Not-the-end-of-the-Pier

We're working at present with the Yarmouth Harbour Commissioners, the Isle of Wight Estuaries project and other groups in the town, to save the pier. It's been eaten from below by The Gribble! These are truly minute crustaceans (to be more precise they're marine isopods of the family Limnoriidae) that just chew up driftwood, ships, sea-defences and piers. Yarmouth Pier is the longest wooden pier of its kind left in UK and there's a great deal of support for a major scheme to repair and renovate later this year if possible. Here's a really nice poster from Yarmouth Primary School on the subject.

And here's a rather splendid model of the Gribble itself made for the school by Island sculptor Nigel George. There's a certain amount of artistic licence gone into this representation ,they don't really have quite such unsettling grins. This one's been aptly named Nibbler by the children and we feel is set to become something of an iconic bete-noir for Yarmouth and perhaps for those rescuing Piers across the world, (there's actually a Gribble species that's resistant to creosote - somehow you can't help admiring their determination to eat wood come what may.)
And here's what the little munchkins really look like:

Hopefully we'll all be busy with a programme of engineering works and assorted community and educational projects celebrating the Pier and its story for the town and indeed for the Island.