Species point records from 1982 Smith Lewis littoral survey

This report of a survey carried out under contract to the NCC, describes the shores of Lewis from Mealista on the west coast, north to the Butt of Lewis and south down the east coast as far as the Eye Peninsula, east of Stornaway. Full descriptions of the 33 stations visited are given and excerpts from Powell et al. (1979) included where these also describe the same sites. The area covered in the report is very large, some 150 km of coast excluding the Loch Roag complex. Apart from Loch Roag, the shores are mostly open, exposed to extremely exposed and except in their detail show little variety. Loch Roag, by contrast, is largely sheltered and has a great variety of habitats, rocky shores, various sediments, rapids, lagoons and brackish areas. The rocks are predominantly Lewisian Gneiss which restricts crevice and soft rock fauna. All littoral species which could be identified were recorded, but the list is weighted towards Mollusca. Attention is drawn towards species of particular significance for being at or near the limit of their range. It is noted that autumn populations of mollusca were more diverse and contained higher populations of animals than spring populations. The very exposed and most sheltered shores had the lowest diversity and, normally, lowest numbers of animals, and normally the sheltered sites were the most prolific. The author considers that Lewis is shown by the survey to be as rich and interesting as the more southern isles, and following upon Powell (1979), indicates that some areas are worthy of the highest conservation interest. An appraisal of the biological interest and importance of the shores of the Lewis area is made by the author, the coast being divided into regions. Of these, Loch Roag was found to be extremely rich and interesting in the intertidal, more so than other parts of Lewis with the possible exception of Loch Erisort (Smith, 1982). Judged as one of the most interesting and important areas in western Scotland with its great variety of habitat and high diversity of mollusca, it was assessed as Grade 1+. The coast south-west of Loch Roag is one of the most exposed in the Outer Hebrides, isolated, with an irregular coastline and interesting hanging saltmarsh at the tops of the cliffs. This region is assessed as Grade 1-2 for exposure and wildnerness. The north-west coast of Lewis is a uniform area of coastline which was assessed with reservations as Grade 2. The east coast of Lewis comprised several contrasting zones, much not of any especial importance. Port Skigersta is assessed as Grade 3 and Melbost Point as Grade 1. Records currently considered sensitive have been removed from this dataset.