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Weever fish are perhaps most commonly known for the painful stings they deliver to beach goers around the UK coastline.

However, a new study has used records of those stings to provide one of the most detailed investigations of how fish populations vary in time and space, in relation to environmental conditions.

The study, by marine scientists at the University of Plymouth, focused on 77 beaches covered by RNLI lifeguards, stretching from Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset, around the north and south coasts of Devon and Cornwall to Exmouth.

The paper is published in the journal Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science.

During daylight hours over the space of almost eight months, lifeguards compiled two-hourly estimates of the number of people engaged in different activities (e.g. bathers, surfers) on beaches. They also recorded the number of people requiring assistance after being stung by weever fish, and analyzing that—along with environmental data—provided scientists with a unique window into how environmental conditions affect fish populations.

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