It has been an interesting few days at the beach. We had really glorious weather at the end of last week and I found lots of what have been identified as whelks egg cases.
Whelk egg cases on the shores may look like a lump of bubble wrap, but it’s not. The whelks lay large clumps of eggs on rocks in the sea, and some get washed up on the shores in stormy weather. If the eggcase is grey, the whelks have already hatched. But if the eggcase has yellow colour, there might still be some whelks inside. One thing that can be mentioned about the baby whelks is that they are cannibalistic. The first whelks to hatch will eat their brothers and sisters eggs in order for their survival.
Then today there had been hailstones and a frost during the night. There were still patches of white frost on the path to the beach
The wind was blowing a gale today. The waves were huge and white horses were everywhere! It was also very cold- woolly hat, warm gloves and scarf weather!
On the beach itself there were large deposits of sea foam also called spume. This is apparently an indication of a productive sea ecosystem. Sea foam is created when strong winds generate large numbers of breaking waves in an area that contains a large amount of dissolved organic matter, such as proteins and fats present in the water. Algal blooms are one common source of the organic matter required to create the sea foams. These may have increased after the strong sun on Saturday on the seaweed and other growths in the sea. However, in some cases they can come from sewage and detergents that have made their way into the water. Maybe a bit of both?
East Lothian Seashore Life 