“Yeah, so the hulks, I mean, the hulks are definitely used as breeding spots, particularly by oystercatchers. So, around the edge of Barksore Marshes, where I used to do surveys, you'd see the oystercatchers breeding on the hulks there. They're very safe kind of locations for ground nesting birds to breed, because it's very hard for foxes and things to get out there. 

They're all hung with seaweed, and that is a whole microcosm of wildlife in itself. So, in that seaweed will be little insects feeding on that seaweed, and then probably below the waterline there will be crustaceans and limpets, and because they're made of wood as well, they're breaking down, and that, that wood is providing nutrients into the water, so they do become a whole part of the ecosystem, really. 

I think this tradition of scuttling unwanted boats in the bays carries on on the Medway all the time, and they, you still.. and when I lived at Rainham, you'd come down in the morning and someone would have left a new boat there. Well, that's not so good, because those boats are made of plastic and metals and things, and also breaking up with the tides, and releasing all kinds of things into the water, so yeah, this kind of um, very kind of romantic tradition of hulking these beautiful wooden barges, with their ribs sticking up, that tradition still goes on. It is not necessarily such a good thing for the river now to be abandoning your unwanted boat in a creek, and often, quite often, in the middle of the waterway, and a bit of a hazard for other people as well. So, yeah, it goes on. It still goes on.”