The 2022 Lundy Marine Festival

From mid-July to mid-September 2022, the island hosted a Marine Festival. The primary aim of the Festival was to mark the 50^th anniversary of founding of the voluntary marine nature reserve in 1972. It also provided an excuse to undertake some citizen science projects (a marine bioblitz being the major one) to assist in the on-going management of the MPA; to leave a worthwhile legacy behind once the Festival was over; and to promote the cause of marine conservation in general. The aims were to be met by creating various opportunities for visitors to the island to ‘get involved’ with the MPA in some way or other. A full report on the Marine Festival (Irving, 2023), detailing the various activities and results of projects, can be viewed here.

Projects undertaken during the Festival

• The Marine Bioblitz – a week-long survey by about 25 volunteers to record as many species as possible both from the island’s accessible shores and from four dive sites. More details about how they got on can be found here.
• Searches for non-native intertidal and subtidal species – six non-native species of seaweed were recorded, together with two species of non-native invertebrates. More details on these non-native species recorded from the MPA can be found here.
• Diver assessment of the condition of pink sea fans Eunicella verrucosa – many sea fans were found to still be in a poor condition (as first reported by Wood, 2003 and later investigated by Hall-Spencer et al., 2007). A large proportion of sea fans off the east coast were found to have been entangled by the egg cases of nursehounds. Further information about the condition of pink sea fans at Lundy can be found here.
• Clifftop surveys of cetaceans – seven effort-related watches were undertaken by two members of the Sea Watch Foundation, together with an MSc student researching the distribution of small cetaceans within the MPA and numerous casual visitors. Over a period of a fortnight, 18 sightings of harbour porpoises were recorded, numbering 43 animals; and one sighting of common dolphins comprising a total of six animals. In addition, an F-POD hydrophone was fixed to the wreck of the MV Robert off the east coast by divers in order to record cetacean vocalisations. Further information about cetaceans seen off Lundy can be found here.
• Protected Wreck Days trialled – four days were set aside for groups of divers to be given guided tours of the wreck of the SS Iona II, a protected wreck which sank off the east coast in 1863. Groups were led by the Nautical Archaeological Society’s Peta Knott. Divers with cameras were asked to take viewpoint photographs from marked positions. The best of the resulting photos and videos have been added to the list entry on the National Heritage List for England via Historic England’s Enriching the List Further information about Lundy’s historic shipwrecks can be found here.

Other activities which took place during the Festival

• The church as an education centre - Many other activities centred on the island’s church. This building underwent a large renovation project during 2017-2018, funded in part by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and part by private donations/grants. Most of the work was to do with making the building weatherproof. Following the work, the church was renamed the St Helen’s Centre, indicating its new role (as well as remaining a place of worship) as an education and interpretation centre.
• The Centre proved an excellent space for the Festival to have use of during the summer months. By 2022, the building had access to the internet and there was also a good mobile signal available. For the first ten days of the Festival it was converted into a ‘pop-up’ marine laboratory, with numerous microscopes arranged on tables, alongside sorting trays, petri dishes and field identification guides. Visitors were encouraged to peer down said microscopes to view sea slugs in all their beauty and the waving limbs of barnacles poking out from their shell plates.
• We had managed to arrange the free loan of several Virtual Reality headsets (thanks to the generosity of Earth Action North Devon) which allowed those who had no intention of getting wet to immerse themselves under water (yet remain dry) and to swim with seals. These 360° headsets proved a great hit!

The church also acted as a venue for a series of weekly presentations given by experts, specially invited over to the island. The hope had been for each presentation to be viewed simultaneously on-line, but sadly the technology required defeated us. The following enlightened the audience with their Friday evening talks: