‘Coastal squeeze’: the fight to save shoreline habitats from rising tides

Seawalls are causing intertidal habitats to vanish as ocean levels increase. But eco-entrepreneurs say artificial rockpools and crevices can save wildlife

• ‘It’s absolutely guaranteed’: the best and worst case scenarios for sea level rise

The rain has just stopped falling when Nigel George walks down to the beach in Sandown Bay on the Isle of Wight. He crosses the coastal road and descends a concrete stairway, a sheen of sand covering its lowest steps. The place is quiet, with only a few walkers animating the shoreline.

He’s here to inspect a wooden groyne – a kind of jetty, designed to prevent erosion – which stretches out into the sea and towards France. The groyne has been fitted with a series of small, basin-like, rough concrete, structures. George peers inside one: a congregation of limpets, barnacles, seaweed, and a single sea snail peer back at him.