Frinton-on-Sea again for the family holiday to the Essex coast. I shrimped each day at low tide with my repaired shrimp nets and although we were on Springs, and the low tides fell below the breakwater ends, I was able to fish along the old groins before they were completely high and dry each day. No pipe fish, gar fish or hermit crabs this year although on other years there are many and I assume that this may be to do with fluctuating water temperatures and cycles of mating and feeding ? I did however catch beautiful prawns on most days, on some years these are also absent, although they stick pretty territorially to each breakwater and so each section of woodwork only holds 4 or 5. I had a conversation with a chap on the prom about how the fish life has changed in recent years as a result of sewage dumping and silt dredging. He was pleased to hear that I had caught a number of juvenile flat fish as this coast has historically been considered a nursery for several fish species and one can be seen in the photograph above, alongside a sand shrimp. Shrimps and shore crabs are still numerous, as are the sea-weed species of isopods, Idotea baltica and smaller brine shrimps and sand hoppers.
