Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Fife beach lover reveals why finding a nudibranch isn’t anything to blush over

Marine biologist Dr Elizabeth Mills wants Fife locals to 'connect' with their beaches. She is pictured here at Elie. Image: Elizabeth Mills
Marine biologist Dr Elizabeth Mills wants Fife locals to 'connect' with their beaches. She is pictured here at Elie. Image: Elizabeth Mills

Dundee-based marine biologist Dr Elizabeth Mills uses YouTube to share her love of Fife beaches.

And her passion from the Kingdom’s coasts has taken her as far as a programme on BBC children’s channel CBeebies.

“The fact that you can go out twice a day in wellies and see stuff similar to what is on Blue Planet, it’s just amazing,” she says.

Although Elizabeth admitted that she struggles to pick a favourite beach, she said St Andrews and Anstruther are two of those she most loves to visit.

“At St Andrews, you can get out to these really low rock pools at low tide and see lots of amazing things.

“And every time I go to Anstruther, I find a nudibranch.

“It’s an underwater sea slug. They’re so cool and they’re so tiny. They’re brightly coloured and just bizarre.

“I spent years trying to find them and Anstruther has them every time I go.”

Lovebombing oceans on YouTube

Scientist and broadcaster Elizabeth said that her goal is to “make people fall in love first” with our oceans.

“There is a lot of information out there about how the ocean is struggling and what we are doing wrong.

A pair of nudibranchs in the North Sea.

“A lot of the time we’re disconnected from it.

“We might walk along and have a look at the sea, but the world of the water can feel a bit distant.

“To realise how important it is, we have to connect to it first.”

Marine biologist Dr Elizabeth Mills at East Sands beach, St Andrews. Image: Elizabeth Mills

But these beautiful beaches that Elizabeth is passionate about are under threat.

“We need to be more sustainable, which means reducing pollution and carbon emissions,” she said.

Microplastics are one of the many issues that the oceans are facing.

“You personally can make a difference by trying to cut down on plastic use, for example with fast fashion.”

Elizabeth also said that all of us should be “getting to know” the local beaches. This will be vital as climate changes progresses.

“We are unfortunately going to see impacts on the sea.

“If you speak to people like fishermen, they can tell you that within their lifetime there are things that have changed for them.

“What would be really good is for people to get to know their local beaches and connect to them.

“Then you can keep an eye out for things changing.”

Conversation