Over the past 6 months, we have had the privilege of working alongside colleagues at Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust (LWT) and those at our partner companies: The Crown Estate, Natural England and Ørsted. This internship has allowed us represent Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust at conferences like ReMeMaRe 2023 and The Wildlife Trust’s Federation Conference, and get involved with field work such as seal wardening, seagrass seed collection and oyster biometric. We’ve also had the opportunity to assist with public engagement events: sea dipping at Gibraltar Point, and running the Wilder Humber stand at LWT’s 75^th Anniversary Festival. Alongside this, we have attended training sessions with The Crown Estate, improving our business writing and presentation skills, visited Ørsted’s Operations & Maintenance Hub in Grimsby and attended Natural England’s Offshore Wind Event in Brighton. On top of all these incredible experiences, we have completed a total of five research projects, which we couldn’t have done without the support and input from those at LWT and our partner companies. Thank you to everyone that’s helped us and provided us with such great experiences throughout the internship. We are now on the lookout for our next roles and can’t wait to apply the skills we’ve learnt throughout the internship in our future careers.

Our Favourite Experiences at Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust

Sian Peace

Favourite moment: Wilder Humber Seagrass Seed Collecting

It is incredibly difficult to pick a favourite moment from my time as an intern, but something I’ve thoroughly enjoyed has been the opportunity to participate in hands-on field work. We’ve been lucky enough to get involved with several field activities including beach cleaning, sea-dipping and sea-watching. A highlight for me was having the opportunity to assist in seagrass seed collection at Spurn Point, contributing towards the Wilder Humber programme. Ørsted has partnered with both Lincolnshire and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust to carry out this seascape project, which aims to not only restore 30 hectares of seagrass, but also oyster reef, saltmarsh and sand dunes.

The seagrass seeds are carefully harvested by hand, and then sieved to separate the seeds from any sand or mud. Once sieved, the seeds are moved to a tank beneath a UV light, where they can continue to develop, and the rotting phase can begin. Fully developed seeds are collected, and placed in handmade seed bags, ready for the planting season, where seed bags are placed in the sand, ready to start growing and restoring the seagrass meadow.

The future of our planet is determined by the actions we take right now. Seagrass is a natural carbon store and can therefore act as a nature-based solution in combatting climate change. Alongside this, seagrass restoration is hugely important for local wildlife, as this habitat acts as a nursery and feeding ground for many marine species. Knowing that I have contributed towards this project fills me with joy, and I hope to get involved with similar opportunities in the future!

Jasmine Brown

Favourite moment: National Marine Week

This one-of-a-kind internship has provided us with so many exciting experiences and opportunities, but my favourite with LWT has to be participating in the National Marine Week activities in our 4th week. A really important part of conservation is engaging with communities, and what better than starting off the internship helping with a fun filled week of marine-themed activities!     

My favourite activity was the sea dipping event hosted by the Gibraltar Point Team. The turnout was unprecedented – 176 people came to have a go! People of all ages got stuck in pushing their nets across the shore bed and intently surveyed their nets for sea creatures. The adults had just as much, if not more fun, than the kids. We even had a visit from a common seal popping his head above the water to take a look at what we were doing!

Another of my favourite activities was participating in Sea Watch Foundation’s National Whale and Dolphin Watch that week. We joined the Trust’s lovely coastal wardens Richard Doan and Dave Miller at the North Sea Observatory on the lookout for cetaceans (dolphins, whales and porpoises).

I couldn’t have been luckier to get this internship. We got to experience all of the different aspects of conservation, meet so many passionate people, and take control of some quite tricky current topics, which have provided us with an amazing set of skills to take forward in our career!

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Here is a summary of pictures from our internship that we’d like to share with you:

If you would like to hear more about our experiences within the 6-month internship, check out our other blog posts at https://www.lincstrust.org.uk/blog/sian-and-jasmine.

Thank you to you reading this, for keeping up to date with our posts and being a part of our journey!