OUT & ABOUT
Wild Coasts Give your next family trip to the beach a nature-centric twist. Hanna Lindon picks out some of the best nature reserves and wild sites along the Sussex coast
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© LITTLESTAR
ollecting crabs, fishing for blennies, trawling rockpools, losing your fish and chips to seagulls – some of the best family beach memories are built around wildlife encounters. If you’re planning a beach outing this summer, why not use it to explore one of the area’s incredible natural attractions? The Sussex coastline has some fascinating pockets of biodiversity. Offshore, nine Marine Conservation Zones protect 1,940km of ocean – this shadowy underwater world is home to a host of rare species, including short-snouted seahorses and Ross worm reefs. Work is currently underway to restore pockets of globally important kelp forest, which will provide a habitat for marine life as well as critical carbon storage. But the wildlife isn’t all offshore. Local nature reserves and protected SSSIs pockmark the coast between Bognor and Rye. This 60mile stretch of shoreline packs in some incredible habitat variety, ranging from vegetated shingle to chalk grassland, sand flats, woodland and mixed heather. Accessible walks, rockpooling, fossil-hunting – there are dozens of familyfriendly ways to explore these natural havens. Here’s our pick of the top spots.
July 2022 | SUSSEX LIVING 9
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