Tiny Creatures

The sea around our coast is full of life but not all of it is as obvious as the fish and crabs.  What we do not see are all the very small animals called "plankton".  A lot of the plankton is the baby or "larval" stages of some of our more familiar shore animals like crabs, limpets, fish and barnacles.

To have a look at some of this plankton you will need these things.  A pair of tights or a stocking, scissors, needle and thread, wire hoop, wooden pole or broom handle, black sticky tape, plastic bottle, string or a cable tie and a small torch.

Make a hoop about 20cm in diameter from the wire, an old coat hanger is fine, then using the needle and thread sew on the open end of the stocking or if you are using tights first cut one leg from the pair and sew that on.  The stitching needs to be fairly strong to withstand being dragged through the water and you need to leave some of the wire bare at each end.

When you have finished sewing, cut the foot end from the stocking or tight leg.  This open end is then place over the open end of the bottle then secured in place either with string or a cable tie. 

Wrap some tape around the loose materiel below the string or cable tie and more tape should be added to three quarters of the bottle sides. 

Take the bare ends of the wire hoop and bend them at right angles but so the point in the same direction.  This part of the wire is now attached to the wooden pole or broom handle using more black tape.

You are now ready to go plankton hunting.  Take your net and your torch down to your local beach and with the net trailing in the water walk up and down the shallows for a minute or so.  Now if you hold up the bottle end and shine the torch from below you should see lots of tiny creatures swimming around, this is the plankton.  Not all of it is visible as some are so small you will need a microscope to see them but many types are large enough to see with your torch.