Why is Ed's local beach at Shoreham in Danger

The Friends of Shoreham Beach do a lot of work to help look after Shoreham Beach and to show people how special the vegetated shingle habitat is. They raise awareness about the damage people do to the plants without realising. For example, people throw garden rubbish on to the beach.

As these grass cuttings and other garden debris decomposes it makes soil. This means other plants and weeds from the gardens grow on the beach and can take up space that the shingle plants need. All of these pink flowers are red valerian which is spreading across the beach.

Some people treading on the plants or pick the seeds. Sometimes people light bonfires on the beach. All of these things can be very damaging to the shingle plants.

Litter can also be a problem and the Friends of Shoreham Beach organise beach litter clean up activities, Ed the Bear has helped with this too.

The Friends of Shoreham Beach have done some great work to help protect the beach. However Ed the Bear discovers that his beach may be threatened by global conservation problems such sea level rise and big damaging storms caused by climate change. Ed wants to know more about these problems and how they might affect Shoreham Beach, so he decides to travel around the world to investigate these conservation problems himself. This is the start of a great adventure where Ed discovers what people are doing to help the oceans and also encountering amazing marine animals. You can follow his ongoing adventures on his weblog at http://adventuresofedthebear.blogspot.com/

Ed the Bear has travelled to many places, met dedicated people, encountered fascinating wildlife and also found out more about how the oceans work. Ed has also investigated global conservation issues and discovered different parts of the answer in different places he has visited.

The following weblog entries will look at some of the conservation main issues Ed has investigated and what he has found out.