Jersey royalty

The popular Channel Island gives Rachel Steinberg plenty of food for thought

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Rudely roused from an afternoon nap, the stocky shore crab I'm inspecting is contorting every part of his body in irritation.

A grudging stagehand plucked from behind a rocky curtain and shoved into the spotlight, he retaliates by menacingly blowing bubbles.

"That's swearing in crab," explains Kazz Padidar, the crustacean-clutching foraging expert who has led us to St Ouen's Bay, a magnificent five-mile stretch along Jersey's west coast.

Our reluctant rockpool star may be displeased to see us, but marine life is top billing on our three-day trip to Jersey, one of the best places to appreciate the power, beauty and fragility of our oceans.

Attracting tourists and boosting the economy through a sustainable fishing industry, a healthy marine environment is the island's greatest resource.

Voted through in October, Jersey's first Marine Spatial Plan will develop a network of marine-protected areas, raised from 6% to 23%, where dredging and trawling will be banned. The devastating impact of these damaging fishing practices on the environment and small-scale operators is a hot topic, recently highlighted by new David Attenborough documentary, Ocean.

An ideal base for scientific research, the compact island hopes to be a case study for the rest of the world.

Now a Crown Dependency, the 46 square-mile island has experienced several rulers and was occupied by the Germans during the Second World War. During that dark period, Kazz's grandparents were forced to feed their nine children with whatever they could find after the Nazis claimed their farm.