, Marine Conservation Officer for Cornwall Wildlife Trust. "Anyone can tell us when they see basking sharks, dolphins, turtles or sun fish and get involved in Seaquest Southwest. The public sea watch being held on the 3rd August is the perfect opportunity for people to take that next step from reading about marine life and being interested, in getting out there and start recording it. Come and join us!"
