The Ecology of the Rocky Shores of Sherkin Island - A Twenty-Year Perspective is the first major analysis of rocky shore data from a programme begun in 1975 in Co. Cork, southwest Ireland by Sherkin Island Marine Station.
The book gives well-illustrated background information on the common species of the rocky shore together with how the rocky shore food web functions. The main focus of the book though is seven shores on Sherkin Island where sampling was carried out monthly between April and October. These seven sites were part of an ongoing rocky shore monitoring programme of 152 sites, from Cork Harbour to Bantry Bay, along 700 miles of indented coastline of southwest Ireland. This is believed to have been one of the world’s longest and most extensive present day survey of the rocky shore. Sherkin Island Marine Station in Co Cork, Ireland, is a totally independent research station founded in 1975 by Matt Murphy and his late wife Eileen.
Faced with a huge database of hundreds of species, which are listed in the book, the analysis presented deals only with the few visually dominant animals and plants (up to 20 per shore) e.g. the large brown wracks, some common red and green seaweeds, barnacles, limpets, mussels, winkles and dogwhelks, which will be familiar to anyone with an interest in the seashore. The book was written specifically to include people and to appeal to a wider audience that the academic community. For this we are indebted to the author, Dr. Gillian Bishop, the Station’s first marine biologist
