COLLECTING & IDENTIFYING SEAWEEDS 2026

The British Phycological Society based at Dale Fort Field Centre

Saturday 16th to Tuesday 19th May 2026

A field course by:

  • Professor Christine Maggs (Belfast University)
  • Francis Bunker (MarineSeen)
  • Professor Juliet Brodie (Natural History Museum)
  • Anne Bunker (MarineSeen)

A field course designed for those who want an introduction to seaweed identification and taxonomy. Numbers will be limited to enable the tutors to cater for individual needs of interested amateurs, professional biologists requiring further training or refreshers, students (graduate and post-graduate), artists, and those working with the Water Framework Directive.

Topics to be covered

  • The common shore species and how to identify them.
  • Rock pools, overhangs and special seaweed habitats.
  • Use of keys and identification guides, microscopes and identification in the lab.
  • Pressing seaweeds
  • Water Framework Directive Species Identification
  • Identifying seaweeds from ‘difficult’ marine habitats e.g. marinas and lagoons and recognising non-natives.
  • The beautiful slime: Identifying filamentous red, brown and green seaweeds.
  • Difficult flat red seaweeds.
  • Encrusting seaweeds.
  • Laboratory techniques for sectioning and staining.
  • Preparing specimens for DNA extraction and analysis techniques.
  • Culture of seaweeds for research purposes.

Location

Pembrokeshire has an exceptionally diverse intertidal flora and offers habitats for marine algae ranging from open coast to sheltered rock and sediment and from fully saline to estuarine conditions. Dale Fort is an ideal location at which to base this course with its excellent laboratory facilities (with seawater) and proximity to field sites.

Outline Course Programme:

The course will start at 0915 on Saturday 16th May and end at 1500 on Tuesday 19th May (Sites chosen for field visits may vary depending on weather conditions etc).

Day 1 – Introductory lecture followed by a field trip to a local shore for collection and later laboratory identification.

Day 2 – Laboratory identification of collected specimens, short lectures on a variety of topics, field trip to a contrasting habitat.

Day 3 – Laboratory identification of collected specimens, short lectures on a variety of topics, field trip to a contrasting habitat.

Day 4 – Laboratory identification and further brief lectures and a chance to do more difficult and specialised identifications.

It is planned to collect sublittoral specimens to supplement the shore collections.

Costs and applications

The course fee is £400.00 (inc VAT) which will cover the teaching and use of laboratory facilities (excluding food and accommodation).

Application forms

Click here to download the application form

NB: Please check course availability first for the course by contacting the course administrator Sally Archer-Thomson at archerthomson@btinternet.com. Sally will email you back to confirm either way. If there are places available you will be provisionally added to the booking list. All fees are payable in advance (before 30th March 2026) to MarineSeen. If order numbers are required prior to invoices being paid, please supply ASAP.

Payment 

Preferred payment is via BACS.

PayPal is accepted but there is an additional cost to cover their service charge (credit cards can only be accepted through PayPal below). The total course fee cost via PayPal is £420.00 (inc VAT).

Cheques are also accepted (payable to ‘MarineSeen’) and should be sent along with your completed application form to Honey Hook Cottage, Lower Freystrop, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales, United Kingdom, SA62 4ET. Application forms can also be emailed to archerthomson@btinternet.com

PayPal Payments

If you would like to pay by PayPal/credit card please click on the ‘Buy Now’ PayPal button below, which will take you straight to your Paypal/credit card payment screen. Once at this screen you have the option to change the quantity if you would like to book for more than 1 person. (Please do check course availability first)

Travel

Dale Fort is situated at the entrance to the Milford Haven waterway has connections via road, rail and ferry. There are stations at Haverfordwest and Milford Haven and Irish Ferry Ports at Fishguard and Pembroke Dock.

Dale Fort Field Centre, Dale
Haverfordwest
Pembrokeshire
SA62 3RD
 Open in what3words

(https://www.field-studies-council.org/locations/dalefort/)

Accommodation

Dale Fort can provide accommodation, and this should be booked directly (call 01646 636205). Prices are below:

Accommodation only – £63.00 per person per night

Accommodation and breakfast – £69.00 per person per night

Accommodation plus meals – £88.25 per person per night

Meals only (3 of) – £26.40 per day

There are a few B&B’s & Airbnb’s near Dale Fort and there is a Premier Inn in Haverfordwest and the Tŷ Hotel in Milford Haven.

Food

Participants can choose to eat at Dale Fort. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are provided at a cost of £26.40 per day. Meals should be booked directly with Dale Fort (call 01646 636205).

For those who do not wish to eat at Dale Fort, nearby places to eat include the Yacht Club and Griffin Inn in Dale village and the Lobster Pot in nearby Marloes.

Equipment

Course participants asked to bring:

  • Waterproofs
  • Wellie boots
  • Field Notebook + soft pencil
  • Hand lens
  • Poly bags / containers for collecting
  • Basic dissecting kit (forceps, scalpel, scissors)
  • Seaweed press + paper etc. if you want herbarium specimens
  • Rucksack
  • Flask
  • Lunch box
  • Identification books – the more the better but particularly:
  • Seaweeds of the British Isles series of books and the 
  • Seasearch Guide to Seaweeds (2nd edition) by Francis Bunker, Juliet Brodie, Christine Maggs and Anne Bunker. This can be purchased from a variety of bookshops and online.
  • Dale Fort has some microscopes but if you have your own that you want to use, then please bring it.