AUTUMN 2005
October - December

Reports of marine wildlife from all around the British Isles, with pollution incidents and conservation initiatives as they affect the fauna and flora of the NE Atlantic Ocean.
For more reports click on the seasonal buttons below:

EVENTS

5 November 2005
Marine Conservation Society Conference
Exeter University
9:30 am to 5:00 pm

The Marine Conservation Society's Annual Conference had a special focus on climate change - one of the greatest impacts on our world's oceans today.

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LATEST NEWS
 

13 December 2005
Widespread seabird starvation has occurred in some of our largest and most renowned colonies, a report by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) revealed.
On St Kilda, one of the UK's largest seabird colonies and a designated World Heritage Site, Puffin, Fratercula arctica, chicks starved to death in their burrows, as their parents failed to find sufficient food for them. A pitiful sight confronted seabird biologists, as adults brought back beak-fulls of inedible pipefish in a vain attempt to nourish their offspring. The reason for this mass starvation was a widespread shortage of the Lesser Sandeel, Ammodytes marinus. This energy-rich fish is the staple diet of many seabirds, and is key to their breeding and survival.  But in 2005 shoals of this usually abundant species were largely absent from the seas around western Scotland. While other fish were taken as an alternative, few provide the energy required to raise the growing chicks.
[extract]
Full Report Link

12 December 2005
A pod of eight Risso’s Dolphins, Grampus griseus, passed Port St Mary on the Isle of Man early in the morning. 

Report by Jackie and Graham Hall on the Sea Watch Foundation News
BMLSS Cetacea
Whales & Dolphins in British Seas (by Steve Savage)

11 December 2005
A decomposed Loggerhead Turtle, Caretta caretta, was discovered on the north Scottish coast by Christine Cormack.

Report on the Caithness Community Web Page
 
27 November 2005
 

The laterally compressed fish was washed up dead on a beach at Heacham, Norfolk. It measured 51 cm in total length and 47 cm without the distinctive long caudal fin. I have identified it as a Ray's Bream, Brama brama. 

Report and Photograph by Helen Not
BMLSS Sea Bream page
Ray's Bream Discussion and Extra Information (Link)

18 November 2005
A large dead whale seen floating in the Solent off the Isle of Wight coast was believed to be a Fin Whale, Balaenoptera physalis. The 10.7 metre long whale eventually washed up on a sandbank between Seagrove Bay and Bembridge.

BBC News Report
BMLSS Cetacea

15 November 2005
A Common Seal, Phoca vitulina, swam up the tidal area of the River Ouse in East Sussex up a narrow winding river for three miles to Southease. 
Marine Life of Sussex
BMLSS Seals
Sussex Ouse Conservation Society

7 November 2005 
There has been an influx of Grey Phalaropes, Phalaropus fulicarius, all over the south and west coasts of England and Wales. The arrivals followed a spate of gales. This bird is blown in during most years, but there may be more this year? 



The photograph shows a first winter bird on Brooklands Boating Lake, Lancing, Sussex, where it remained for a week and was joined temporarily by a second bird. 
Picture Page
Better Images on Birds of Sussex
Adur Nature Notes (November 2005)

5 November 2005
A deep water crab Atelecyclus undecimdentatus was caught and returned to the sea in five metres of water of the coast of Jersey. The carapace length of this circular crab was 40 mm. This species of crab is rarely (if ever) recorded in the English Channel because it usually lives at greater depths. It is recorded more often off the south-west coasts in the vicinity of deeper water. 

Report by Andrew Syvret
on the Marine Wildlife of the North-east Atlantic Ocean Group
Atelecyclus Discussion

29 October 2005



Colin Naman caught a a Derbio, Trachinotus ovatus, amongst a school of Garfish, Belone belone, in Portland Harbour. This fish was released back into the sea and swam away unharmed. It is one the jacks classified in the family Carangidae. It is a southern fish which is moderately common in the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern Atlantic Ocean but rarely encountered in British seas where it is usually associated with surface feeding shoals of fish.

Report by Phil Whiting (UK Aquarium)

October 2005
Four Broad-billed Swordfishes, Xiphias gladius, (34 kg, 45 kg, 100 kg, 124 kg) were caught in nets set to catch Cod in shallow water (3 -5 metres depth) in Southern Öresund, south west Sweden. Another one was captured earlier, in September. 
 

The 34 kg Broad-billed Swordfish captured by the Swedish professional fisherman Gert Larsson.

Swordfishes are an oceanic fish supporting a small fishery in the stormy mid-Atlantic Ocean. They are rarely found inshore and records of this fish from around the British coast are very rare. 

Report and Photograph by Kent Andersson
Fiske-Kent / American Fisheries Society
BMLSS Swordfish

25 October 2005
An Angler Fish, Lophius piscatorius, weighing 51 kg was caught on road and line of Norway. This was a large fish as the international angling record for this species is 57.7 kg off Norway.

Report by Kent Andersson
Fiske-Kent / American Fisheries Society

18 October 2005
A Striped Dolphin, Stenella coeruleoalba, was washed up on Porthmeor beach near St. Ives, on the Cornish coast. Its injuries seemed to indicate it was caught in a fishing net before it perished. 
BBC News Report
Cornish Wildlife Mailing List (Yahoo Group)
BMLSS Cetacea
Whales & Dolphins in British Seas (by Steve Savage)
Cornish Marine Life Reports 2005

A new species of marine worm Osedax mucofloris that lives off whale bones on the sea floor has been described by scientists. The creature was found on a Minke Whale, Balaenoptera acutorostrata, carcass in relatively shallow water close to Tjarno Marine Laboratory on the Swedish coast. 

BBC News Report


7 October 2005



A 10 kg Tuna was discovered in a crab net south of Göteborg in south-west Sweden. I think this is a small specimen of the Bluefin Tuna, Thunnus thynnus. This large fish is now rare in these northern seas. 

Report by Kent Andersson
Fiske-Kent / American Fisheries Society
Bluefin Tuna in Scandinavian Waters
BMLSS Tunnies
 


 

Links for News Reports:

Nature Notes Webring

Helford (Cornwall) Marine Conservation Area

Friends of Moray Firth (NE Scotland) News Page

Sussex at Sea News Page

Cornish Marine Wildlife News

Cornish Marine Sightings Archives 2003

National Biodiversity Gateway

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