Wednesday 28th October. Day 3: Rob Witbaard and Chris Richardson led the group in some practical fieldwork investigating variability of shellfish distribution. We took advantage of some decent weather to step out of the classroom to a nearby tidal flat where we collected cockles along three 300 metre transects then took them back to the lab to measure them and assess the length frequency distribution along the transects.
Ready for action!
Chris shows Irene and Ariadna how to randomly position a quadrat then hold it in position in the mud
Sarah and Juliane sieve some chunks of mud …
… and slowly the cockles emerge out of the primeval slime
“I’ve got a luverly bag of cockles”
Tamara (with fork), Rob (with quadrat), Stella (with scarf and wellies) and Chris (proudly displaying his cockles) after a good days work
We even got some results. Density increased strongly towards low water, but there was a sudden cutoff at the edge of the intertidal zone, perhaps because the sediment became more sandy.
But in the end you just have to cook your fieldwork ….
- … and eat it !