LATEST
NEWS:
28
June 2012
European
Lobster
The
large 4 kg male European Lobster,
Homarus
gammarus, on display at Adur
World Oceans Day 2012 was put into a large holding tank at Monteums
Ltd, Shoreham-by-Sea, for captive study.
There is an even larger (but not so heavy) female for a possible mating.
15
June 2012
A
rare record of a Minke Whale, Balaenoptera
acutorostrata, breaching in the Irish
Sea was snapped at a distance by Peter
Christian off the Isle
of Man. This
is an unprecedented event in British seas.
9
June 2012
Adur
World Oceans Day 2012
Understanding
and celebrating our marine environment
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The
twelfth Adur World Oceans Day 2012 took place
in the marquee on
Coronation
Green, by Shoreham
Footbridge at the High Street
end on the second Saturday
of the Adur Festival. Len
Nevell of the British
Marine Life Study Society presented the usual exhibition of
lobsters
and crabs.
The Friends of Shoreham Beach (FOSB)
took an active role with their display of the wonders of Shoreham
Beach. Wildlife writer Steve
Savage presented the whale
and dolphin exhibition with the life sized replica of a Bottle-nosed
Dolphin.
More
Photographs on Facebook
World
Oceans Day on Facebook
United
Nations: World Oceans Day
6 June
2012
A
pod of half a dozen Killer Whales,
Orcinus
orca, were spotted in Loch
Swilly a glacial fjord
in County Donegal,
north-west Ireland.
1
June 2012
An
Ocean
Sunfish,Mola
mola, was seen underwater on a dive
out of Seaford,
East Sussex in choppy conditions. Although
the Sunfish is
spotted occasionally off southern and western coasts they are rarely reported
from the eastern part of the English Channel.
Full
Report
BMLSS
Sunfish
31
May 2012
Another
successful rescue story as a 2.7 metres long sub-adult Risso’s
Dolphin, Grampus griseus, stranded
at Perrranporth,
north Cornwall, is successfully returned to the sea through the efforts
of the British
Divers Marine Life Rescue using their
pontoon system.
30
May 2012
A
Silver Dory (=Sailfin
Dory),
Zenopsis
conchifer,
was
caught by Pierro
Le Cheminant from his trawler, Amy
Blue, at the northern end of the Big
Russel to the north of Sark,
in the Channel Islands.
The trawl at the edge of a reef netted this deep water (mesopelagic)
Atlantic Ocean fish which is very rarely caught in British seas. The
fish could be mistaken for John Dory,
Zeus
faber.
Previous
Record 2002 (from Cornwall)
BMLSS
Silver Dory
29
May 2012
A
pod of five to seven Minke
Whales, Balaenoptera acutorostrata,
were spotted by anglers from their boat off Hastings,
East Sussex. Minke Whales are
a very rare sight off the Sussex coast at any time of the year.
Video
Link
The
encounter lasted 15 minutes and this one minute clip showed three of the
whales.
23
May 2012
An
exceptionally large Porbeagle
Shark, Lamna
nasus, was caught on road and line by Wayne
Comben and Graeme Pullen
and released 300 metres off Boscastle,
north Cornwall. It was measured at about 10 ft (3 metres) long with a girth
of about 2 ft (60 cm) which experts think was likely to be a pregnant female
with an estimated weight of 550 lb (250 kg) and this would have
exceeded the previously largest shark caught by an angler in British seas
beating the previous 1993
world angling record for the species of 230 kg. The shark
towed the small boat for a mile before it was hauled alongside. Even if
it was possible to land the fish on to the boat, the Porbeagle
is now a protected species under European
Union (European Commission
on Fisheries) legislation.
BMLSS
Sharks
22
May 2012
Minke Whale
Photograph
by Eleanor Stone/Manx
Wildlife Trust
Click
on the image
for more
photographs
A Minke
Whale, Balaenoptera acutorostrata,
swam around our boat, one of four seen off the Isle
of Man. Minke
Whales are regular
visitors in the seas around this large island in the Irish
Sea, but they are rarely seen up close.
facebook
Report
BMLSS
Cetaceans
Whales
& Dolphins in British Seas
20
May 2012
A
12 metre long Humpback Whale, Megaptera
novaengliae, was rescued from some fishing
nets in large enclosed waters of Scapa
Flow in the Orkney Isles.
Magnus
Spence of the Orkan Adventures
boat trip donned SCUBA gear and jumped into the water to cut the creel
lines and the whale
swam off.
May
2012
The
largest ever, a massive 41.7 kg (91 lb
15 oz) NE Atlantic Atlantic
Cod,
Gadus
morhua,
was
caught by an angler off the island of
Sørøya,
Norway.
12
May 2012
A
large native European Oyster,
Ostrea
edulis, with a width of 201 mm and
weighing just over a kilogramme lays claim to be the largest recorded from
British seas. What was also unusual was that it was caught in a trawl in
the seas 27 miles off Bressay,
Shetland,
at a depth of 120 metres. Oysters are not usually found at this depth and
are uncommon in the seas and shore around the Shetland Islands.
Previous
Largest and Heavier Oyster
BMLSS
Oyster & Slipper Limpet
BMLSS
Molluscs
8
- 10 May 2012
Two
Risso’s
Dolphins, Grampus griseus, have
been spotted fin Manx
seas 600 metres north of the Calf
of Man (island). They were seen for at least 45 minutes and one of
them was photographed showing distinct scarring on its dorsal fin. On the
third day a pod of ten dolphins were seen south of the Calf
Sound (the narrow strip of water between
the south coast of the Isle
of Man and Calf of Man in the south-west).
BMLSS
Cetaceans
25
- 26 April 2012
After
the recent gales, two Spiny Seahorses,
Hippocampus
guttulatus, washed up on the shore
at Knoll Beach (Studland
Bay) on the Dorset coasts where a breeding population of these strange
fish are known. Both fish would have perished but they were rescued alive
to be returned to the sea in a sheltered part of Studland Bay. Seahorses
are a protected species under the Wildlife
and Countryside Act Schedule 5.
BMLSS
Seahorses
Seahorse
Trust
Project
Seahorse
Conservation
Designations for UK Taxa
24
April 2012
This
year there have been lots of reports of the Aurora
borealis from north Scotland and
the islands, especially Shetland.
They Northern Lights
were seen further south including from the north coast of Ireland.
Aurora borealis
at
Kinnagoe
Bay, County
Donegal
Photograph
by Patryk Sadowski
The
first Basking Sharks, Cetorhinus
maximus, of the year were seen around the
Isle
of Man with four adult sharks spotted in Castletown
Bay by a local fisherman. The large population
in the northern Irish
Sea is thought to be resident but they are only seen on the surface
in the summer months. Hundreds are seen each year. This varies from year
to year, with counts from 2005.
Basking
Sharks are a
protected species under the Wildlife
and Countryside Act Schedule 5.
Manx
Basking Shark Watch
BMLSS
Basking Sharks
18
April 2012
Dolphins in Cardigan
Bay 2011
Photograph
by Rhys Thatcher
New
evidence has emerged of the distances Cardigan Bay’s Bottle-nosed
Dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, choose
to travel during the winter months. Experts have found at least some of
them head north and like to spend their winter breaks in the seas around
the Isle of Man. Cardigan
Bay Marine Wildlife Centre’s (CBMWC) science
officer Sarah Perry
has been studying photographs taken by Manx conservation groups in Douglas
Bay in January and has managed to identify at least eight of the animals
previously seen off New Quay (SW
Wales).
The
images were taken by the Manx Wildlife Trust marine officer Eleanor
Stone. (Extract)
12 April
2012
A
Humpback Whale, Megaptera novaengliae,
was spotted in the Strangford Narrows, County Down, Northern Ireland.
8
April 2012
Humpback Whales, Megaptera
novaeangliae, were spotted again in the seas
off the south coast of Ireland (County
Cork). Within 15 minutes of leaving Castlehaven
Harbour that we'd have found our first Humpback Whale,
which we had seen before earlier in the year.
Previous
Report
BMLSS
Cetaceans
6 April
2012
A
population of the sea slug Doris
ocelligera has been discovered
in shallow water and on the extreme low equinoctial spring tides
around Penzance in
southern Cornwall. This nudibranch
had previously been under recorded and not included on the British list
of marine species
Image
by David Fenwick (Link)
.
4
April 2012
Specimen
angler Andy Logan
(from Carrickfergus)
reeled in a huge 100 kg*
Skate,
Dipturus
(=Raja)
batis,
after a two hour fight with the giant fish off Rathlin
Island
off the north County
Antrim coast of Northern Ireland. This specimen was about 2.4 metres
(8 ft) wide and 1.8 metres (6 ft) long. Specimens
this size of the endangered
Skate are about 60 years old. The
Skate
was returned to the sea. (*Reported weight
and size, not verified.)
MarLIN
Information
BMLSS
Sharks
BMLSS
Shark News
British
Marine Life News 2011
Cornish
Marine Life Records 2009
BMLSS
Oil Disasters page
