Our pilot study focused principally on a local scale, though national issues were present. The goals were to understand the natural capital and ecosystems services provided by maritime heritage in the Goodwin Sands and Kent coast area, to define its associated values, and to connect with the work of Ramsgate Heritage Action Zone (HAZ). The focus was also on archaeological sites, though the historical context and the development of human-environment relationships are referred to and researched where they help underpin understanding of the ecosystems services and values associated with the sites. However, it is noted that this information may also underpin wider-ranging ecosystems services assessments and these factors in particular can help to understand cultural identity, spiritualty and other issues in which time-depth, memory and history are key influencing factors. This project highlights the importance of site-specific research and surveys for understanding ecosystems services arising from wreck sites. Too little is currently known about the relationship between heritage and ecology for generalisations to be made which adequately characterise this relationship. Predictive methods for identifying which sites give rise to which ecosystems services suffer from a lack of data. Classification of the benthic habitat of wreck sites, using the EUNIS classification system, may allow for predictive assessment of benthic communities based on characteristics including biological zone and hydrodynamic considerations, as has been done for certain steel wrecks in certain environments (Connor et al. 2004). If further information such as this were available, predicting potential sites at which ecosystems services arise may be possible, but, for local scale studies, this would always require verification in the form of site surveys and input from stakeholders. As a demonstration of the new information on the relationship between wrecks and ecology which has yet to be understood, our study found that in addition to their role as artificial reefs, and the provision of hard substrate, wrecks also appear to affect their surrounding environments altering habitat and possibly species in a zone of influence around the sites. This project identified communities of worms represented by dense concentrations of worm casts surrounding the wreck sites on Sandwich Flats which differed in size and density to those the rest of the beach. The reasons for the presence of these worms i...