Bearing buckets and scouting for starfish and crabs, university students and pupils from several Galway schools swarmed over Spiddal beach in Connemara at the weekend to mark International Low Tide Day.
Hosts for the morning were members of NUI Galway's Marine Science Society, led by undergraduate Mr John Kelly. Some 20 fellow undergraduates, post-graduates and lecturers at the university's Martin Ryan Marine Science Institute had volunteered to share their knowledge of the seashore with anyone and everyone who managed to make it.
International Low Tide Day is an annual locally-based environmental event, celebrated in the US, across Europe and in the north African state of Morocco. The initiative is promoted on these islands by the British-based River Ocean network. Its motto is "One tide on one day, around one world, because we all live downstream . . ." Communities are invited to explore inter-tidal sites under expert guidance, combining both art and science. Celebrations have ranged from day-long "eco-fayres" to school outings to guided walks, provided by scientists who give of their free time.
Out at Spiddal, children as young as three and well into their teens from St Nicholas's Collegiate School in Galway, Boleybeg National School, the Galway Educate Together National School and others scoured around rocks and dabbled in rock pools, successfully identifying hermit crabs, sea anemones, shrimps, pipe fish, limpets and starfish. The university students were armed with copies of the Sherkin Island Marine Station pocket-book, A Beginner's Guide to Ireland's Seashore, as they showed how limpets use their sucker foot to cling onto rocks.
Nets and buckets were abandoned when Claire Doyle and Silvana Acevedo arrived on the beach clad in snorkels, masks and wetsuits. They showed how their gear worked before they tramped out into the waves and disappeared.
About 30 minutes later, they returned with their catch from the seabed, including much larger starfish and several types of shellfish.
Mr John Kelly, chairman of the NUI, Galway Marine Science Society, said he was delighted with the turnout. Galway had been the only Irish coastal county to register for the international festival, he said.