North Wales Wildlife trust is encouraging all shark enthusiasts to take to the beaches of Gwynedd in the great shark egg case hunt.
The event tasks you with searching your local beaches for shark egg cases that have washed onto shore. What you uncover will contribute towards the Wildlife Trust’s data on changes in shark populations in the seas around the UK.
North Wales Wildlife Trust Living Seas engagement officer Reece Halstead said: “The hunt spans across Wales, and won the Wales national lottery project of the year last year. It’s a great project. Some sharks lay these eggs, and they wash up on our beaches. By collecting and identifying them we get an idea of what kind of sharks are living where.”
“We’re running public hunts in four beaches across Gwynedd on 24 and 25 February. We’re calling it a sweep up event. We’re also training people to become egg case champions who can go out on their local patches and figure out what’s going on where.”
There are also guides online to help you identify the different kinds of shark eggs. Reece said you can expect to find nursehound and small spotted cap sharks in the seas around Britain, but you may also find ‘stingray’ looking thornbacks and spotted back skates.
“Generally in north Wales, we tend to find four species of shark, the nursehound, small spotted catshark, the thornback skate and spotted back skate sharks. Nursehounds and small spotted cap sharks are what we call true sharks, they look like what you’d expect a shark to look like. The thornback and spotted back skates look like stingrays. They all come under the shark umbrella, but they look quite different, and their eggs look different too.
“Once you know what you’re looking for, it’s as simple as it can be. You can record what you find on the Shark Trust app or through their website. Help us on our ‘egg-citing’ shark egg case hunts, where we’ll be searching the coast along four stunning north Wales beaches. Become citizen scientists for the day, as we hunt, ID and record real-life shark eggs that can be washed up after storms.”
To book a place for the event, visit the website at northwaleswildlifetrust.org.uk
Find more about the hunt and resources for identifying shark eggs at sharktrust.org