(March 24 2006 continued...) Probably the Whiteweed was torn off the sea floor near Southend Pier and moved eastwards with the wind and tidal current, while the Hornwrack and cuttlebones had come from the open sea and sandbars. What was interesting to notice was that the cuttlebone only appeared where the reeds had stranded and then only in a few places protected in some way from the main current. Those at Westcliff were rather downstream from a projection on the promenade and near where the coast bends back slightly to the north. One from the east side of Bell Wharf in Leigh was at the end of a current along Leigh Creek which could not extend far beyond that point during so low a high tide. Another cuttlebone came from just east of Lynton Road near Thorpe Bay, where the beach turns slightly to face the strong current preventing stranding at South Shoebury and is somewhat more protectected by breakwaters than to the east. Two more were found at the end of this second barren zone. One caught with reeds under the Corporation Pier (not the famous Southend Pier now much obstructed with a fence and barren inside it) and a second on the lee side where the East beach turns slightly to the north again. Two more were found where the East Beach debris normally strands; on the last patch of sand before the amusement park juts out as a projecting barrier of stone. The total number of cuttlebones present in a surveyed strandline of 9.2 km length and a meter of 50 width was therefore 18. Their average shell width was 32 mm (range 23 mm at Leigh to 42 mm at Shoebury, with all anterior ends and all but two posterior ends broken-off). Shells of this size are juveniles of the first winter. It is possible to do a more refined study of second year specimens by counting the chambers added after the narrow winter chambers.