LATEST
NEWS:
29
June 2017
Another
large cliff fall occurred on the Jurassic Coast, at West
Bay, Dorset. The fine-grained
sandstone collapsed into the sea.
The fence between the South West Coast Path and Bridport & West Dorset
Golf Club has been left hanging after the large rockfall.
27
June 2017
A Black-browed
Albatross, Thalassarche
melanophris, was photographed by Gertrud
Welte visiting the Gannet
colony at Staple
Newk (at RSPB
Bempton Cliffs) on the Yorkshire coast. Albatrosses
are extremely rare in the North Atlantic and only seen as long distant
vagrants.
25
June 2017
Killer Whale, Orca
orcinus, and Calf
from
RV
Celtic Explorer over the Porcupine
Bank
Photograph
by Niall Keogh
BMLSS
Cetacea
22
June 2017
Fifty
thousand tonnes of chalk cliff crashed into the sea
at Seaford
Head, East Sussex. Such was the sheer size of the fall that it took
ten minutes for the chalk dust to disperse leaving a huge of chalk rubble
at the foot of the cliff. There where no injuries to people who would have
in danger both on the cliff top and on the seaward undercliff side. Large
cracks appeared in the cliff and further two large falls occurred in subsequent
days.
Coastal
Topography facebook
Wrinkled
Swimming Crab
Photograph
by Chris
Stevens
A swimming
crab, Liocarcinus corrugatus,
was caught off Guernsey
by Chris Stevens at
74 metres depth over a rough bottom. This
southern species is not often recorded around the British Isles.
30
May 2017
A most
extraordinary unprecedented of a newly born two-headed
conjoined Harbour Porpoise,
Phocoena
phocoena, was captured in a trawl off the
Hook
of Holland, Netherlands. It had died just after birth. Unfortunately,
the carcass was returned to the sea.
"“Normal
twins are extremely rare in cetaceans, there is simply not enough room
in the body of the female to give room to more than one foetus. Symmetrical
conjoined twins, such as this Porpoise,
are thought to result when two separate embryos fuse together or a zygote
only partially splits,” said Erwin Kompanje, of the Erasmus
MC University Medical Center in Rotterdam.& Curator of Mammals
at the Natural
History Museum, Amsterdam.
25 May
2017
Sea
Spider
Ammothia
hilgendorfi
Photographs
by Keith Alexander
An
almost unprecedented discovery of a strange sea spider on Worthing
Beach was an extraordinary surprise. It looks nothing like the native
pycnogonids!
This means it was probably an alien species and almost certainly Ammothia
hilgendorfi which was discovered once before in 1978 in Southampton
Water. This specimen contained eggs.
It originates in the tropical and temperate North Pacific littoral zone
of south-east Asia.
Norway
Bullhead
Photograph
by by Robin Somes
A small
sculpin
Norway Bullhead,
Micrenophrys
lilljeborgii, was discovered in the
upper reaches of Southampton
Water; several hundred miles away from where he should be, and around
18°C
warmer.
2
April 2017
An
Arctic Bowhead Whale, Balaena
mysticetus, was an extraordinary discovery
off the Belgium coast at Middelkerke,
with footage covered by drone
and video. Bowhead Whales are
normally found north of the Arctic Circle, the nearest shore views off
Greenland and northern Iceland.
Previous
Sighting 2016
British
Marine Life News 2012
BMLSS
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