On Friday 26th May, we enjoyed a visit from Tara Proud who works for MCS. We learned about rock pools, the common seal, basking sharks, blue whales, minke  whales and turtles.

Leatherback turtles are named for their shell, which is leather-like rather than hard, like other turtles.

They are the largest sea turtle species who are critically endangered. They are not cold blooded and can live in cold seas. For most of their lives they live in the open ocean and feed almost exclusively on jellyfish. Tara told us that leatherback turtles can’t distinguish between jellyfish and plastic bags. Once leatherbacks eat plastic, thousands of spines lining the throat and esophagus make it nearly impossible to regurgitate. The plastic can lead to the obstruction of the gastrointestinal tract.

We were encouraged to help to keep our beaches clean. We were astonished to learn that some sea areas are thought to contain 46000 pieces of litter per square mile! We can all play our part by cutting down on the amount of plastics we use for example we could use a refillable plastic bottle for water and adopt re useable plastic bags.