DID you know that Somerset’s coast is a little under 50 miles long – with an incredible variety of habitats such as sand dunes, rocky shores, and mud flats?

Better still, it has the longest continual stretch of coastal deciduous woodland, the highest sea cliffs in England and the longest stretch of sandy beach in Europe.

Our coastal habitats support a wealth of amazing species from charismatic hermit crabs to shy porpoises.

And it is all waiting to be explored, so why not take a walk along the coastline during National Marine Week, which runs until August 12, to see what you can discover?

Berrow, which has the largest area of sand dunes left in Somerset, supports some of the 270 species of wildflower.

There you will find sea spurge, sea milkwort and common sea lavender.

Further down the coast, at Blue Anchor, you can see some incredible natural construction work – in the form of honeycomb reefs.

These structures made from grains of sand built by a species of reef building worm, Sabellaria alveolata cover several square meters and provide hiding places for very young fish as well as creating a home for many other small marine creatures.

If you want to see these species close-up, you might want to give rockpooling a try too.

When the waves have retreated, and the tide is low, rockpools become mini oceans. Shrimp can be found roaming around the pools and crabs hide under clumps of seaweed.

Starfish, limpets, barnacles and anemones cling to the rock faces and seaweed forests waft in the water, providing cover for snails and small fish – and, if you’re lucky, larger creatures like lobsters or pipefish can be seen.