{"id":153687,"date":"2025-09-18T23:50:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T23:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/153687\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T23:50:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T23:50:12","slug":"shark-surveying-helped-improve-my-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/153687\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Shark surveying helped improve my mental health’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Annie Knowlson and Lauren HirstNorth West<\/p>\n

\"MikeMike McDonnell<\/p>\n

Egg cases, including rays and catsharks, have washed up on Morecambe Bay<\/p>\n

Volunteers who have been helping scientists to understand more about our oceans said connecting with nature had transformed their lives.<\/p>\n

Members of the Lancashire Wildlife Trust’s The Bay Group search for shark egg cases on the shoreline in Morecambe Bay.<\/p>\n

Their findings provide a valuable insight into more than 40 different shark species that are found in UK waters.<\/p>\n

One of the volunteers, Ras Thomasen, said his mental health had improved as a result of participating in the programme.<\/p>\n

“It really struck something in me,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It was that good that after a few weeks my therapist said ‘you can stop your therapy now and go to the Bay weekly’… and that’s two-and-a half-years ago.”<\/p>\n

\"Ras<\/p>\n

Ras Thomasen said the scheme had made a big impact on his life<\/p>\n

Fellow volunteer Heather Neal added: “It’s just wonderful because I’ve had so many problems over the years.<\/p>\n

“I had to leave work early because I had to look after mum and so it’s just wonderful. It’s just everybody’s so nice.”<\/p>\n

The Morecambe Bay group recovered 30% of all egg cases found across the UK last year.<\/p>\n

The volunteers take photographs of the egg cases and upload them to the Shark Trust’s website.<\/p>\n

\"Heather<\/p>\n

Heather Neal said she had made many friends since joining the group <\/p>\n

The cases are rehydrated, categorised and counted – which helps scientists better understand the marine species. <\/p>\n

Mike McDonnell, who runs the group, said getting into nature had helped members make valuable connections and gain in confidence.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got people that maybe had quite severe anxiety, maybe hadn’t left the house for a couple of years, especially coming off the back of the pandemic, forming friendships,” he said.<\/p>\n

Lancashire Wildlife Trust’s The Bay Group recently won a national award for its work and was recognised at the Marsh Volunteer Awards for Marine Conservation.<\/p>\n

\"About<\/p>\n

Volunteers celebrate their recent success in the Marsh Volunteer Awards<\/p>\n

Tom Burditt, chief executive of Lancashire Wildlife Trust, said the volunteers were helping to collect an “amazing amount of knowledge about the wonderful wildlife species that are living out here”.<\/p>\n

The volunteers said they wanted to step up conservation efforts to protect habitats and retain their title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Annie Knowlson and Lauren HirstNorth West Mike McDonnell Egg cases, including rays and catsharks, have washed up on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-153687","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}