Lowestoft beach snaps wanted for research

The Cefas Lowestoft laboratory (1970) showing the narrow beach frontage between the groynes and the same section of beach in 2002 showing an increased amount of sand

Researchers from the Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (Cefas) and the University of East Anglia (UEA) hope holiday snaps may provide just the breakthrough they need to uncover long-term changes to the Suffolk coastline and near-shore sandbanks.

The public are being encouraged to loan any photographs they may have of Lowestoft’s beaches, spanning from the Claremont Pier to Benacre Ness. The photographs must:

be dated to the nearest year (or, ideally, month)
include a local landmark (e.g. a building) so that they can be precisely located
have the owner’s name and address noted on the back.

Cefas oceanographer, Jon Rees, says: "Existing data shows information about beaches and sandbanks, but there is a ‘black hole’ when it comes to historical records of the combined beach and bank records. We hope that visitors to the 2005 Lowestoft Fish Fayre will bring along any relevant photos, or post them to the Cefas laboratory, so that we can start piecing together how the coastline has changed over time."

A two-year study, called BLINKS (Beach LINKs to Sandbanks), will try to discover the effects that Newcombe Sand has on Lowestoft’s southern beaches. It is thought that the sandbank may protect the beaches and supply sand to them. Using high-speed digital cameras on the Cefas laboratory roof and conducting surveys with Global Positioning Systems (GPS) researchers will build up a daily picture of the changes. But it is historical photographs that could hold the key to really showing how waves and currents have changed the coastline over time.

The BLINKS project will use cameras, mounted on the roof of the Cefas laboratory, to monitor changes to Newcombe Sand and the beaches. The images will be used to identify the shoreline and the location of the sandbanks. Hourly images are available for public viewing on the BLINKS website: www.uea.ac.uk/env/blinks.

More precise measurements of the shoreline and sandbank positions will be surveyed with Global Positioning Systems (GPS). To allow for a larger area to be surveyed, the GPS is mounted on a quad bike. Monthly beach surveys will show how the volume of sand on the beaches changes. GPS will also be used on small boats or jet skis for sandbank surveys. The GPS information will be compared with that collected by the digital cameras.

The BLINKS project is a novel collaboration among the School of Environmental Sciences at UEA in Norwich (www.uea.ac.uk/env), the National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in New Zealand (www.niwa.co.nz), and scientists at Cefas. Funding comes from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC: www.nerc.ac.uk) and Cefas. Others on the Steering Committee are Waveney District Council, ABP Marine Environmental Research Ltd, Posford Haskoning, and Halcrow Group Ltd.

Local people, and visitors to the region, are encouraged to bring any relevant photographs along to the 2005 Lowestoft Fish Fayre, at Waveney Dock, 18 June. Alternatively, they can post their photographs to the Cefas laboratory. Contact: BLINKS, Cefas, Lowestoft Laboratory, Pakefield Road, Lowestoft NR33 0HT. Telephone: 01502 562244. Email: blinks@cefas.co.uk.

Loaned photographs will be used for research and will only be reproduced with permission. All photographs will be returned in due course.