Coastal Creatures is an exciting two year project which focuses on the diverse marine and coastal natural heritage of the North Devon Coast Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

Coastal Creatures is currently providing citizen science opportunities to identify, record, enjoy and learn about the varied flora and fauna of our diverse intertidal and coastal habitats. To better understand our coast, we are focusing on four beaches along the AONB coast with a range of habitats and species that are suitable for different audiences, learning levels and styles. The focus beaches are Northam Burrows (Westward Ho! and Greysands), Croyde, Lee Bay and Combe Martin. Get in touch with us to learn more about becoming an intertidal survey volunteer.

Our education and interpretation officer is working with schools, community groups, volunteers and partner organisations by organising a range of species identification, recording training and specialist surveying techniques. These sessions are supporting mass and targeted surveying of coastal species to increase our knowledge about local natural history and the natural environment. Please refer to our attached activity pack for schools, college and community groups and get in touch to book a trip.

We run regular beach cleans along the North Devon Coast which is reducing negative impacts on coastal wildlife and leaving coastal habitats in a better condition. Keep updated with these beach cleans in our events calendar. The project has instated three ‘2 Minute Beach Clean‘ boards into three coastal communities which we hope will contribute towards keeping the coast free of marine litter.

We are currently in the process of developing learning materials about coastal wildlife which will provide an ongoing legacy to sustain a culture of wildlife recording, engagement and protection amongst those who live in or visit the North Devon Coast AONB.

Coastal Creatures is very generously supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

We are delighted to be working with the National Trust, Northam Burrows Country Park, Combe Martin Sea School and Coastwise North Devon on this project. Each organisation is contributing towards different elements of the project focusing on their expertise. So far we have run three BioBlitz events, we’ve conducted coastal and chough habitat surveys, we’ve run sea school training for school staff across North Devon and we’ve updated interpretation materials to name only a few! Without our project partners, Coastal Creatures would not be possible.