Seaweeds

Bladder Wrack (Fucus vesiculosus) on the left with pairs of bladders on the leaves and Spiral Wrack (Fucus spiralis) with the inflated pale green tips to the fronds. Not all seaweeds are as easy to identify!

Over the holiday, I've been working on a database of records of seaweed found around the shores of Islay, Jura and Colonsay by various surveys carried out since the 1970s. Most of Britain's coasts have been surveyed at least twice by teams from the former Nature Conservancy Council and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, looking at what is growing on the shores and diving to see what is further out. There are over 5,000 records of at least 250 different seaweed species in the database from over 100 different locations round the three islands. A little more work is needed to get the records into standard format, but when completed, this database will join others on the INHT website.
Malcolm