Lisburn woman’s coast appeal

Coastwatch is an annual eco-audit of the shore and they are looking for volunteers to undertake parts of the shore to survey,

Monica, who is in her final year studying Marine Biology at Queens University, took part in the Coastwatch survey last year and is passionate about the importance of the project.

“I am a mature student at Queens in my final year of Marine Biology degree but last year took part for the first time in the survey and loved it,” explained Monica.

“I realise how important surveys like these are, especially since we live on an island.

“We only had a few sites surveyed last year but this year I aim to push it a lot further we already have 20 surveys completes in the first week.

“I am very lucky to have friends who also study marine biology and zoology and other environmental subjects at Queens all interested in giving up their time to help out.

“We need that, this is a big initiative that has done well in the South but we would love to keep that going up here in the North as a cross border project.”

Volunteers choose 500m long survey areas from a map on www.coastwatch.org or from a coordinator. Then there is a bit of planning including checking of tides and shore access.

The aim is to walk a 500m survey unit of shore while completing the Coastwatch survey questionnaire with observations on shore use, animals, plants, litter, stream quality, erosion and any special observations.

These findings and any photos are transferred to computer, or posted back to the Coastwatch office in Trinity College Dublin so others can input the data.

The results are collated and a highlights draft published on December 1.

Once on the shore, it takes about 30 minutes to do the survey on a straight shore and up to an hour for a complex one with streams and interesting shore habitats.

To find out more about Coastwatch, log onto the website www.coastwatch.org.