Mass Stranding of Lutraria lutraria at Abergele

A mass stranding of Lutraria lutraria occurred at Abergele on the North Wales Coast during March 2007. This was brought about by the severe northerly gales in March coinciding with the abnormally low tide, -0.7 ft. The stranding involved many thousands of adult Lutraria lutraria being deposited on the upper drift line, which occurred on a major shingle bank for a distance of several hundred metres SH947789. The shingle bank slopes steeply onto the flat, wet sandy shore, which in turn extends for 150m to the lower shore level.

The specimens on the upper drift line were mainly dead, but at the bottom of the shingle bank and up to a sea breaker, was a large area 12m across of live adult Lutraria lutraria. Many of these had managed to reburrow into the wet sand and appeared to be quite active. Although they were in an area that will be covered by seawater on every tide, they were still too far up the shoreline for this species, and being in an area that will be trampled during the holiday season, their chance of survival is probably limited.

Amongst the Lutraria lutraria, there were a number of Ensis siliqua which were also live and frequent and one specimen of Acanthocardia echinata. Shells of Lutraria occur regularly on northwest shores ranging from occasional to frequent; a stranding of live adults however is unprecedented. The pictures were taken on 24/3/07, the stranding occurred a day or two earlier.

Images © Tom Clifton