engineering

Living Coasts

Living Coasts is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Living Coasts rather than just read about it. In short: Living Coasts was a coastal zoo at the site of Torquay Marine Spa in Devon, England. It was owned by South West Environmental Parks as part of the Wild Planet Trust, formerly known as Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust, which also operates Newquay Zoo and Paignton Zoo.

Key takeaways

Living Coasts belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Living Coasts to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Living Coasts from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Living Coasts was a coastal zoo at the site of Torquay Marine Spa in Devon, England. It was owned by South West Environmental Parks as part of the Wild Planet Trust, formerly known as Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust, which also operates Newquay Zoo and Paignton Zoo. It was a registered charity, based around seabirds and other coastal wildlife. The site had a covered giant aviary which included several animal enclosures and habitats including an artificial tidal estuary, a penguin beach, a tropical mangrove swamp, and underwater viewing areas. Living Coasts was also home to the oldest African penguin in the UK, named Pat, before he was euthanized in 2015 at the age of 37. Living Coasts was Britain's first and only coastal zoo. It was a member of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA), the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA). On 16 June 2020, Living Coasts announced it would not reopen following its closure during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the species the zoo had included common cuttlefish, octopus, penguins, seals, otter, atlantic mudskipper, puffin, inca tern, common tern, seahorses, black necked stilt, starfish, kittiwake, ray, jellyfish, common redshank, pufferfish, pied avocet, pigeon guillemots, common guillemots, crabs, ruffs, red lionfish, lobster, banded archerfish, Scatophagus argus, mullet, Barrow's goldeneye, bank cormorant, common murre, anemone, beetles, tompot blenny, chough, orange chromide, shore clingfish, death head cockroach, leopard gecko, goby, stick insect, silver moony, oyster catcher, pipefish, sea urchins, blue baboon spider, corkwing wrasse, longtailed duck, bristletail filefish, bearded reedling, wolffish, blacktailed godwit, black rat, and scoter.

History

Living Coasts opened to the public on 14 July 2003, built on the site of the former Torquay Marine Spa. As of 2011 was being visited by over 100,000 visitors a year. It officially closed in June 2020, following significant loss of income caused by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

Aviary The aviary was 19 metres (62 ft) at its highest point and had a total volume of 1.8 million cubic feet (51,000 m3). This free flying enclosure was home to mammals and birds including South American fur seals, African penguins, macaroni penguins, sea ducks, pied avocet, redshanks, black-necked stilts, ruffs, and terns. The aviary was the first open-air auk exhibit in the world, and won a design award. It was also the first place in the U.K to breed pigeon guillemots, common guillemots and tufted puffins. Also found in the auk enclosure were red legged kittiwakes and red billed choughs.

Other exhibits

Aquarium tanks inside the aviary had a total capacity of 1,214 cubic metres (321,000 US gal).

Mangroves: The Roots of the Sea opened in July 2009, and featured large aquarium tanks containing over 20 species. including three types of sting ray. It is Britain's first major exhibit themed on a mangrove swamp habitat. The Local Coasts exhibit was themed on the underside of a classic English pier and home to native marine species including seahorses, starfish, edible crabs etc. Discovery Zone, which opened in March 2008, featured an interactive floor with a series of specially-created penguin computer game stations called Penguin Academy.

Programs Special shows, extended talks and hands-on events were available throughout the site each day. Other programs let visitors be keeper or junior keeper for the day, take part in one of the penguin feeds, or (for certified SCUBA divers) take a 45-minute swim with the penguins.

Facilities Living Coasts had a cafe that overlooked Torbay and the Tradewinds gift shop, themed on a colonial harbour. Both facilities were open to visitors and non-visitors.

Closure On 23 March 2020, Living Coasts, along with other visitor attractions nationwide, temporarily closed during the COVID-19 pandemic and consequent lockdown. On 11 June, the House of Commons debated the reopening of zoos amid mounting concerns that many could face permanent closure without visitor revenue. On 15 June, the Government announced zoos could re-open to the public with strict social distancing rules in place, however Living Coasts remained closed. On 16 June, Wild Planet Trust announced the permanent closure of Living Coasts due to its costbase, need to make efficiencies and inability to afford required substantial maintenance. Homes were sought for the zoo's animals. Despite euthanasia fears, on 19 June 2020 it was then announced that homes had been found for all animals.

Notes

External links Media related to Living Coasts at Wikimedia Commons Wild Planet Trust Website

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Living Coasts

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Living Coasts claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Living Coasts before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Living Coasts ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Living Coasts

In research: Living Coasts appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Living Coasts in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Living Coasts is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2003 establishments in England, 2020 disestablishments in England, Aquaria in England, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Living Coasts outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Living Coasts in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Living Coasts means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Living Coasts out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Living Coasts in simple terms?

Why does Living Coasts matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Living Coasts?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Living Coasts.