Electronic News Service            February 2000       ISSN  1464-8156

The new Premier Membership for the year 2000 also entitles the member to the Official BMLSS CD-ROM (available Spring 2000), which will contain the BMLSS web pages and more information about marine life, together with a selection of other exclusive marine life information, electronic back copies of BMLSS publications, and the full version of TORPEDO Electronic News Bulletin sent to them every month by Email, as well as the other BMLSS Electronic Information Services. The CD-ROM will also contain useful shareware and freeware programs, and should be at least as good value as a computer magazine CD-ROM for the second aspect alone.
 
 

Premier	Membership	Ordinary
New Member	£28.00	£22.00
Renewal	£25.00	£18.00

The work of the BMLSS is funded by entirely by member's subscriptions and we do not receive any grants.

Wembury Bay  Rockpool Rambles
Contact  Wembury Marine Centre  Tel:  01752 862538

Leaflet from Devon Wildlife Trust  Tel:  01392 279244.

Coastal Visitors Centre
Salisbury Gardens
Dudley Road
Ventnor
Isle of Wight
PO38 1EJ

Tel:  01983 855400
EMail: coastcent@iwight.gov.uk

The Centre covers many aspects of the coastal zone, which include coastal flora and fauna, marine and inter-tidal archaeology, coastal defence and particularly coastal instability issues.

Husavik

The Whale Watch capital in Iceland is based at Husavik.  Sights include Blue Whales, Humpbacks, Orca, Minkes and Sei Whales, dolphins, porpoises, plus Northern Bottle-nosed Whales.

The page for whale and dolphin spotting around Britain has not been prepared yet.  If you are interested in marine wildlife, including marine mammals, and are planning a holiday in the UK, especially Scotland, it is work clicking on the image "SeaProbe" and having a look at the page:

Also

New Quay Dolphin Monitoring Group, Cardigan Bay, Wales
http://www.ceinewydd.co.uk/

Dolphins, Porpoises and Whales of the Moray Firth
http://www.highlanderweb.co.uk/dolphins.htm

Cornwall:
Dolphins are reported from the south coast of Cornwall regularly during the summer. The Lizard peninsula is a good vantage point. 

Shetland Isles:
Sumburgh Head, the southernmost trip is a regular spot for spotting whales and dolphins as is the ferry to the islands.

Minimising disturbance to Cetaceans from recreation at sea
http://www.wildlife-countryside.detr.gov.uk/whales/rec.htm

Minimising disturbance to Cetaceans from Whale watching operations
http://www.wildlife-countryside.detr.gov.uk/whales/whale.htm
 

25 January 2000
A collision took place between an Irish fishing boat and a Spanish ship around 130 km (80 miles) west of the Aran Islands, Ireland, releasing upwards of 500 gallons of heavy fuel oil into the sea, which is expected to disperse naturally before it hits land. 
Planet Ark News Story

21 January 2000
9 Dolphins including 'Benty' reported following small surveying boat on repeated north/south tracks leaping out of the sea repeatedly in Plymouth Sound, Devon, where dolphins are not normally reported in winter. 

Report by Roger Collins
on the One-List/Cornish Wildlife

20 January 2000
The French are still attempting to clear up the mess, the oil plastered over the shore from the Erika. If the bird loss reports are accurate, this oil tanker disaster may be even worse than the Amoco Cadiz (1978).

17 January 2000
A surprising find by a young beachcomber in North Cornwall has intrigued
marine experts and beachcombers alike. In the course of checking the strandline early one morning at Porthcothan Bay, 11-year-old Tom Neale picked up several Mermaids' Purses, one of which held a hidden surprise. One had a dead Ray (probably a Thornback) inside, which is very unusual (no Shorewatch Reports on record).
Original report on:  http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk
Mermaid's Purses (BMLSS)

7 January 2000
The oil from the oil tanker Erika (see below) washes up in large quantities on the Brittany coast, France, smothering wildlife, including the worse loss of sea bird life from a tanker disaster in the North Atlantic Ocean, and possibly the world, with a figure of 100,000+ being mentioned. The French oyster fisheries are likely to be badly damaged by oil tainting. 
Planet Ark News pages:
About 300,000 birds affected by French oil spill
EU pledges action to improve oil tanker safety
French wreck probe finds no big leaks in rear hull
 

12 December 1999
A small oil tanker Erika with 26,000 tonnes of diesel fuel oil (the worse type of oil for causing environmental damage) sinks off the Biscay coast of Brittany in gale force winds. 
The Erika split in two 45 miles (70 km) south of Brittany's rugged Finistere Peninsula on Sunday morning in 100 km (60 mile) winds and 6 metre (20 foot) waves. The total oil cargo is expected to be released into the sea, although some remains on board in the large tanks. 
By 22 December 1999 the prospects looked very grim with the oil slick not broken up by the gales, and it is been blown inshore and is expected to make a large landfall near Ile d'Yea (island in the northern part of the Bay of Biscay) on Christmas Day. The toll of sea birds deaths is already very high.
A figure of 100,000+ birds was announced on television on 6 January 2000.
Oilspills Page
Oiled Birds Page
Lycos Erika News & Photographs
 

 BMLSS Report Forms

Squid hold clues to the chemicals that shape our brains 

EXPERIENCES during the first few weeks of a squid's life etch themselves permanently in its brain and help them hunt as adults, biologists in California have found. If scientists can track down the molecules that bring about these early changes, they may discover how the brains of animals and people are shaped as well. 
 

• Further Information  (New Scientist   w/e  29 January 2000)

• Australasian Nudibranch Newsletter
• The information is on Wayne Ellis's nudibranch web site:
• http://www.ozemail.com.au/~glaskin/nudis_.htm
•  
• January 2000

Andy Horton's Shore Watch column in the Aquarist & Pondkeeper magazine

BMLSS: Marine Life Articles in Publications (Link)

 Sue Daly produces a Creature Feature every month on her web site.
 
 

We had originally planned to bring this service to our  members. However, as Sue is already producing this series, I have decided to devote my energies to producing other information.
 

A similar exhibition is planned for the year 2000. 
Print photographs should be sent in to Glaucus House from March 2000. They could also be used on the BMLSS web sites.
However, if you have a large selection of your own photographs, I would suggest that you should arrange your own exhibitions at a Local Library or similar venue. We will help to advertise the event. 
 
 

This is a simple project or request to members and readers of this Bulletin. It is to take pictures of the coast when you are next down on the shore. Even general views have value, but ideally we would like photographs of the shore showing the type of rock, topography and rock pools, dominant fauna, and information that cannot be described adequately by words on the Report Cards. The name of the particular coast should be included and the grid reference, if known. Print photographs can be included in Exhibitions and on the BMLSS Web Sites and electronic publications. Electronic images in *.JPG format can also be considered for the web site. Transparency photographs are the best choice of film but these cannot be transferred to the web pages at the present time, but these will be suitable in the future. 

Solar Eclipse Photographs (from Cornwall)
 

The British Marine Life Study Society Web Site has been included as an Encyclopaedia Britannica Recommended Site and included on the BBC On-line Internet Guide.

There are more entries on the GATEWAY pages of the BMLSS Web Site and on the Torpedo File on the web site (click on this text).
 

NEW Department of the Environment Transport and the Regions	English and European Wildlife Issues
Coastal Guide   Europe

 

ENGLAND ONLINE Search For:

 
 

These pages are not designed for the default settings on the Page Set-ups of your browser. I recommend viewing in Internet Explorer 5 and altering the right and left hand columns in the Page Set-up menu to 9 mm (from 19 mm).
The page set-up can also be amended in Netscape Composer, and this has the advantage of enabling the specified number of pages to be printed and the information about the file (name, path, date) to be deleted.

Torpedo  compiled by Andy Horton30 January 2000