Marine Ranger Week 3 Roundup

This week we welcomed visits from Swinton and Coldingham primary schools and began to prepare our Marine Education Centre for opening. Read on below to find out more about our week!

Swinton Primary Schools marine exploration day

On Wednesday we welcomed Swinton Primary School to the Hippodrome and Eyemouth beach. We headed down to Eyemouth Beach for some rock pooling. Amongst the fines were some shore crabs, hermit crabs, starfish and plenty of periwinkles. 

We had a great time with the school discovering the strandline, all the things that the sea leaves behind from shiny pebbles to treasures like pieces of sea glass and even some beached jellyfish. The kids got creative creating sandcastles and decorating them with our finds from the beach while some of the primary ones and twos made their very own jellyfish out of paper plates and paper, back at the Hippodrome.

A group of eager children in the afternoon join in a beach clean. Enjoyed by all with much enthusiasm collecting as much as possible, lots of plastic and even a scooter.

Some of the kids got to try out some marine experiments and discovered what keeps the marine mammals of the BMR warm, learning about the effects of blubber and how it works better than any winter jacket. 

“Hatching” a plan for our MEC and lobster hatchery 

Thursday was spent preparing for the Marine Education Centre being open to the public, including our annual lobster hatchery. We spent much of the day cleaning out the hatchery room, moving and cleaning tanks, some of which produced quite the smell. After a few tiring trips to the beach, we moved our larger tank to the front of the Hippodrome, which was then filled with sand and hundreds of litres of seawater, making a new, larger, and more exciting home for our resident juvenile lobster. Make sure you keep your eyes peeled for this shy little critter when you visit us at the Hippodrome this summer. 

Finlay finished his posters all about the marine mammals of the BMR which will be up in the MEC over the next two months, these give all the information you could need about our resident dolphins, whales, and seal, all of which have been present on the BMR this week, with 5 Minke whales spotted off of St Abbs head on Wednesday. 

Coldingham Primary Schools big beach morning 

Friday morning was spent with Coldingham Primary School down at Coldingham Bay, where the school was having their end of a term beach day. Sarah and Finlay lead some of the children around Coldingham’s rockpools in search of critters. We were lucky enough to see crabs of all sizes, prawns, some fish, and even a Lions Mane jellyfish which had washed up on the beach. The mini marine biologist of the school really had a keen eye for marine life.