FOSSIL HUNTING DANGERS ! AT LYME REGIS .

The Summer Holidays are rapidly approaching and many people will head to the Jurassic Coast, to go fossil hunting at low tide ! If you are thinking of looking for fossils you must beware of the dangerous cliffs that are liable to fall suddenly and without warning! Many people have heard of Lyme Regis as being a good place to collect fossils. You need a tide table book or knowledge of when it's low tide, here at Lyme Regis. You can go out an hour before low tide and an hour after low tide East of Lyme Regis, on the 2008 landslide. That is a good place to sieve for fossils on the beach, the sea washes the fossils onto the beaches from the landslides-it does the work for you!  There is an area of vertical cliffs called Church Cliffs along this stretch and it is very crumbly and it falls down all the time. There is a fossil collecting code of conduct here along the Jurassic Coast, see West Dorset Fossil Collecting Code Of Conduct online. Your not allowed to dig in the cliffs in situ. Yesterday, I saw someone digging in the base of the sheer cliffs, East of Lyme Regis-which your not meant to do. Its so incredibly dangerous to be anywhere near the cliffs and I have seen people get injured in the past by falling rocks. I take out guided fossil walks along the beach East of Lyme Regis -at low tide. I always see people that are too near to the cliffs, and some people I warn of the dangers. As I am often on a guided fossil walk my first concern is the people I'm taking out along the Coast. My father is a retired geologist, in the past he used to help me with large public walks. If I had a group of 30 people to take out we would constantly warn them of the dangers of cliff falls. However, when walking along the Coast, we would often have to shout at one of the people who had wondered away from the group and nearer to the cliffs to come back! You need "eyes in the back of your head," being a fossil walk guide. Maybe even bigger signs on the railings where you walk onto the beaches are needed, about the dangers of the falling cliffs!