Selsey Tracer Study 2025-2026

Our Research Team deployed 400 tracer pebbles in July 2025 across four sites on the beach between Selsey Beach car park and Selsey Bill with a further 50 deployed on Kirk Arrow Spit (Figure 1). Tracking the movement of these tracer pebbles over the course of a year will help to provide important information on sediment transport rates and direction around Selsey Bill.

Figure 1. Study site at Selsey, West Sussex. Yellow boxes indicate approximate deployment locations, along the black SRCMP profile lines. Figure 1. Study site at Selsey, West Sussex. Yellow boxes indicate approximate deployment locations, along the black SRCMP profile lines.
Figure 1. Study site at Selsey, West Sussex. Yellow boxes indicate approximate deployment locations, along the black SRCMP profile lines.

A previous tracer study conducted by Coastal Partners in 2023/24 along the West Beach frontage at Selsey identified a possible shift in the littoral drift divide further west towards Sea Grove.  From here there appeared to be a divergence in sediment transport direction, with some material moving north-westwards towards Seal Bay resort, and a proportion of material moving south-eastwards towards Selsey Bill.

Figure 2 An Rfid Tracer Pebble Figure 2 An Rfid Tracer Pebble

Figure 2. An RFID tracer pebble

This study aims to help answer additional questions on whether there is still a divergence in sediment transport direction in the vicinity of Selsey Bill, as documented in literature, and whether material from Kirk Arrow Spit is moving onshore to feed the beach at Selsey Bill and if so, how quickly.

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