Newcastle

0:00:02 > 0:00:05We're heading south on another personal journey,

0:00:05 > 0:00:09to a shore where I've been rock-pooling since childhood.

0:00:17 > 0:00:21But this is a special trip below Bloody Bridge, near Newcastle,

0:00:21 > 0:00:24because I'm searching the nooks and crannies

0:00:24 > 0:00:27with a superb naturalist, Trevor Norton.

0:00:28 > 0:00:31Now, this actually looks quite a good shore,

0:00:31 > 0:00:33because it's very exposed to the waves,

0:00:33 > 0:00:35and therefore there's not so much seaweed

0:00:35 > 0:00:39- and you can actually see what's going on.- Uh-huh.

0:00:39 > 0:00:42And the interesting thing about these shores

0:00:42 > 0:00:45is that a lot of the features of them are identically the same

0:00:45 > 0:00:47wherever you are in the world.

0:00:47 > 0:00:51Almost anywhere in the world, there'll be a barnacle zone like this

0:00:51 > 0:00:56and there'll be a zone with little periwinkles above it

0:00:56 > 0:00:59and there'll be a band of red seaweeds down below.

0:00:59 > 0:01:02And the voice of the ocean is the same no matter where you go.

0:01:02 > 0:01:04- Yes, the lisp of the waves.- Yeah!

0:01:04 > 0:01:08I wonder why we actually are so fond of the sound of water.

0:01:11 > 0:01:15'Trevor heard a whisper in the shells when he was a lad.

0:01:15 > 0:01:17'Now he's a retired marine scientist

0:01:17 > 0:01:23'whose books chronicle his lifelong love affair with the sea.'

0:01:23 > 0:01:27One of the things I love most about the pools here is the colour.

0:01:27 > 0:01:30It's fantastic, isn't it? We can't see any rock here.

0:01:30 > 0:01:34That's all pink seaweed, hard as the rock.

0:01:34 > 0:01:38- It's inedible. It's safe from grazing.- It does look just like rock.

0:01:38 > 0:01:39It's just a normal seaweed.

0:01:39 > 0:01:41It's got normal cells, and it spreads,

0:01:41 > 0:01:44but it impregnates the cells with calcium. Simple as that.

0:01:47 > 0:01:50This goes back to childhood. It probably does with you as well.

0:01:50 > 0:01:52You come to somewhere like this

0:01:52 > 0:01:55and it's different every single time you come here.

0:01:55 > 0:01:57Every time I discover a rock pool like this, it's magic.

0:01:57 > 0:02:00It never ceases to amaze me.

0:02:00 > 0:02:04They say "Life's a box of chocolates, you never know what you'll get". Like this.

0:02:04 > 0:02:09If you just peel back that coralline seaweed, look.

0:02:09 > 0:02:12- A common starfish. - It is a starfish, yeah.

0:02:12 > 0:02:13Isn't that beautiful?

0:02:13 > 0:02:16When you think of predators, you think of lions

0:02:16 > 0:02:18and things like that.

0:02:18 > 0:02:21But these guys are killers.

0:02:21 > 0:02:23Once a starfish embraces a clam,

0:02:23 > 0:02:25it's doomed,

0:02:25 > 0:02:28because the clam can only clam shut with its muscles, which get tired,

0:02:28 > 0:02:31but the starfish works on hydraulics. It never gets tired.

0:02:31 > 0:02:33It always wins.

0:02:33 > 0:02:34As soon as the clam gapes,

0:02:34 > 0:02:37out comes its stomach like an air bag in a car

0:02:37 > 0:02:42and it just squirts acid in, dissolves it alive. That's your fate.

0:02:42 > 0:02:45Lucky we're big. If we were small, the first time we went to the seaside

0:02:45 > 0:02:48- would be our last.- Truth is always stranger than fiction.

0:02:48 > 0:02:52If you think about how these creatures live... We found a starfish

0:02:52 > 0:02:56which has got missing limbs, but they can regenerate them.

0:02:56 > 0:02:59It's quite common. Fishermen used to cut them into bits,

0:02:59 > 0:03:01because they'd steal their clams and things,

0:03:01 > 0:03:03but each bit, if it had a bit of the middle in,

0:03:03 > 0:03:05would regenerate into a whole starfish.

0:03:08 > 0:03:11And the little crab that we found, as well, he's missing claws.

0:03:11 > 0:03:14They often lose a claw or two. Again, no problem,

0:03:14 > 0:03:17- they can regenerate it. - But how's he going to eat?

0:03:17 > 0:03:20Without the claws to pinch and hold on, how's he going to make a living?

0:03:20 > 0:03:22They'll eat things that are decaying,

0:03:22 > 0:03:24so if the eggs are softened, he can eat them

0:03:24 > 0:03:27with the tiny bits of knives and forks close to his mouth.

0:03:27 > 0:03:31We don't think of those as being fantastically good predators,

0:03:31 > 0:03:33but they would be one of the kings, if not THE king,

0:03:33 > 0:03:38- in this environment, wouldn't they? - Crabs are assassins in pie crust.

0:03:46 > 0:03:50This is one of the few places in the British Isles that's still wild.

0:03:50 > 0:03:54There's nowhere on land that hasn't been modified by our activities,

0:03:54 > 0:03:58whereas the pools here are exactly as they were a million years ago.

0:04:03 > 0:04:05There's a fantastic tradition

0:04:05 > 0:04:08of people coming to the shore, isn't there?

0:04:08 > 0:04:11The Victorians loved the shore and would ravage

0:04:11 > 0:04:13the rock pools for their collections.

0:04:13 > 0:04:16But there was frustration. They'd look towards the sea

0:04:16 > 0:04:19and they'd know that down there there was more, perhaps better,

0:04:19 > 0:04:22and they couldn't go. Incredibly frustrating.

0:04:22 > 0:04:24But no longer. You must go.

0:04:28 > 0:04:29Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd