Reports of marine wildlife from all around the British Isles, with pollution incidents and conservation initiatives as they affect the flora and fauna of the NE Atlantic Ocean.
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28 February 2004
At least ten Bottle-nosed Dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, were off the East Cliffs at Portland  Bill, Dorset, and they could be seen for most of the day.

Report and Photograph by Martin Cade on Portland Bird Observatory
and Field Centre Wildlife Pages

BMLSS Cetacea

24 February 2004
A Leatherback Turtle, Dermochelys coriacea, was spotted five miles south of Mevagissey off the south coast of Cornwall. This is an unusually early sighting. They normally start appearing in UK waters in early summer.
Newquay resident Jo Leach reported the turtle after spotting it while out on her uncle's crab potting boat.
“My uncle was using his binoculars to look out for the Fin Whales that had been reported over the weekend, when he saw something that he thought looked like a rock breaking the surface”, said Jo Leach, “We approached the object and cut the engines, and when we were about five metres away we could see it was a Leatherback Turtle. It gazed at us for a few minutes and then slowly swam off, as if it had had enough of looking at us!”

Report by the Marine Conservation Society

UK Turtle Code
BMLSS Turtles

19 February 2004 
Nineteen illegal immigrants from China drowned in the fast-rising rip tides in Morecambe Bay, Lancashire, whilst picking cockles.
News Report

14 February 2004
Four Fin Whales, Balaenoptera physalis, and a large pod of Common Dolphins, Delphinus delphis, were spotted from the Orca Seafaris boat approximately 18 miles off the Roseland Peninsular, Cornwall. 

Report by Captain Keith Leeves via Caroline Curtis on 
the Cornish Wildlife Mailing List

 

28 January 2004
A 12 metres long Sperm Whale, Physeter catodon, was washed up dead at Thornham Norfolk. 
 

Photograph by Richard Saunders

For spotters willing to brave the gale force winds, the whale could be seen by transversing the muddy trail from Holme NWT and following the sea bank to the beach. 

Report from Sue Bryan on UK Cetnet

Lynn News Report

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

Each month, at least one special marine image will be published from images sent to the BMLSS. This can be of the seashore, undersea world or any aspect of the marine natural world, especially the underwater life, but not restricted to life beneath the waves. Topical inclusions may be included instead of the most meritorious, and images will be limited to the NE Atlantic Ocean and adjoining seas, marine and seashore species and land and seascapes.

The Portuguese Blenny has been recorded from the western coasts of the British Isles, including Ireland, and may have been mistaken for the Tompot Blenny in the past. BMLSS Blennies

Portuguese Blenny Parablennius ruber  Fishbase Portfolio by Robert Patzner

Furrowed Crab, Xantho pilipes, from Ilfracombe, north Devon This crab is only to be discovered off the southern and western coast of Britain where it can be common on suitable rocky shores Photograph by Bob Alexander

Henna Cliff to Hartland Point, North Devon Photograph by Nicolas Jouault Shore Topography Portfolio

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. They should not exceed 150K in size.

Shore Topography Portfolio
 

Click on the album for more links (On-line link)
 
 

In chronological order, the most recent events are at the top of the page. Events open to the public, free or for a nominal charge only are included. Most Seminars need to be booked in advance.

The Porcupine Marine Natural History Society
2004 Conference 
 

20 - 21 March 2004
Marine Species at the Limits of their Range
Bournemouth University

Because this conference is being held over a weekend (not including the usual Friday) it is proposed that Sunday 21st will be a half day of presentations with a field meeting in the afternoon. 
The conference dinner will be held on the Saturday evening.

General details of the venue may be found at www.bournemouth.ac.uk .
Any one interested in giving a presentation or displaying a poster at the conference should contact Lin Baldock (conference organizer)  Tel:  01305 852585.

The  2003 conference was held 14-15th March at National Museums and Galleries of Wales, Cardiff. 

Meetings web page:  http://www.pmnhs.co.uk/meetings,events.htm

Plymouth

Talks Series 2004

Tuesday 30 March 2004
"Basking Sharks"  by Colin Speedie

Tuesday  27 April 2004  (changed date)
"Royal Fyshes of Devon and Cornwall" by Kelvin Boot.

Tuesday 25 May 2004
"The Heat Is On" by Doug Herdson
who will be talking about global warming and its effects on the marine life of
the south west.

  Facilities are available for schools, linked to the national curriculum. 

Talks start at 7:00 p.m.
at the National Marine Aquarium, Coxside, Plymouth Devon.
Admission – Adults £2.50; Children and NMA members £1.50, inclusive of refreshments will be available.

Please reserve your place by calling the Aquarium on 01752 275204
 

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Unless otherwise stated, seminars are held on Fridays at 4:15 pm
in the SAMS Conference Room ** Followed by the Friday R&R **

10 March 2004 
Scottish Marine Group Spring meeting, presenting postgraduate research in marine science in Scotland. 
Heriot Watt University, Riccarton, Edinburgh.
For information contact Dr Hamish Mair j.m.mair@hw.ac.uk
 

For more details on the forthcoming talks, please contact Murray Roberts  or Anuschka Miller  Tel: 01631 559 000  Diary

For information contact Dr Hamish Mair  or Anuschka Miller  Tel: 01631 559 000
 

A series of monthly talks on marine conservation topics
These talks are open to the public, admission is free.

FOR DETAILS OF SEMINARS AND OTHER EVENTS PLEASE CLICK ON THE LOGO ABOVE TO BROWSE THE WEB PAGES

The Marine Life Talks are held on the first Thursday of the month at 7.30 pm, please arrive at 7.15 pm to be met in Reception. Southampton Oceanography Centre is reached via Dock Gate 4 (between Town Quay and Ocean Village). Please confirm that the talk is taking place before arriving unannounced. 

Porthleven(near Helston), Cornwall

Aerial Multimap Location (Link)

The Silver Dolphin marine conservation and diving centre is dedicated to the conservation and protection of all marine life. Click on the image for the full list of events. 

To help protect the marine environment we run a full training programme of conservation courses and PADI scuba diving training.

Ideally placed in the old lifeboat house Porthleven why not come and discover the wonders of the Cornish coastline and underwater world!
 

Places on the courses must be booked in advance
 

Saturday 6 March  2004
Marine Mammal Identification workshop for the Cornwall Mammal Group.  1.30pm to 5.30pm at CWT Allet.  For bookings contact Alex Howie on 01872 273939.  Free event 
 
 

A new Public Aquarium was opened in Fort William, Scotland in the autumn of last year, 2003. 

Ocean Frontier
Underwater Centre
Fort William
Inverness-shire
PH33 6AN
Tel: 01397 702930

21 August 2003

'Atlas of cetacean distribution in north-west European waters' 

Click on this text for the full information including ordering

Price £17.00 from the Natural History Book Service (www.nhbs.com),
or phone +44 (0)1803 865913. 

More Information

Download Page

BMLSS Man's Impact on the Marine Environment

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SHRIMPING FOR FOOD AND FUN

Local shrimper Peter Talbot-Elsden, from Southwick (Sussex), has produced a small booklet called “Shrimping for Food and Fun” about catching the brown shrimp around the coasts of Britain. The shrimps are caught in nets and the book features the various methods, firstly the push-netting seen over the sand in shallow water in spring off the Sussex coast. The famous Morecambe Bay shrimps were originally captured by cart shanker shrimping with a horse and cart in deeper water off the Lancashire coast, later replaced by a tractor. At Formby, they experimented with amphibious vehicles after World War II. Nowadays, most commercial shrimping on the east coast around King’s Lynn trawls from small boats using a net off the stern. Shrimps are often cooked on board.

A complimentary issue of this booklet was sent to BMLSS members. 

The 28 page book contains 40 photographs of shrimping through the ages. It is available through Bookworms of Shoreham and other booksellers and museums at £3.50. 
The booklet is also available through the British Marine Life Study Society, but at £4 including postage and packing. 

Disappearing 
Giants
The North Atlantic Right Whale
SCOTT KRAUS and KENNETH MALLORY
Bunker Hill Publishing
in association with New England Aquarium
ISBN  1 59373 004 7

ICE ISLAND
Expedition to Antarctica's Largest Iceberg
Gregory S. Stone
Published by New England Aquarium

GREAT BRITISH MARINE ANIMALS	by Peter Naylor
published by Sound Diving Publications	ISBN  0 9522831 4 X
Available from

 
MOLLUSC  WORLD

Published by the Conchological Society

The British Marine Life Study Society are responsible for producing the journal GLAUCUS, which is the first publication exploring the marine life of the seas surrounding the British Isles available to the general public. 

We also publish the quarterly SHOREWATCH Newsletter and
the TORPEDO Electronic News Bulletin.

The Glaucus 2002 CD-ROM was sent out to Premier BMLSS members in January 2003. 

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Change of EMail Address
 

Please note that the EMail address for messages to the British Marine Life Study Society has now changed

from bmlss@compuserve.com  to  Glaucus@hotmail.com

Messages to the first address will not receive any guarantee of a reply and from year 2003, the old EMail address is expected to fall into disuse. 

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Membership 2004
Plans have not yet been finalised for the publications and subscriptions for year 2004. An explanation was sent to members just after Christmas. 
 

If you receive this Bulletin direct from the British Marine Life Study Society it will contain only hypertext and image (*.htm *.gif & *.jpg) files.
Recipients can only unsubscribe if the Bulletin is received directly from the BMLSS.
Permission is granted to forward the Bulletin on unaltered. However, you will have to include the images separately. 
Subscribe/Unsubcribe http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BMLSS-Torpedo
To save download times, only new images are included with each Bulletin.
The Bulletin is designed to be viewed on Internet Explorer  using medium fonts
at a resolution of 800 x 600. 
Viewing should be possible on Netscape and other browsers.

These pages are not designed for the default settings on the Page Set-ups of your browser. I recommend viewing in Microscope Internet Explorer 6 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 other web page editors, 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.

Some of the images may not display if you have changed your directory for downloaded files. The images may also not display properly if your settings on your EMail software do not allow you do this automatically. When received in Pegasus the format is changed slightly, but the bulletin is still readable.