The strandline of Brighton beach is a heady mix of fascinating sea creatures, washed-up fishing gear and the remnants of parties and beach barbecues.
I crunch my way over the pebbles at morning low tide, the wind whistling around my ears and the sea pushing and pulling at the shore. Rain hangs in the air like Cornish mist. It’s peaceful here: there are dogs and their walkers, runners and sea swimmers, the occasional reveller still holding on to the night. But, otherwise, it’s quiet.
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I pick up the empty egg cases of lesser spotted dogfish and common skate, a cuttlebone and a mussel shell. Crows fly high above and drop shelled creatures on to the stones below, where they smash to reveal edible flesh. Herring gulls pick over a long-dead crab, and I find a remnant of a carapace that has clearly had the same treatment. I pocket it with my other finds (one pocket for beach treasure, the other for fishing rope and litter). Just a few metres away, the city is starting to wake up.
The Sussex coast, once rich in kelp forests, has lost 96 per cent of this mineral-rich seaweed. This was likely caused by the Great Storm of 1987, followed by bottom trawling – a mechanical fishing practice in which huge nets are dragged by enormous chains along the seabed to catch fish and other marine species. Thrown into the spotlight by the recent film Ocean With David Attenborough, this method destroys habitats such as kelp forests and prevents their regeneration. Happily, a local trawler ban implemented here in 2021, coupled with the efforts of the Sussex Seabed Restoration Project, has seen a return of kelp and a subsequent boom in sea life.
Marine rewilding is far less common than terrestrial rewilding, perhaps because the marine environment is out of sight and, therefore, mind. Yet marine rewilding is hugely important, not least because healthy seas safeguard fish populations, protect the land from coastal erosion caused by storms, improve water quality, and absorb and store vast amounts of carbon (far more efficiently than the equivalent area of forest). Never has it been so important to save our sea beds.
Nationwide, more than half our marine habitats are deteriorating, and only 29 per cent of estuaries and coastal bodies are in good ecological condition. Yet the efforts in Brighton, along with other movements such as the community-led No-Take Zone off the Isle of Arran, the Seawilding project off the west coast of Scotland, and national schemes to restore native oysters and sturgeon fish, offer hope for change.
In June, environment secretary Steve Reed announced plans to ban bottom-trawling from 41 protected zones within English seas, expanding our current protected offshore area from 18,000km2 to 48,000km2. Some conservationists argue the proposals don’t go far enough, and the plan is subject to consultation, so may be watered down. But it’s a step in the right direction.
Four years after the trawler ban in Sussex, there is evidence of sea bed recovery, including the expansion of mussel beds and an increase in sea bream. Now, along some parts of Brighton beach, particularly after a storm, I can find starfish and pipefish, cuttlefish and squid eggs, and sometimes dogfish and rays. I return eggs and unopened cases, along with still-living fish and rays, to the sea, where I hope they might continue their life-cycle.
Occasionally, pieces of precious kelp wash up, and I drag these back to the water in case they bear reproductive spores yet to be released. Such abundance is a sign of a recovering ecosystem, and I’m determined to do my bit for the cause.
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Top image: shoal of mackerel in East Sussex. Credit: Getty
