Strandline

The top of the shore is where the sea casts up her random treasures. This often forms a visible line towards the back of the beach, the strandline, marking the high point of the tide and consisting mainly of seaweed.

The shape and orientation of the reserve's bays mean that marine debris tends to collect on the beaches where it stays trapped. Piles of rotting seaweed on a hot summer day might not be particularly appealing to humans, in fact the sometimes overpowering smell has led to a part of Kimmeridge Bay becoming known as Stink Corner! However it provides a rich and vital habitat to many invertebrate species, which in turn are an important food source for shore birds at low tide and many marine creatures when the tide is in.

The natural items found on the strandline offer clues to what lives beneath the waves. Mermaids purses, dried up, empty egg-capsules of dogfish or rays, come in a variety of shapes and sizes, so the species it came from can often be identified. A spongy mass of whelk egg-cases could easily be mistaken for a ball of bubble-wrap. These were once used by sailors for washing, much as we use a bath sponge today, hence its name - sea wash ball.

The cuttlefish "bone" is familiar to many people with budgies but is also used by jewellers to make moulds for casting small silver trinkets. This "bone" is really an internal shell as the cuttlefish is not really a fish but a mollusc. 

Winter storms offer an opportunity to find a real rarity that might have travelled right across the Atlantic Ocean to land on our shores. Clusters of goose barnacles, attached by their flexible 'necks' to drifting objects such as fishing buoys and timber, will die once deposited out of reach of the waves. They spend their lives drifting the oceans, catching tiny planktonic prey with their feathery 'fingers'. Even rarer are the exotic sea beans that have travelled from the Caribbean Sea or even South America.

Litter

Today many of our beaches are strewn with man-made litter, often thrown overboard from ships, lost by fishermen or even left on the beach by uncaring visitors. The amount of marine litter in the reserve is increasing year on year and, despite regular beach cleans, there is always more waiting to wash in on the next tide. Over 5 tonnes of litter were collected from the reserve in 2007! 

Among the most hazardous items for wildlife are fishing line and net, which can entangle, cut and drown marine animals such as seals, sharks and seabirds. Balloons and plastic carrier bags can be mistaken for jellyfish by turtles which swallow them and can starve as a result of a blocked gut. Tiny plastic beads called nurdles are basic material for the plastics industry. Spilled in transit and washed down factory drains, they litter strandlines and float on the sea's surface where they are swallowed by seabirds and surface feeding animals. Plastic items break up into ever smaller pieces, eventually becoming plastic dust that is eaten by filter-feeding marine animals and thus enters the food chain.

Beach cleans are organised quarterly on several of the reserves' beaches. Everyone is welcome to join in.

Warning : Proximity to the Army ranges means that live ammunition may occasionally be washed up on the beach. Any suspicious objects, particularly metal canisters, must not be touched and should be reported to the coastguard.

Mermaids Purse 

Cuttlefish

Seawash Ball

Litter on the Beach