Fishermen map the seafloor off Eastbourne Eastbourne fishermen have an in depth knowledge of the seabed off the Eastbourne coast. This knowledge is gained through years of working on the fishing grounds; it proved to be invaluable in mapping the reefs and other areas of interest. The Eastbourne fishermen were assisted in the survey work by Dr Andy Woolmer who is currently producing straightforward guidance leaflets for SEAFISH to enable other fishermen to carryout similar surveys. To date the Sussex Sea Fisheries Committee has collected nearly 200 video and diver survey samples off the Eastbourne coast, and this information is being used to better inform the management of the fisheries in those areas. The area is highly diverse and the reef, boulder and seaweed habitats offshore provide nursery grounds for the juvenile fish that the fishermen will later target in their nets.
Scroll down for images from the survey and for an example of a video of one of the reefs off the Eastbourne coast.
Areas known locally as The Royal Sovereign Shoals (shown in the video below), The Horse of Willingdon and inshore Coxheath Shoal are covered in Dead man's fingers which are a colonial 'soft coral' that forms thick, fleshy and irregular masses, which are often finger-like in appearance. Also abundant and protruding from the gravels in the region are Ross Coral, though called a coral, this brittle structure is built, not by coral polyps, but by an organism called a bryozoan. These 'corals' are very impressive and can be larger than footballs in size.
click here for a map of all the sites surveyed
above 'dead mans fingers' on a reef. below pout are abundant on the reefs.
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