LATEST
NEWS:
22
December 2017
Dealfish
Photograph
by Margaret Miller
Rarely
is the deep sea fish
known as the Northern Dealfish,
Trachipterus
arcticus,
discovered washed ashore, and this one was discovered more intact than
usual on the dark
sandy beach at Keiss,
Caithness,
on the north east coast of mainland Scotland. It was about 75 cm in length.
It is easily recognised by its long red dorsal fin.
The
Dealfish
lives offshore at depths of between 200 and 500 metres in a mesopelagic
existence in the middle of the water column predating on small fish and
squids. They grow to 3 metres long but are usually half this length. They
are gelatinous and inedible.
Bathymetry
around Scotland
9
December 2017
Kemp's
Ridley Turtle
Photograph
by Dave Hudson Photography
Barely
alive but just about holding on, a Kemp's
Ridley Turtle,
Lepidochelys
kempii,
cold
stunned and stranded on the shore at Holywell
Bay, near Newquay, north Cornwall, was discovered on a regular beach clean
amongst the ghost nets. The turtle was rehabilitated at the Blue
Reef Aquarium, Newquay, where it has started to feed on its way to
recovery. The young turtle had a shell length of approx. 25 cm. Sadly,
the turtle died four days later.
Dave
Hudson (Turtle Gallery)
BMLSS
Turtles
22
October 2017
Quickly
following on was storm "Brian" with gale force winds up to Force
9 around the British Isles with various
creatures washed up on the shore, including
a large
whale
under the cliffs at Flamborough, Yorkshire.
Portuguese
Man-o'-War,
Physalia
physalis, continue to be washed ashore around the British Isles.
Waves
generated by the storm over shallow seas at Shoreham
Photograph
by Claire Peters
Other
notable strandings occurred included hundreds of young Curled
Octopuses, Eledone
cirrhosa,
(also called the Lesser Octopus
with a single line of suckers) found on the shore at Trefor,
Llýn
Peninsula, north Wales and many areas over a widespread coasts of Wales
including
Aberystwyth
and
Telacre as well
as the north Devon coast and further afield as well.
 |
"Loads
of young Curled
Octopuses, Eledone
cirrhosa,
were
washed up at Treforbeach,
north Wales, after the storm. I managed to put all the stranded ones I
saw back in the water."
|
Lesser
Octopus in Dogbay (UWPhoto)
Beach
Stuff: Octopus Interactive Map (Wales)
BMLSS
Octopuses
16
October 2017
Gale
Force 9 winds at Longships
Lighthouse, Land's End, Cornwall
The
exposed lighthouse is 35 metres above mean high water
Photographs
by Tim Stevens
posted
on Coastal Topography
facebook
The
Irish
coast was battered by Violent
Storm "Ophelia"
(remnants of a Category
3 Hurricane) with sustained winds of 69
mph and gusts
of
97
mph at
Roches
Point, County Cork, causing extensive damage. The western coast of
mainland Britain was also battered by gales and a heavy swell but the waves
had receded by the time the storm
had reached Scotland.
Video
by Tim Stevens (Link)
Click
on the image above for more photographs
12
October 2017
Portuguese
Man-o'-War, Physalia
physalis, continue to be washed ashore around the British Isles,
including as far east as Sussex where they are only rarely seen.
Photograph
by Emma Crowley |
 |
October
2017
A massive
combined jellyfish and plankton bloom wiped
out tens of thousands of Atlantic Salmon,
Salmo
salar,in four fish
farms on the west coast and inlets of Ireland at Killary
Harbour, Kilkieran
Bay and Outer Bertraghboy Bay
in Connemara, and
in the south-west at Bantry
Bay in County Cork.
The offending jellyfish were swarms of the small Mauve
Stingers, Pelagia noctiluca,
(implicated
in the previous 2007 swarm and
massive Salmon deaths) with the small (body
20 mm) siphonophore
(colonial hydrozoan) Muggiaea
atlantica.
BMLSS
Jellyfish
British
Marine Life News 2016
BMLSS
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